An exhibition about inclusive human-nature relationships
Trail running is a growing outdoor activity that, as a practice, may enhance people’s connection with nature by encouraging more time in natural environments rather than constructed ones. However, trail running also exhibits issues of inclusion, as it tends to idealize a specific form of expression, predominantly focusing on particular genders, body types, physical capabilities, and specific types of clothing. From this perspective, trail running can appear for many as a non-inclusive activity that, in its aesthetic expression, does not promote an inclusive connection with nature for everybody. The aim of this work is to explore alternative understandings of trail running to develop it as a more inclusive practice for human-nature connection. The method employed is based aesthetic juxtaposition, based on abstracted aesthetic elements of trail running activities and situations combined with abstracted aesthetic elements of folk costume. This technique is used to establish theoretical connections between two seemingly unrelated practices, develop alternative characters, settings, stories, events, and moods for trail running, and build supporting and propositional arguments for an alternative understanding through an aesthetic perspective, guiding towards a more inclusive human-nature activity. To collect general aesthetic elements of trail running and folk costume, not tied to any specific culture or region, DALL-E was utilized for its stereotypic and generalizing methods, to create photographic collages based on the prompt "a distant photo of a person trail running in a forest wearing a combination of folk costume and trail running wear." The result is an aesthetic analysis of forms, materials, and arrangements that connects material meanings, historical reflections, social structures, and values. It demonstrates how the analyses of typical elements of folk costume can alter the expressions of being in nature. The findings could be understood to suggests the potential for a more inclusive culture of outdoor practice based on a wider conception of function-expression relationships in technical outdoor wear. FORMAT: a series of photographs placed on wall reflected in a physical sculpture/installation. ECHO: – the work explores expression in historical clothing in relationship to a contemporary activity in order to propose a future more inclusive outdoor culture.