Situating nature: Ruins of modernity as náttúruperlur

Abstract

The aim of this article is to contribute to problematizing the notion of nature in Icelandic naturebased tourism. Despite a fairly robust recent definition of nature-based tourism by the Icelandic Ministry of Industry as "travellers' varied experience of nature," in fact, the definition of nature in this context seems limited to places supposedly unspoilt by human influence, and that rather simplistic understanding seems overly prevalent in the discourse of Icelandic tourism. The concept of "nature-based" tourism is necessarily reductive if it is limited to areas conceptualized as pristine. Many places that are identified primarily through their anthropogenic features would not be adequately understood without considering their ecological properties, and certain areas with significant anthropogenic elements give rise to specific-and in many ways uniqueexperiences of flora and fauna. Central among them are ruins, where ambiguous space is occupied spontaneously, where interactions with the nonhuman can be more unexpected, startling, and dangerous than in more regulated areas. If tourists come to Iceland chiefly due to the country's spectacular náttúra, the Icelandic tourism industry is well advised to be mindful of the many derelict and abandoned contemporary structures found across the country.

Transiting with the environment: An exploration of tourist re-orientations as collaborative practice

“…This notion of collaboration with the environment has emerged within current discourses of tourism and geography (Benediktsson, 2007;Benediktsson and Lund, 2010;Lund, 2013;Massey, 2006;Pa´lsson, 2013), which are grappling with notions from philosophy and the social sciences (Alaimo, 2008;Braidotti, 2012;Ingold, 2010;Latour, 2010;Morton, 2007). Their objective, which aligns with mine, is to extract and extend the discussion on objects, activities and destinations to more complex and dynamic notions of co-consumptive and collaborative experience.…”

“…To illustrate these experiences, I will draw from my fieldwork notes and photographic documentation, taken from the perspective of a researcher-tourist. A practice-led research approach (informed by creative arts practice and theory, see Barrett and Bolt, 2013; Carter, 2004; Smith and Dean, 2009) is particularly applicable to fieldwork experiences as it values process-based and situated perspectives. This involves recognition that the researcher cannot be simply an observer as they are always embedded in the situation.…”

“…The first-person reflections are part of a larger study for my doctoral research into creative interactions in tourism scenarios. My perspective is informed by creative arts practice-led research methodology, where theory and practice are never separate but always entangled (Barrett and Bolt, 2013; Carter, 2004; Smith and Dean, 2009). Therefore, the data that drive the analysis is photographs and extracts from my fieldwork journal that provide a reflexive and experiential exploration of transiting.…”

Reimagining unfinished architectures: ruin perspectives between art and heritage

“…45 Such a chaotic stability is usually understood as the material disintegration of a given construction, in which ruination is precisely the 'return of architecture into nature'. 46 Hence, there is nothing more authentic than a ruin in the process of becoming so; there is nothing more natural than being reclaimed by nature. This approach is essential to understanding another action which took place during the Incompiuto Siciliano Festival.…”

Reckoning with ruins

“…. human and non-human, self and other' (Pálsson, 2013). Such a shifted perspective, however, must guard against indulging in a haze of 'naturalized entropic drift and dissolution' (Cunningham, 2011) that loses sight of the very real economic and social processes that led to abandonment in the first place.…”