Biophilia is more than plants, light and air, it’s also about surrounding ourselves with living beings and our living natural world. If we think about it, E.O.Wilson’s seminal book, Biophilia celebrates all aspects of our living planet and is a call for that direct connection with nature. Wilson’s book examines our inherent connection to living species, the fascination of life, and how other living societal systems can inform our own. In fact, his lifelong interest in ant colonies emphasises this. Creating those moments of intimacy with nature has a really important place in our modern world where there is a disconnect with getting out there.
In this wonderful podcast, we speak with Michael Potts, who has spent more than 30 years as a wildlife cameraman, mostly for the BBC in more than 50 countries worldwide on major series including working alongside David Attenborough filming Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals and many programmes in the Natural World series. We discuss the importance of nature connection, why we need to introduce and educate the next generation, and also how audio-visual connection to nature through our TVs and devices is a positive thing and how we could take this one step further and introduce it into our built environment. “If you see something and understand it, then you care about it, then you might do something to protect it and encourage other people to do the same.” The messaging, inspiration and education you experience through wildlife films inspire people, and footage of birds in flight for instance has a calming effect as well.
Michael regales us with tales of animals, where he has filmed birds of paradise in New Guinea, Grizzly bears in Alaska, Termites in Namibia, Caribou migration, Polar Bears and more. He has spent many hours, up close and personal, feeling the heartbeat of a bird as it sits in his hand, feeling the strength of it, studying the intricacies of plumage which adapted to that way of life, their piercing eyes, incisive bills which continue to fascinate him: “every species is so special, they are all so different, so supremely adapted to where they live.”
He has also seen so many changes, reduced habitats for farming birds for instance where prairie-style farming is destroying land and habitats. We can do more to improve the habitats of birds and animals, and the built environment, cities, towns and communities can do much to change how we build and design our communities.
Biomimicry is one aspect of nature understanding that has a positive impact on our built environment, he mentions filming Termite mounds, huge, 12-15 feet high, made from mud, clay and sand. “They have incredible internal temperature control systems. It is +40 centigrade during the day, but to near freezing at night, but with a system of chambers and ducts, the termites maintain constant temperatures inside the mound to within 2 degrees.” This was for a study by Loughborough University which were using the knowledge garnered from the filming to use the design as an example for cooling systems in modern buildings. Nature provides us with so many answers, if we have eyes to see.
Michael has a fascinating book out “Untangling the Knot, Belugas and Bears: My Natural World on Film” which you can buy directly from all good booksellers, and also directly through Michael, contact him via his website: http://michaelpottsphotography.com
He will also be at The Global Bird Fair in July 2023 https://globalbirdfair.org
Did you know our NEW printed and eBook journal is out now https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/journal-of-biophilic-design-1
Please register for our newsletter https://mailchi.mp/4001fc945c4f/untitled-page and view previous podcasts with images here too: https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcasts-journal-of-biophilic-design.
Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts.
Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/
Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn
LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesign