Our Natural Selves

I found McLuhans idea of the railway and how it altered the outlooks and patterns of social Interdependence really interesting. I focused heavily on the idea of the "man's desire to withdraw from society, symbolized by the city, to a rural setting where he could recover his animal self". To portray that theme, I recorded the outdoors. Along side my clips of the bodies of water and the surrounding trees, I also recorded the railway. I felt like there was an irony behind it all because when McLuhan said, "the technology of the railway created the myth of a green pasture world of innocence ", I immediately thought of Appleton. Behind Lawrence, there are beautiful trails that give the people of Appleton a place to feel like they can be their "natural self". With that being said, they also have the ability to be surrounded by  abandoned train tracks and river locks that are no more in use, but at a time were once used for societal growth. I also wanted to portray in my video the idea of evolution through time. To show that, I started my video with clips of calm water that reflected the solid surface and the trails that have been made near campus to make people feel closer to nature. After that, I moved the theme towards the technical side where I had clips of Appletons steamboat history and also took videos of the abandoned train tracks that I spoke of before. That was a fun day! I then had one clip of me passing cars while driving to Michigan which I think showed another step of our technological journey as a world. But right after that I made it a purpose to end off my film back on a trail where I am again surrounded by the raw materials that make me feel closer to my natural self. Along Side all of the visual stuff. I thought it would be cool to just have the sound of this random bug I was hearing on my walks to play throughout the whole video. I thought it matched  perfect with theme of everything.