Environment Environnement

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Definitions

Short definition of key terms in order to provide a framework of their theoretical and disciplinary scope

Quotations

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Perspectives

Texts written by artists and researchers, based on experiences in their field of study

Bibliography

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Definition

Environment constitutes the totality of elements and phenomena, both physical and social, which occur around one or more living organisms. It is a situated notion by definition, relative to a given organism.

Cite: “Environment”, Performascope: Interdisciplinary Lexicon of Performance and Research-Creation, Grenoble: Université Grenoble Alpes, 2021, [online]: http://performascope.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/en/detail/177825

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Created : 2021-06-14.

Last modified : 2022-06-29.

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Perspective

Quotation

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« The whole sum of the surrounding external conditions within which an organism, a community or an object exists. The term is often used in a limited way in geography; e.g, the natural e. meaning either the non-cultural and no-social e., or the landscape before the Man came. The geographical e. means the factors of the e. whose relationships are considered in terms of spatial location. The physical e. includes all phenomena apart from Man and the things he creates, while the nonhuman e. everything not in a social system, whether made by Man or not. These are slightly different, and unqualified use of the term can be misleading. »

Francis John Monkhouse, A Dictionary of Geography, Londres : Taylor & Francis, 2017, p.124


« The environment of animals and men is what they perceive. The environment is not the same as the physical world, if one means by that the world described by physics. The observer and his environment are complementary. So are the set of observers and their common environment. The components and events of the environment fall into natural units. These units are nested. They should not be confused with the metric units of space and time. The environment persists in some respects and changes in other respects. »

James J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Londres : Psychologic Press, 2015, p.11

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Gregory Bateson, Vers une écologie de l’esprit, traduit par Férial Drosso, Laurencine Clot et Christian Cler, Paris : Le Seuil, 2008 [1972]

Philippe Descola, Par-delà nature et culture, Paris : Gallimard, 2005

Tim Ingold, The Perception of the Environment : Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill, Londres : Routledge, 2000

William. M. Mace, « James J. Gibson's Ecological Approach: Perceiving What Exists », Ethics & the Environnement, 10, 2, 2005, pp.195-216