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About Haunted Pastoral and the Machines in the Garden

"It doesn’t take a culture critic to tell you that nature is one of those concepts that is really difficult to define: many of us likely regard it as just one of those things that you know when you see it” (O’Brien, 2010).When we think of nature, the first thing that comes to mind is the peaceful wilderness, animals scattered throughout the untouched lands that they call their homes. The protectiveness of the blooming trees that provide shade and shelter on hot or stormy days. What we don’t realize is that nature expands far beyond that. Nature can also represent the farmland or the aquatic waterways. What makes nature so hauntingly fascinating is the haunted pastorals that are hidden in plain sight. To further expand on the meaning of haunted pastoral: the idealized spaces that become interrupted by technology. The growth of technology can be seen everywhere within the nature landscapes and creates the presence of a machine in the garden. These machines are visible to the human eye, but we may block out the objects as they are not what we want to see when we view nature. The blog posts below will go through and explain how technology haunts the pastoral land and creates a machine in the garden in various ways that you may not have imagined. Technology is more than just computerized processes.

    • Mar 31, 2022
    • 1 min read

Views of the Hydro Tower

The photo shown below may represent the most hidden in plain sight, machine in the garden so far. For someone living in North America to have never seen one of these before, they must be living under a rock. The photo was taken from the deck in my backyard and there is a clear and obvious object interrupting the idealized space and natural beauty, a hydro tower. Now by just looking at the photo, it may be obvious to see the hydro tower, but what is so hauntingly interesting about this hydro tower is that for the 22+ years of living here, I only notice the tower when I intend to, otherwise, I enjoy the view I am so lucky to have. For some, this view may not be pleasant but for me, this is better than any high-rise city skyline view you would find in this area. What makes this hydro tower a machine in the garden is that it is essentially the source of future technology that makes present day to day life liveable for humans, offering the needed and valuable electricity to run the lights in our homes, power the Wi-Fi routers, and provide of us with television. However, it is placed directly in landscape that would otherwise be untouched, with only lushes crops to be seen. Now, it is a haunted pastoral that cannot be reversed, similar to wind turbines that are placed in fields.




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