The Professor's Choice - (students' environmental interpretation art)

From the 11th – 24th November 2015,

Serpentine Community Gallery will host

'The Professor's Choice'

- a showcase of Southern Cross University

students' environmental interpretation art.

Environmental science students from SCU recently embarked on a week-long field trip, traveling and meeting with National Park rangers throughout northern NSW and southern QLD

(Cape Byron, Girraween NP, Bald Rock NP, Washpool NP,

Woody Head in Bundjalung NP and many more).

The field trip is a key component of the unit: Protected Area Management, in which students examine the processes in

the planning and management of protected areas.

As there many different values (cultural, historical, aesthetic, economic, environmental) of landscapes and in human perception of an area's values and optimal outcomes. Management is ultimately a human issue, and all management solutions involve or affect people, each with their own perception of what makes a ‘good result’.

The students were asked to produce a creative artwork

and reflective writing piece. The idea is in exploring ways in which they, as Environmental Scientists of the future,

perceive their environment, the landscape and its values.

Environmentalists have been working to address ecological issues for many years by means of science and policy, law and economics.

These approaches have had effect in terms of legislation

 but not necessarily in terms of behavioral change.

 We need to incorporate religion and spirituality,

philosophy and history, literature and the arts.

These disciplines show us how humans are moved by aesthetics, connection to place, beauty, love, story and symbols. Storytelling and symbolic consciousness bring us into emotional intuitive,

and embodied ways of relating to the earth.