GMU:Speculative Atmospheres/Alina Draeger

Perception Experience - Ilmpark, Mai 2021

The perception of the Ilmpark started with my "object of high awareness" - a pinecone. A pinecone so small, I felt a little like I was protecting a tiny creature while holding it in my hand. Beginning with this thought, I’ve let my thoughts loose, focusing only on whatever came to my senses.

The Ilmpark is a mixture of "true" nature and a man made, natural environment. It is a coexistence between culture, city life, technology and nature. Even though it's designed and maintained by humans, wherever there is space, nature takes it, creating a new environment, a new home, a new life every day.

The park is home to all kinds of living creatures: butterflies, ants, spiders, bugs, bumblebees, ducks, all kind of birds, squirrels, mice, moles, etc., even ferrets and comorans. There is also a great variety of wild plants, depending on whether there's more or less light or what kind of vegetation is around them (around trees = more plants). The plants, trees, animals and insects are coexisting, sharing the environment and depending on each other. In addition, the park also makes up a large part of the city and culture, thus of the home of people and their pets, while offering an escape from their daily life. Searching for a quiet space, a space to enjoy fresh air, being around other people or animals or finding inspiration, all kinds of people come to the park.

Every living creature leaves traces – from trees to animals, from elements to humans. Holes in the ground, mole moles, nibbled leaves. Feathers, paths, leaves, seed, blossoms, dead insects, cigarettes and garbage on the ground. By storing these traces, the park becomes a witness of time, life and death. Traces are a documentation of generations and change. For example, they are a documentation of movement. Everything in the park is in movement: wind, water, animals, humans. Their movements cause other movements, like movements of grass, plants, pebbles, leaves, etc. These movements change the environment little by little, they create the space around them. By focusing on the traces and documenting them, humans can save, analyze and share them, becoming witnesses and keepers of generations and change themselves.

When you’re standing still or with slower, adjusted movements to your environment, you'll become one with it. Animals and insects become less afraid. They start accepting you as a part of their environment and nature, and ignore you as a human being. While standing still, even the plants around you will start moving in their own rhythm again.

I like going to the park, watching people, animals, the water and the plants and the trees. I go there nearly every day, for a break of everyday life or to find inspiration. The park has many colours and shapes to see and feel: Blue, green, yellow, white, brown, grey, beige, purple in all shades and saturations; mostly round, organic shapes, even though the material may be sharp or spiky.