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Purdy believes that the Anthropocene has marked three revolutions. First, it is used to designate the impact on climate and biodiversity of both the rapid accumulation of greenhouse gases and the irreversible damage caused by excessive natural resources consumption.

Why do we refuse to see the real situation? Among others, for the following reasons: blind faith in progress and development, that is, in a system that continually increases the amount of wealth available; belief in the ability of science and technology to solve any problem and any phenomenon attributed to external causes, such as pollution; the existence of powerful interests that take advantage of this dynamic and exert intense pressures; and the colonization of the mentality of consumers by the media, which provoke a desire for individual consumption to obtain comforts, distinguish themselves from others and achieve social recognition.

Astonishingly, the human and social sciences have not long addressed this problem, despite being decisive for humanity's future. They overlooked it because, in addition to being anthropocentric by definition, these sciences are considered an area of research per se of the natural sciences. The emergence of the Anthropocene concept has now given them the responsibility to examine and explain how human societies have been able to bring about such significant changes in the planet's modus operandi and the differentiated impact on the world. The human and social sciences will have to develop and master unpublished tools and knowledge to respond to the problems posed by this new age of humanity: disasters of nature, renewable energies, depletion of natural resources, desertification, ecocides, widespread pollution, migration, social and environmental injustices.

"This complacency, which embraces the Anthropocene as "the new normal" and proceeds as if all were business as usual, is just as inadequate as the sermon that converts the Anthropocene into a personal existential crisis. To the complacency-mongers, one needs to say: yes, the Anthropocene will feel normal; it already does; whatever is not actively killing you does. The loss of coral reefs and other ocean diversity, accelerating extinctions, ubiquitous toxicity: these will all feel normal, most of the time, without an active effort to see them differently. The slivers of nature that the wealthy preserve for themselves and stitch into their proudly Anthropocene neighborhoods will feel normal and may come to feel sufficient. None of this should be comforting." (Purdy, 2015)

Purdy, Jedediah. After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015.

Roberto Burle Marx is one of the most important and influential figures of the Modern period's landscape architecture and art. His work has been recognized as a work of art because of the fusion between nature, culture, history, and modernity within geometrical and extravagant forms and shapes as a reminder of the importance of memory and identity as crucial elements future. The work of Burle Marx provokes the interest of the scientific community because of the richness in their design proposals with a mixture of abundant and autochthonal vegetation of Brazil and its biological heritage.

It is essential to say that Burle Marx's joy of creative freedom since much of his projects was public, allowing him to experiment among his creations. Also, one thing that is very noticeable about his work is the interest in integrating the projected space within the context and the general landscape, considering the city, the environment, and the positioning of the proposal. In Brazil, there was a significant effort to reveal the projects and landscape changes that were to be completed to the population and the city to present concerns and purposes that influenced the changes.

Burle Marx makes a difference compared to the rest of the landscape architects as he becomes an active person of the landscape built in Brazil by using native plant species that we were not appreciated. It exploits the dramatism of the tropical landscape of the country, given more richness and uniqueness to his work even more because he has been the one who travels around the country searching for native species supply areas but also awareness of vegetation devastation.

“Acho muito importantes os meus trabalhos associados à cidade. O paisagista está sempre associado ao urbanista. Sem compreender as necessidades de uma cidade e, principalmente sem compreender as funções das áreas verdes, o paisagista não poderá realizar jardins” (Burle Marx, 1992). (Goodwin, 1943)

Goodwin, Philip L. Brazil Builds: Architecture new and old 1652-1942. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1943.

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Leo Marx gets into the contradictory relationship where humans conceived nature embodied in American pastoralism. In an era where industrialism results shaped the economy and the urban landscape. Americans search and lookup for green spaces that help them escape from the exhausting urban life that industrializing and the new reshaped economy have brought into United States society.

In the article "American Contradictions and Pastoral Visions," Peter Cannavo talks about the importance of addressing the issues that Leo Marx saw in the modern world's American culture concerning nature's participation and the ecological politics and ecological crisis that America has approached. The American pastoralism was, as Sigmund Freud said, "a yearning of memory." Society needs green spaces or at least a "natural scenario" that, within the new technologies, industrialism, dwelling process, and urban development was in the process of disappearance. The pastoralist view found the opportunity to generat4e a "middle landscape," an in-between city and nature. This middle landscape took for large parks, gardens, and green pockets where the society found free to liberate from the exhaustive "repressions" of living in a city and urbanized world and feeling calm of not experiencing the "uncertainties of nature," a pleasure of both worlds. And the anesthetic view of nature within and technological design and architectural background. The western ideals and culture looked at the pastoralist movement as a particular setting for escapist desires to reconnect with nature without going further or away from the city dweller.

"Marx has deftly drawn on literary and cultural criticism, American history, and science and technology studies to illuminate our ecological situation. In The Machine in the Garden, Marx offers a complex, far-sighted diagnosis and critique of Americans' conceptions of nature and the sociopolitical implications of such a view. More than a quarter-century after its publication, this book continues to speak to American ecological politics and point to more constructive paths for addressing our environmental crisis." (Cannavo, P. 2001)

CANNAVÒ, PETER F. "American Contradictions, and Pastoral Visions: An Appraisal of Leo Marx, "The Machine in the Garden." Organization & Environment 14, no. 1 (2001): 74-92. Accessed November 5, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26161714.

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"On May 13, 1888, the Brazilian monarchy signed the Golden Law, abolishing slavery after more than 300 years. Th is act left thousands of former slaves wandering around the interior backlands of the Northeast with neither occupations nor resources. During the late 1870s, and again during the late 1880s, droughts brought death to a half million people in the interior. Landowners made money meting out water for drought relief and otherwise exploited those lacking money or influence...After years of this nomadic existence, the Counselor settled in Canudos, below Monte Favela, and there he created a millenarian outpost. The soil of Canudos was fertile—fed by underground artesian wells and by theVasa Barris River. Th ousands followed him—landless farmers, freed slaves, disgruntled workers and indigenous peoples. The Canudos community was run without money, without alcohol, and with a minimum of sin—and it prospered. Naturally, there were those who were envious of the community’s successes." (Perlman. 2010)

In the early 1800s, the destruction of nature is criticized for uses and political reasons—anthropocentric perspective. In Brazil, the economy and society depends closely on the conditions in which the land is located. if it is totally devastated and precarious there can be no benefit and wealth of it. Slavery and the transfer of black people to the Latin American continent represented a high cost, so agricultural processes were scarce. The need to enforce other groups of people as indigenous was cheaper and productive for the explotation of resources.

The Portuguese colonized Brazil, did about the same thing as the Americans in the early 18th. They positioned themselves in one place, generated agriculture, exploited the land until the soil became exhausted, and then transferred to another lot. The famous "cut out and get out." A state of abandonment happened everywhere, and the planetary expansion of the industrial civilization was a cause of culture change, politics, life forms, etc.

For Brazilian finding methods to restore the environment and agricultural activities, was of main importance, since its economic influence and development depended on it. Scientific research was necessary for the country, and the agricultural activities of cotton and sugar cane crops were the main financial products in Brasil.

Perlman, Janice. "Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro."Oxford. University Press. 2010

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“For, in a certain sense, the lower picturesque ideal is an eminently heartless one; the lover of it seems to go forth into the world in a temper as merciless as its rocks. All other men feel some regret at the sight of disorder and ruin. He alone delights in both; it matters not of what. Fallen cottage - desolate villa - deserted village - blasted heath - moldering castle - to him, so that they do but show jagged angles of stone and timber, all are equally joyful. Poverty, and darkness, and guilt, bring their several contributions to his treasury of pleasant thoughts. The shattered window, opening into black and ghastly rents of the wall, the foul rag or straw wisp stopping them, the dangerous roof, decrepit floor and stair, ragged misery, or wasting age of the inhabitants, - all these conduce, each in due measure, to the fullness of his satisfaction. What is it to him that the old man has passed away his seventy years in helpless darkness and untaught waste of soul? The old man has at last accomplished his destiny and filled the corner of a sketch, where something unsightly was wanting. What is it to him that the people fester in that feverish misery in the lower quarter of the town, by the river? Nay it is much to him. What else were they made for? what could they have done better?”

Ruskin, John. “Volume IV. Of the Turnerian Picturesque.” Modern Painters. London: George Allen, 1904

During the pass of time, the picturesque applied to art, music, architecture, literature, and more, referring to an ideal landscape with wildness elements as (asymmetry) artistic appeal, creating pleasure and beauty. Appreciate ancient and rough trees, an old bridge, dilapidated castles gave an essence of “something more natural,” a romantic view of the world. A healing memory within the circumstances of the future. The picturesque beauty of the landscape was an effort to banish the boundaries between garden and parks. Irregular shapes and asymmetry give a more “natural” experience. Canals became rushing streams, ponds into lakes. For Ruskin picturesque landscapes as acts of “beauty”, can be agreeable in a picture. But as him, there are a lot of thinkers that saw the picturesque as a mechanical form to representate “nature”, because the main purpose was to accomplish the pleasure of beauty in gardens and lawns with elements to “idealize the past”, but also leaving out the uniqueness and individual character of the place. A work of aesthetics to represent roughness, variation and irregularity. The picturesque movement perpetuared the need to frame “nature” in a painting, control and orchestate.

The idea of the wilderness or otherness linked to the savage has been an obsession with different cultures since ancient times. The definition has ranged from the fantastic descriptions of monsters and ignorant human beings to territories in which they were located. Deserts, jungles, high mountains, or only the last known lands during the Middle Ages were the stranger's places or the non-civilized person.

For Western Civilization The “savage people” for the Western Civilization where the ones that lived in the wilderness, a world of “bestial freedom,” The institutions of humanity, the dominion of what it is found in the landscape, or the mastery of nature, and the creation of tools and methods represent human transcendence. The interest to have governing institutions, religion, law, family differentiate “savage” from “civilized” people. The city stands opposite of the wilderness of the “forest.”

In the book “The Inheritors” by William Golding, the differences between “savagery” and “civilized.” It can be understood as Neanderthal thinking vs. Homosapiens thinking and view of the world. Think of as Neanderthal’s level, where there is no insight into their consciousness. Living a savage life is experiencing the world predominantly external, limited to what it is perceived through sense. There is an absence of contemplation and internal reflection by the savage human beings. Fearful of water, mostly driven by emotions. Finding its sources for survival in nature, but lacking processes or structure, such as a fire but no cultivation or agriculture, is a daily finding.

Golding, W. (1955). The Inheritors. London. Faber & Faber.

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"Newtonian mechanics underlay the view that all physical phenomena would be understood in mechanical terms. This view, referred to as the mechanical world view, incorporated the hope that Newton’s laws would become the basis for explaining everything, not only the physics of motion, the physics of heat, electricity, magnetism, and light, and also chemistry, geology and biology, including the workings of the body, genetics, the working of the nervous system and the way the brain and the emotions function; everything was to be understood in mechanical terms." (Goldberg, 1984)

The mechanistic view of nature fits with the ideals of the Early Modern period where humanity and nature can be understood as metaphysical elements. Consider nature as a machine is a signature concept of the Modern Western science. Mostly influenced by the work of scientists, philosophers and theologians as Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Keppler, and more. The mechanical view of nature, produced an idea of control, dominion over it. Humans are able to manipulate nature, to understand it, but also to predict what is going to happen in the process of manipulation.

From viewing nature as sacred and source of survival, "Mother Earth" to shift to radical changes with an economical perception of nature. Nature can be conceived as exhaustive resource at it can't be understood by intrinsic values. Everything that exists around "man" can be analize and define by quantifibale properties and parameters as size, shape, speed, distance, mass. But also, in search of value and beauty, parameters of color, tone, taste, smell are going to be defined by human experience, "human consciousness."

Goldberg, S. (1984). The Rise and Fall of the Mechanical World View. Birkhauser. Boston. pp. 85-86.

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Since the eighteenth century, nature's concept became a collective understanding of all domains given by experience, making them affordable for humans through science and technique. According to Heinsenberg (1955), conceiving the theories of Democritus state that the sensitive qualities of matter were mere appearance: aroma or color, temperature, or tenacity were not properties of matter. Instead, they were the result of reciprocal actions between matter and our senses. The atoms' arrangement and movement, and the effect of that provision on our senses, produces a materialistic view of nature and perceived matter. For this time, the process of observation and experimentation, and abstraction are necessary to understand nature or "material reality."

In 1846, Alexander Humbolt placed a precedent that changed man's vision in the face of nature and in front of what he knew of the rest of things. With his book, Cosmos, Humbolt has helped set a physical way to understand the universe by contemplating nature, that has acted differently in various races and varying periods. The cultivation of mental faculties, the pursuit of knowledge, work of imagination have blended each other. The understanding of external qualities and imitative art was transformed by personal experiences that define how we perceive things and how external factors and our senses can mold the impressions of nature.

Alexander Humbolt's writings and analysis of the New World condenses a collective effort to understand nature. The volcano Chimborazo was the scientific, literary, scientific, and artistic exemplification of universalism. There is a correlation of similar ecosystems at equal altitudes throughout the planet, i.e., there is a physical connection between plant types and species in connection with their location on Earth. The Chimborazo exposes that there is nothing isolated in nature and that everything is correlated, forming an organic whole, what Humbolt would call Cosmos. The theories that revolutionized scientific knowledge took place in a series of visits made in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, and the United States. Samples of flora, fauna, and minerals were collected in all these territories and moved as valuable elements to Europe.

Heinsenberg, W. (1955). The image of Nature in Modern Physics. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from https://mercaba.org/SANLUIS/Filosofia/autores/Contempor%C3%A1nea/Heisenberg/Heisenberg-%20La%20imagen%20de%20la%20naturaleza%20en%20la%20fisica%20actual.pdf

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Moreover, since, as I have said, she is the mean of things, in her fashion she contains all things and is proportionally [Intellect:Soul::Soul:Body] near to both. Therefore she is equally connected with everything, even with those things which are at a distance from one other, because they are not at a distance from her. For besides the fact that on the one side she conforms to the divine and on the other side to the transient, and even turns to each by desire, at the same time she is wholly and simultaneously everywhere. In addition, the World-soul possesses by divine power precisely as many seminal reasons of things as there are Ideas in the Divine Mind. By these seminal reasons she fashions the same number of species in matter. That is why every single species corresponds through its own seminal reason to its own Idea and oftentimes through this reason it can easily receive something from the Idea since indeed it was made through the reason from the Idea. This is why, if at any time the species degenerates from its proper form, it can be formed again with the reason as the proximate intermediary and, through the Idea as intermediary, can then be easily reformed. (Three Books on Life, 1984)

History sets different patterns of how human beings began to relate to "Cosmos" and other beings. And among them, myth and science have dominated the response of the human being to serve, control, and care for nature.

The belief and understanding of nature as "Mother Earth", a divine living organism can be related to the use of myth. Myth as a form of framework knowledge as ancient civilizations were projected and related in society, beliefs, and their position to nature. Myths were accounts of creation, what has occurred, or what it began to be at a given time and space. Sacrality (quality of the sacred) and breakthrough (violent and sudden apparition of something), make the world as it is.

Myths were exemplary models that revealed significant rites and human activities to be balanced with nature and human existence itself. Mythos (word or discourse of origins) has a conceptual opposition with logos (which thinks the essence of things, and from that thought gets knowledge of things), what we now call science.

Merchant explains that the production of science has reduced nature to a "mechanistic" matter. There is an exhaustive desire to understand and appropriate nature, and technology to destroy the limits that somehow the belief of myths shaped in the past. The transformation of values has changed over time by the development of sources that can lead humans to "better understand" nature.

Selections extracted from Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life: A Critical Edition and Translation with Introduction and Notes, by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark (Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1989).

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The use of geometry in the representation of political, social, and cultural status has been evidenced in different ancient cultures. In the case of the Middle East, the gardens were designed based on context, function and importance, and their relationship with buildings. They were not limited to one particular style, so Chahar bagh cannot be classified as an archetype of Islam culture. Most of the gardens were defined by several recognitions. The classic, formal, or casual style of the garden depends on your public or private condition.

The reference axes, the use of symmetry, large avenues, hierarchical areas that can be seen in the Islam gardens are attached to power and politics, and how to organize a society.

It is important to note that the cultural, social, and political features transmitted in the Islam gardens have also been translated into urban planning projects, such as the City of Chandigarh, designed in 1951 by Le Corbusier.

Crabtree, J. (2015). Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh: an Indian city unlike any other. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from https://www.ft.com/content/2a194cb4-1a8d-11e5-a130-2e7db721f996

The use of geometry in representation of political, social and cultural status has been evidenced in different ancient cultures. In the case of the Middle East, the gardens were designed based on context, function and importance, and their relationship with buildings. They were not limited to one particular style, so chahar bagh cannot be classified as an archetype of Islam culture. Most of the gardens were defined by several recognitions. The classic, formal or casual style of the garden depends on your public or private condition.

The reference axes, the use of simetria, large avenues, hierarchical areas that can be seen in the Islam gardens are attached to power and politics and how to organize a society.

It is important to note that the cultural, social and political features transmitted in the Islam gardens have also been translated into urban planning projects, such as the City of Chandigarh, designed in 1951 by Le Corbusier.

Crabtree, J. (2015). Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh: an Indian city unlike any other. Retrieved September 17, 2020 from https://www.ft.com/content/2a194cb4-1a8d-11e5-a130-2e7db721f996

Contextualize

The Chinese view of nature and its aesthetics have been influenced by a culture of distinctive spiritual and philosophical currents such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The traditional Chinese landscape and the conceptions of the garden are a compilation of successive dynasties, social models, architecture, and techniques with also an understanding of the beauty of nature and the ability to symbolize it.

The triad of human beings, earth, and heaven is part of nature. A continuous cosmos of universal, dynamic, self-creative, spontaneous, and unpredictable order, The Dao. The basic and most pure expression of a patterned and harmonious act of nature.

In The Six Dynasties period, the motivations of garden creation were drawn by a spirit of evocation, the search, and capture of “essence” and “spirit resonance” of nature. Where the function of gardens pursues an aesthetic of contemplation and enjoyment, where people gather together in a representational scenario of nature.

Zhou (1999) talks about the Chinese thinking of "nature and principle of man and things" and how the conception of a unitary cosmos and the understanding of selves and parts acting by patterns is the strongest driving force that shaped the Chinese tradition in terms of ethics, politics, religion but also architecture and landscape form. What shaped the Chinese landscape was the integration of the object's understanding in terms of opposition, integration, harmony, and relationships.

Zhou, Weiquan (1999). Chinese classical landscape history. Beijing. Qing-Hua University Publishing.

Context

The Chinese view of nature and its aesthetics have been influenced by a culture of distinctive spiritual and philosophical currents such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The traditional Chinese landscape and the conceptions of the garden are a compilation of successive dynasties, social models, architecture, and techniques with also an understanding of the beauty of nature and the ability to symbolize it.

The triad of human beings, earth, and heaven is part of nature. A continuous cosmos of universal, dynamic, self-creative, spontaneous, and unpredictable order, The Dao. The basic and most pure expression of a patterned and harmonious act of nature.

In The Six Dynasties period, the motivations of garden creation were drawn by a spirit of evocation, the search, and capture of “essence” and “spirit resonance” of nature. Where the function of gardens pursues an aesthetic of contemplation and enjoyment, where people gather together in a representational scenario of nature.

Zhou (1999) talks about the Chinese thinking of "nature and principle of man and things" and how, The conception of a unitary cosmos and the understanding of selves and parts acting by patterns is the strongest driving force that shaped The Chinese tradition in terms of ethics, politics, religion but also architecture and landscape form. What shaped the Chinese landscape was the integration of the object's understanding in terms of opposition, integration, harmony, and relationships.

Zhoug, Weiquan (1999). Chinese classical landscape history. Beijing. Qing-Hua University Publishing.

There are two narratives about the origin, fall and reinvention of the Eden Garden, called Recovery Narratives. These two narratives have strongly influenced the relationship between human beings and nature. I think it's important to mention that both the Christian Narrative and the Environmentalist narrative seek to recover the lost, paradise, the Garden of Eden. However, the conceptions of what the garden (enclosure) is, and what you want to recover (relative to its extent) differs from one narrative to another. The Gilgamesh story we read the previous week may be related to the change of conception of ''recovering the lost.''

Rooted in Genesis l, the Christian Narrative is the most influential rooted in Western culture. Is a traditional biblical narrative of the Fall from the Garden of the Eden, the guilt is charged to women and men is the agent to transform and savior with intention to redeem and recovered the garden by recreating the Eden in Earth with the possibility to exercise power and control over everything around them. Is the narrative that supports exploitation of nature to benefit human being and their cause, gender inequity.

The environmentalist narrative follows what it is written in Genesis ll, God creates the man from dust, then The Eden Garden is made, followed by 4 rivers and trees for food, woman becomes partner of man. The landscape of this narrative is more abundant, fertile, rich. Human beings, animals and nature coexists in harmony and abundance. The Eden landscape is river based, spring-fed, everything to maintain abundance. The decline of the Eden is slow, and the way how male and female intend to recover it has an ecological vision. Nature is a victim of exploitation but also the main benefactor of the recovery of Eden.

In summary Genesis l as ethical model is defined by human dominion, and Genesis ll as ethical model it's about stewardship.

In this case Gilgamesh's story is a good example for relating the objective of the Christian Narrative as an ethical model. Or the human dominion over nature. Where the main benefactor is the human being, and the exploitation of the earth and what is obtained from it is merely for the satisfaction of ''humanity'' and ''civilization.'' Eden on earth is depicted in the ''walled kingdom of Gilgamesh'' and the ''clearing and appropriation of the forest'' which possesses the benefits given by nature, water, food, shelter, light, wealth.

Andrew, George. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Group. 1999

Contextualize: This passage is about the beginnings of Humanism and the forest as a subject or element that caused the appearance of what we know as civilization. The scene takes place in the West, in a landscape abundant with forests in all directions, in which the people who inhabited it were lonely, without parents, or responsibilities, nothing. They lived a life without rules or restrictions, what the author describes as "bestial freedom." They visualized the space in a horizontal sense, because the density of the forests did not let them see more. The forest respresented the unknown.

As everything in nature is part of a cycle, forests dry up and between darkness, light passes through and creating the idea that there is something else than the forest, that's when the giants become aware of the sky and visualize the space vertically. Thus was born the first act of human enlightenment: forest clearing and the appropiation of it for the creation of the three human institutions: religion, matrimony and buried of the dead. The forest becomes the obstacle and threat to the progress of the human being.

Relate: Many times the question of why we human beings always feel so external, distant from nature comes to my head. And in this case the reading has made me reflect that this break or separation has existed since the beginning of civilization.

It is interesting and surprising how from a simple act like looking at the sky, it can generate such a strong gap between man and nature. As if the relationship between the two disappeared as if they were antonymous words. I think that reading gives a fairly clear idea of ​​how western civilization viewed or understood nature before and after acts of humanism and how important the landscape in which they were situated was to generate this process of human enlightenment. It is a forest in itself spatially and visually horizontal, but at the same time it generates an idea of ​​endless. I wonder what would have happened if the landscape instead of being full of forests, green and extensive, had been arid, dry, without trees. Would the human being continue to feel threatened by nature? Would humanism, religion, marriage and the burial of the dead have been?

The landscape is totally linked to human progress, and its disposition and characteristics define the limits of the human being in space. As for example, Vico's Giants conceptions of the space: Shadows=obstacle of knowledge, profane, dangerous, enchanted=what were forests for West civilization.

Light=knowledge,civilization, progress,divinity, religion=humans becoming aware of the sky.

RD