The Process of Deciding

Choose Mountains

It has never been a simple process when it comes to me deciding what subject to crate art about. I have a lot going on in my head but none of it is top dog. There are however a few contenders. Mountains are and have always been one of the reason that makes my life worth living, this and art. 

However it was not an easy choice deciding to base my whole Master's project on Mountains. I wasn't convinced that the artwork I could produce for this sort of project would be the sort of work I want to produce. I ultimately want my work to have integrity, to be honest and subversive. I was looking at some other subject that I believed would be able to do this such as Money, The Mind, Equality and Culture. The main contender however, was "Our God Complex". 

Ideas before research into the idea of a God Complex.

After researching into this, the project morphed into "Humanity's Narcissistic Epidemic". I find this subject incredibly interesting and I was and am still interested in pursuing this one day but realised that if I did want to look into this further but with a concise starting point, I could link it to Mountains through humanity's impact on the environment. 

Ideas before too much research into Mountains.

Why Mountains? 

I love mountains. I spend my childhood growing up but by the sea and in the mountains so it's not surprising that I am a lover of open spaces and that sort of cool air that doesn't penetrate into cities. 

Growing Up 

We moved to the French Alps when I was 11 and lived there for three years because my Dad was and still is a ski instructor. He used to head off to the Italian Alps during the winter time to teach so my parents though, well why not just move? At the time, living in the mountains was exciting but at the age I was, I was slightly jaded by having to go to a French school, without knowing any french apart from "comment ca va?". Despite being around the endless beauty of the mountains, it wasn't a happy time for me, to start with anyway. Age 11, at a French school, kids at that age aren't always the most understanding so I ended up with no friends for a long time. As soon as we got the internet when I was around 12 or 13 I spent most of my time on that instead of embracing the great outdoors, despite the endless efforts of my parents. 

Considering all this, the feelings I remember from this time are something a little different. I did spend a lot of my time with a small pony out in the fields during the Summer. I used to take her for walks high up into the sloped cattle fields and I will never forget that feeling on the sun on my back, the sounds of cattle bells and crickets all around and that still, soft air. It's such a hard feeling to describe and actually is something I would like to look into, literature or poetry that somehow taps into that indescribable feeling of being on top or in the mountains. 

Skiing 

I am also a skier. There's not many thing I can say I'm good at, infant I can't think of anything I can hold my hands up and say with confidence that I am good at, apart from skiing. However I am not accomplished in he area of skiing that I adore which is park and free ride and I am also not so naive as to claim that I have learnt how to be technically advanced. Whilst on a ski trip a few years ago and decided to take some lessons. A skier on the trip who I look up to found out and said "Why are you taking lessons? You're a good skier!" to which I replied, "Even trainers have trainers."

One of my goals as an artist and as an Illustrator is to tap into the ski culture. I do not expect this project to lead into this but it could be a part of it if I so chose to go down that rout. I would love to design ski graphics, especially for park and free ride skis. I have done a lot of research into different graphs and ski design. There are some absolutely stunning skis out there but I fell that snowboards are still more aesthetic. This can be said is down to the culture. When I think of snowboarding I straight away associate it this sort of baggy board clothing, goggles over hats and gnarly boards. This often goes hand in hand with a big ego. 

To my understanding when you mention that you are a skier, it might be a bit more vague. An idea of a rich/ middle class family off on holiday, either very sleek, classy skiers or the sort that wear novelty hats. There's still this ego but maybe not of the same caliber. As a student I think people also imagine the sort of ski "lad culture", which goes in hand with societies general drinking culture. I want to be part of the movement away from this idea of skiing. I however would also like to make it more accessible. Obviously great ski technoligy comes at a price but i find it almost elitist at times. I have generalised a bit here but I don't want to go into it too much at this time. I do think looking at the culture around this could be of interest, what do people think of when they think of snowboarders and skiers?

Having said all this, my own idea of the mountains are a little contradictory. Mountains to me represent space and freedom. Being in the mountains is liberating and sort of lonely but that sort of loneliness that is extremely peaceful. Of course here I'm not thinking about being on a bust gondola in the middle of the ski season but even during the ski season, when you get right on top of the glacier with people sort of off in the distance there is still this silence, perhaps from sound being absorbed by the snow (this isn't a fact, I'm just speculating). 

Recent Mountain Experience 

This project has also come about as not only did I spend a lot of my time growing up in the mountains, but I also spent last tinter season (2016/17) in Sauze D'Oulx which is in the Italian Alps. There I realised how much the mountains must mean to me. Working as Holiday Rep, life in the mountains wasn't really what I ad hopes, I worked long hours (guests even rung me during the night) and had little time to ski or step back and appreciate the place I was in. But how can you not! During early winter and the spring, I would wake up and would see the mountains from my window. That was worth staying for. I also kept a sketchbook while I was there which I will refer back to.

There is so much I have to say about my personal experience with mountains but I will leave it here for now. 

Initial Research

Before I committed to basing this project on Mountains I did some initial research (I have also submitted some of this on a memory stick). 

Quick search on the Library website for "Mountains"

Top result (highlighted by me):

Mountains

Last reviewed: July 2017

Mountains are the most conspicuous landforms on earth. They are found on every continent, and have been defined simply as elevated landforms of high local relief, with much of the surface in steep slopes, displaying distinct variations in climate and vegetation zones from the base to the summit. The earth’s mountain ranges have been created by the collision of tectonic plates. Associated with many of these mountain ranges are volcanoes. If the solidified magma of a volcano builds up, it can become a mountain; likewise, if the collision involves two oceanic plates, a string of volcanic mountains, called an island arc, can form on the ocean floor.

Mountain meadows provide habitats for many animal and bird species. (PhotoDisc)

Mountain Habitat

Mountains are globally significant reservoirs of biodiversity. They contain rich assemblages of species and ecosystems. Because of the rapid changes in altitude and temperature along a mountain slope, multiple ecological zones are stacked upon one another, sometimes ranging from dense tropical jungles to glacial ice within a few kilometers. Many plant and animal species are found only on mountains, having evolved over centuries of isolation to inhabit these specialized environments. Mountains can also function as biological corridors, connecting isolated habitats or protected areas and allowing species to migrate between them. These extraordinary ecological conditions, coupled with many bioclimatic zones, have resulted in an extremely high number of ecological niches available for habituation in mountain ecosystems.

Mountain Fauna

Because of the great diversity in habitats within mountainous regions, with each region showing a different combination of environmental factors, total mountain fauna is relatively rich and the variety of small communities very great, in spite of the general severity of the mountain environment as a whole. Likewise, this diversity has resulted in a wide range of endemic species that have evolved over centuries of isolation from other genetic material. Rocky Mountain National Park typifies this diversity as a home to 900 species of plants, 250 species of birds, and 60 species of mammals. Some are easily seen and others are elusive, but all are part of the ecosystem in the park. On a global scale, mountain fauna diversity includes many species of ungulates, including elk, bighorn sheep, moose, and deer. Also included in mountain communities are many species of rodents. Rodent species may include beaver, marmots, squirrels, and chipmunks. Other mammalian animal life includes bear, canids, including coyote and wolf, and many species of felids, such as mountain lions and bobcats. Mountain avian fauna includes many families of hummingbirds, bluebirds, hawks, falcons, eagles, and many more.

Threats to Mountains

Mountains are threatened in a variety of ways. There are constant threats from human activities, such as camping, hiking, and other recreational activities. Hikers create tracks in the soil that form erosion gullies. Likewise, hikers may trample on vegetation that has taken many years to grow. Commercial harvesting of trees in the lower forest zones of mountains is having an increasingly detrimental effect on biodiversity. Many countries have replanted indigenous trees with fast-growing coniferous trees, in an ill-fated effort to supply a growing human population with wood products. These hybrid forests are not nearly as beautiful as the native forests, but more to the point, they do not offer an environment conducive to the ecosystem that the native species supported. This problem creates a loss of wildlife, which becomes even more rare in these forests because of the decline of native vegetation. Global warming is another threat to mountain ecosystems. Snowlines are receding, and eventually, continued melting of glaciers and polar ice caps could lead to drying of major river systems which feed from them. Without question, human settlement and activities constitute the biggest threat to the mountain ecosystem.

Principal Terms

asthenosphere: the region below the lithosphere where rock is less rigid than that above and below it

bioclimatic zone: a zone of transition between differing yet adjacent ecological systems

endemism: the occurrence of species only within narrow environmental ranges

local relief: the elevation difference between the lowest and highest points in an area

succession: directional change in communities of vegetation or animals

tectonic plate: tectonic plate theory suggests that the earth’s surface is composed of a number of oceanic and continental plates which have the ability to move slowly across the earth’s asthenosphere

Bibliography

Denniston, D. High Priorities: Conserving Mountain Ecosystems and Cultures. Worldwatch Paper 123. Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1995. This is a delightfully informative book. It is easy to read, with many relevant points regarding mountain ecosystem conservation.

Messerli, B., and J. D. Ives. Mountains of the World: A Global Priority. New York: Parthenon, 1997. This is a book for those readers who are more educated on the current environmental dilemmas concerning mountains and forestry. It is also a valuable source of general mountain ecosystem information.

Price, L. Mountains and Man. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. An easy-to-read, information-packed source concerning mountain-human interactions.

Sauvain, P. Geography Detective: Mountains. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1996. This is an invaluable geographical perspective to mountains. It is loaded with easy-to-read information that is interesting and easily understood.

Stronach, N. Mountains. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1995. This book is filled with great information regarding general characteristics of mountains. The author also answers a wide array of questions regarding many mountain ecosystem specifics.

Derived from: "Mountains." Magill’s Encyclopedia of Science: Animal Life (Online Edition). Salem Press. 2013.

Credo:

asthenosphere

from Astronomy Encyclopedia

Weak, uppermost layer of a planet's  MANTLE , in which solid-state creep first plays a predominant role; it lies immediately below the relatively rigid  LITHOSPHERE . At the asthenosphere the rise in temperature with depth reaches the threshold at which plastic flow may occur in response to small stress differences. In the case of the Earth, seismological evidence - the attenuation of S waves and a decrease of P wave velocities between depths of about 100-250 km (62-155 mi) - is taken to define the asthenosphere. The viscosity of the asthenosphere is largely similar to that of the bulk of the underlying mantle, but it is far less than that of the lithosphere, enabling plate-tectonic motions to take place. At subduction zones the asthenosphere appears to penetrate down to approximately 700 km (430 mi), which is comparable with the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle. Other planets such as Venus and Mars are assumed to have asthenospheres, as are some of the larger satellites. The Moon is known to have an asthenosphere at a depth of approximately 1000 km (620 mi), and recent seismological evidence suggests that it may be even more fluid at a greater depth. See also  SEISMOLOGY ;  TECTONICS

NOTES

I will look into this more so if I end up looking more closely at mountains. At the moment, it doesn’t seem like it would be the main focus of my work but I think it is important to understand to look at this further.

I made another idea board after deciding to follow through with mountains for my project:

It is loosely the same as the chart before but I find that making things bigger helps me out a lot.

Lots to look into! But first off, what exactly is a mountain? I'll explore this in my next post.