Paradise Pt. II
Project under Development, 2024-2028
Paradise Pt II: Reimagining Nature Through Documentary Landscapes
Paradise Pt II is an ongoing research project with multiple outcomes amongst which an installation and a documentary film (dir. Nina Spiering) that are due to be developed in 2025 - 2028.
Paradise Pt II explores how romantic and idyllic representations of nature have shaped Western perceptions and interactions with natural environments. This project investigates how such imagery, rooted in modernity and reinforced through visual culture, continues to influence our environmental consciousness by presenting nature as something separate from humanity—an object of beauty and a resource for consumption. As environmental challenges become increasingly pressing, re-examining these visual traditions takes on increased significance.
As a documentary filmmaker, we aim to critically engage with these visual traditions to challenge their inherited meanings and reframe them in ways that inspire alternative narratives. Through a series of concrete case studies, Paradise Pt II will explore the genealogy of romantic clichés and their impact, with the goal of subverting their allure and fostering more responsible, reciprocal relationships with the natural world.
A key conceptual framework for this research is the idea of the garden and paradise as spaces of contestation—representing spaces of exclusion and control yet also offering a fertile ground for utopian imaginaries. This proposition resonates with Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, which proposes the garden as a site that reflects and reimagines broader cultural and natural landscapes. Within this analogy, the documentary filmmaker becomes a gardener—curating and assembling imagery of nature to nurture new perspectives on natural environments.
This research contributes to the fields of documentary filmmaking, environmental studies, and visual culture by offering new strategies for engaging with nature in ways that challenge dominant narratives and inspire critical reflection.General interest
In the quest to make sense of their environment, humans rely on narratives, stories and myths that they tell themselves and others. But the narratives that are shaped around our relation to nature are heavily influenced by the natural colonial-gaze, a lens through which nature has often been perceived as a realm to be dominated and controlled.
Throughout history, narratives have shaped our perception of nature as an external, pristine entity, fostering an idealized escape from the complexities of human existence. However, this idealized portrayal has hindered our capacity to foster a holistic and sustainable rapport with the environment, resulting in a disconnect between our constructed stories and the complex realities they represent.
Despite the growing awareness of the need for a paradigm shift in our narrative approach to nature, we continue to struggle in reconciling the preconceived notions of the romanticized and enlightened views of nature. This tension between the constructed narrative and the authentic reality of our environmental challenges has led to a profound disconnect, perpetuating the colonial proposition that nature exists solely for our exploitation and benefit.
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Telephone poles disguised as trees in Utah.
In exploring the contemporary landscape and tracing the historical trajectory of humanity's portrayal of nature, it becomes evident that the roots of this dissonance can be found in the flawed narratives that have long dominated our understanding of the natural world.
Paradise Pt II project will exist out of a mosaic of case studies around this proposition. We are working with cases where there is a tension between the narrative that is created and the underlying represented reality, the synthetic and the real. We will both focus on the present day, as well as tracing back history of the image of nature, asking ourselves the question: where and how did it go wrong, and with what consequences?
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The first sequoia tree that was transported to a world fair in the US, after being ‘discovered’ in California by Western settlers. The bark was peeled off the original tree, transported and assembled at the fair. The tree was assembled so poorly, that visitors thought the it was a fake, a hoax, and for several years the discovery was not taken seriously at all.
Paradise Pt II is an ongoing research project with multiple outcomes amongst which an installation and a documentary film (dir. Nina Spiering) that are due to be developed in 2025 - 2028.
Paradise Pt II explores how romantic and idyllic representations of nature have shaped Western perceptions and interactions with natural environments. This project investigates how such imagery, rooted in modernity and reinforced through visual culture, continues to influence our environmental consciousness by presenting nature as something separate from humanity—an object of beauty and a resource for consumption. As environmental challenges become increasingly pressing, re-examining these visual traditions takes on increased significance.
As a documentary filmmaker, we aim to critically engage with these visual traditions to challenge their inherited meanings and reframe them in ways that inspire alternative narratives. Through a series of concrete case studies, Paradise Pt II will explore the genealogy of romantic clichés and their impact, with the goal of subverting their allure and fostering more responsible, reciprocal relationships with the natural world.
A key conceptual framework for this research is the idea of the garden and paradise as spaces of contestation—representing spaces of exclusion and control yet also offering a fertile ground for utopian imaginaries. This proposition resonates with Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, which proposes the garden as a site that reflects and reimagines broader cultural and natural landscapes. Within this analogy, the documentary filmmaker becomes a gardener—curating and assembling imagery of nature to nurture new perspectives on natural environments.
This research contributes to the fields of documentary filmmaking, environmental studies, and visual culture by offering new strategies for engaging with nature in ways that challenge dominant narratives and inspire critical reflection.General interest
In the quest to make sense of their environment, humans rely on narratives, stories and myths that they tell themselves and others. But the narratives that are shaped around our relation to nature are heavily influenced by the natural colonial-gaze, a lens through which nature has often been perceived as a realm to be dominated and controlled.
Throughout history, narratives have shaped our perception of nature as an external, pristine entity, fostering an idealized escape from the complexities of human existence. However, this idealized portrayal has hindered our capacity to foster a holistic and sustainable rapport with the environment, resulting in a disconnect between our constructed stories and the complex realities they represent.
Despite the growing awareness of the need for a paradigm shift in our narrative approach to nature, we continue to struggle in reconciling the preconceived notions of the romanticized and enlightened views of nature. This tension between the constructed narrative and the authentic reality of our environmental challenges has led to a profound disconnect, perpetuating the colonial proposition that nature exists solely for our exploitation and benefit.
Telephone poles disguised as trees in Utah. In exploring the contemporary landscape and tracing the historical trajectory of humanity's portrayal of nature, it becomes evident that the roots of this dissonance can be found in the flawed narratives that have long dominated our understanding of the natural world.
Paradise Pt II project will exist out of a mosaic of case studies around this proposition. We are working with cases where there is a tension between the narrative that is created and the underlying represented reality, the synthetic and the real. We will both focus on the present day, as well as tracing back history of the image of nature, asking ourselves the question: where and how did it go wrong, and with what consequences?
The first sequoia tree that was transported to a world fair in the US, after being ‘discovered’ in California by Western settlers. The bark was peeled off the original tree, transported and assembled at the fair. The tree was assembled so poorly, that visitors thought the it was a fake, a hoax, and for several years the discovery was not taken seriously at all.