O KRAJOBRAZIE/PEJZAŻU DŹWIĘKOWYM I RELACJI NATURA–KULTURA

Abstrakt

Researchers of the audiosphere often use the term “soundscape” for sounds that are registered and evaluated by humans. A soundscape is part of the environment in the broad sense. It creates the atmosphere of a place, influences attitudes toward that place, and shapes cultural identity as well as the related ethnic identity. Studies on the impact of sounds on social life have been conducted within various disciplines, including sound ethnography. One of the methods used is “soundwalks” (or  soundwalking”). Soundwalks can be used, for example, to produce landscape maps that take into account the sources of sounds occurring in a given area and the methods by which they are evaluated. Such walks also allow changes in the soundscape to be registered. Changes are most often caused by various types of development projects, which frequently cause the noise level to increase and sometimes eliminate silence. Various adherents of the “relational” currents of posthumanism, sociobiology, and cultural ecology question the dichotomy between nature and culture. To speak of the unity of humans and nature, they use the term “naturo-culture” (Bruno Latour and his followers) or “naturoculture” (Donna Haraway and her followers). According to the author of the article, the natural environment’s devastation by humans testifies to the lack of unity and harmony between nature and culture, as well as to the lack of a sense of community.

Contemporary humans, especially in the Western world, often have little contact with the natural environment: they do not know it, care for it, understand it, or appreciate its beneficial influence on health and potential for promoting comprehensive development and social relations. We are increasingly confronted with “nature-deficit syndrome” and “cultural autism.” These concepts are used, among others, by Richard Louv, author of the book Last Child in the Woods, which points to the disastrous effects of these phenomena.

Differences in attitudes toward the natural environment often result in disputes and deep social divisions. We see numerous conflicts between environmentalists and “business representatives” (generally speaking, supporters of new investment projects, regardless of their impact on the natural environment). An illustration of this phenomenon is the struggle to preserve the Czerniakowskie Lake nature reserve and the adjacent areas, which are threatened by plans to build a huge housing estate in that part of the capital. The author discusses the successive stages of the struggle in the summer and fall of 2019. In the author’s opinion, the dispute over the nature reserve can be interpreted as a conflict between defenders of the natural environment and the actions of “business representatives” threatening it. It is also an example of a conflict between different visions of reality, different ways of seeing the relationship between nature and culture, and different values and attitudes. There is also an opposition here between what is a community’s “own” and what is “other.”