Rainforests : The More Mankind Evolves, The Closer It Gets to Extinction Art By: Alerj Presentation By: Ansgar Jordan

Character -Though there is no defined character in the image, it is obvious that society is the cause for the destruction. Depicting growth of industry and human waste show our reckless actions and their results. -The image shows a timeline, from left to right, depicting how since Columbus landed, which was the beginning of European influence on America, natural rainforests have been destroyed and wiped out by our carelessness.

Color -The color in the image is bright in the human areas, denoting their superiority and power. -On the other hand, the rainforest, already being pushed out to the sides of the world, is much less relevant and powerful than the human presence, dying off slowly, being forgotten. -The only visible humans in the image are depicted on a very white, pure piece of land, parting a path between the rainforest, and pushing its black and green dying embers back into extinction.

Light -Illuminated highly are the humans, standing on a bright shore, a good future just lurking in the possibilities ahead. The humans pave a pathway through the jungle, ultimately wiping it out altogether. -The forest, being pushed to the sides, is in a forgotten nature because of its dull, dead and dark colors. In contrast, the farmland nearby is lush, green, and full of life, which ironically is usually the impression a populated forest is supposed to give us. However, as it is dying out, deprived of resources, humanly presence takes over.

Angle - The viewer of this piece is looking into the stump of a freshly cut tree, while it is slowly falling to the ground. It gives a sense of power to the viewer, that one is above the actions taking place. After all, once the tree falls over backwards, it will open up the region where more humanly structures are bound to emerge, such as the city and the industry. From left to right, the inner structures in the stump represent a timeline from the landing of Columbus to the modern day. Once the tree is cut off, the future is revealed, one with the forest in the back being left behind.

Proportion -The city itself is roughly the same size as the rainforest, yet the tree stump is overwhelmingly large, holding all the other bearings inside of it. The fields, however, are disproportionately large to the city or the industry, showing that they are also an important defining factor in the destruction of the forest. The fields are closer to the forest because they are a more local way of wiping it out, while the fire is direct and the city causes toxic gasses to destroy it.

Placement -The creator crops out most of the tree trunk, as not to make it as obvious at first sight that the scene is set inside a tree trunk. -The creator places items relating to one another next to each other, for example: City:Train Fields:Forest Industry:City -The creator shows signs of obvious rainforest destruction right at the forest (for example the fire), while he puts the less obvious ones farther away, (for example the smokestacks) leaving a viewer to ponder about the other possible dangers.

Setting -The image is set in many time zones, from 1492 to the modern day. Left to right, a visual timeline suggests that since humans came to the America’s, rainforests were influenced badly by their presence. -From the first farms forcing the manual destruction of many trees, to intentionally set fires and human industry, the image shows a timeline of destruction, for us to finally notice the destruction we have caused.

Character: Although the image does not express a certain character or person to derive emotions from, the characters in the image are, whether seen or not seen, us. We are the humans that have destroyed rainforests. We are the humans who have together wiped them out with new fields, the intentional setting of fires, and carbon dioxide pollution to the point where we do not even notice our actions, since they never hit home until there is simply no oxygen left, in which case we would no longer exist. The image depicts our carelessness, the smokestacks, uncontained fires, the chopping of trees and the city, oblivious to the world around it. We are the humans who have destroyed our rainforests, and yet we still do not realize the real damage we have done. Color: In fact, the image does not portray a small selection of colors to hint and dullness or grayness of any sort. Instead, it actually depicts a colorful scene, however this just adds to the sadness in the reality of it. In order to make the image as realistic as possible, the creator chose to use bright colors so the realism comes out, teaching us how our actions have truly created these tragic events. The rainforest, ultimately doomed in the nature of the modern human, is streaked with black, while the only decipherable humans in the picture stand in an awe of white purity -- ironic in the fact that they are the ones causing all the troubles. Light: Although much of the image is illuminated, a considerable portion, which is the rainforest, is left in the dark, since it cannot defend itself and is subject to any human attacks. Whether fires, smoke, pollution, or the simple cutting of a tree, the tree cannot defend itself against the action taken by a human. The forest is one of Nature’s gifts. If destroyed by us, recovering takes much longer than the destruction. Angle: As the viewer of the image is placed in a sort of above-the-image view, we look down on all the problems, perfectly fitted into the tree. However, the slit in the tree promises more protruding buildings, overall providing an insight on the fact that all the greenery on the left of the picture will soon be pushed into oblivion and forget by the industrialization and urbanization of society. While it may not seem that there is much of the city in the picture, the falling of the tree will open up and show the future, still hidden beneath the tree trunk. Proportion: Substantially larger than the images other structures are those that cause danger to the rainforest. The smokestacks, for example, are a prime human-made factor in destroying many wildlife and plant structures. The fire, an obvious danger, roars above and ominously belittles the burning forest. The widespread plains, where forest once stood, have been all chopped free so that the remaining forest is even smaller than the part cut away for raising livestock. The forest seems to be suffering, it is dying and it is having to endure harsher disasters every day. Placement: In order to create a scene where a step by step process leads to the downfall of the forest, the creator of the image placed structures that were alike next to each other. For example, he placed next to each other: City:Industrial Area - Such as in every normal large city Fields:Forest - Also a normal phenomenon, however in this case the fields are actually the forest killer. Setting: The entire image is a great timeline. On the left, it starts in 1492 when Columbus first landed in America (hence the 3 different-sized ships and people on land). Then, the creator depicts a scene in which lots of farming took away much of natural land and converted the America’s into a farming, exploring, yet also destructive landscape, plundering Nature’s resources and leaving beautiful locations back in a dead landscape. Later, the industrial age followed, where smoke, fires and urbanization caused many problems in Co2 emissions, later leading up to the planet we have today, plagued by global warming, dying oceans, rainforests, and pollution destroying much of Nature’s gifts.