Dirt Sick

It’s really easy for me to walk around the city forgetting that there’s actual earth under my feet. After a few weeks of being confined to the little postage-stamp plot of Manhattan I inhabit, the “real world” begins to recede in my consciousness, and the environment starts to seem more of a theoretical object than a lived reality. Since weekend trips to the countryside to rejuvenate my relationship with the planet aren’t really practical for me (I wish), I have to resort to Youtube to get my fix. My little brother turned me onto the channel Primitive Technology about six months ago, and it’s completely addictive. Much like reading Kimmerer, when you’re engaged with it you can’t help but be awed at the wealth the natural world has to offer. The basic notion of the channel is that this random Australian guy with a bunch of land goes out into the woods and films himself making tools, shelter, and food from whatever he finds (he only uses items he’s made in previous videos, so no axes or lighters or cooking pots– I think he started out with just a kind of sharp rock). The videos are completely silent except for the sounds of nature and the sounds of the tools. They’re completely mesmerizing, and while they don’t necessarily connect me to the land I’m on, they ground me in a different sense, forcing me to pay attention to all the ways my life removes me and insulates me from natural processes. At least I can begin the process of imagining the potentiality in the dirt underneath all the pavement.

The hut-building ones are my favorites.