Crystal palace: a written accompaniment to the thesis exhibition

Abstract

Crystal Palace claims personal experience can be a channel for new interpretations of the world and rejects post-Structuralist determination of consciousness by language. With reference to the eco-centric understanding of land that some call radical ecology, I propose its eco-centric general perspective lies beyond the scope of explanation as an entirely cultural formation. I recount my long personal involvement with a small prairie eco-system and its political path. In explanation of this narrative I use ecosocial semiotic theories of the open-system character of language, consciousness, and life forms and eco­systems. I conclude that characteristics of my experience stand in relation to ecosocial semiotic theory of body-environment relations and the eco-centric developmental paths of others. In later chapters the repercussions of the non-linguisti·c character of this knowledge are discussed in relation to art production.