Arbor (lat.) = Tree

Centrum (lat.) = Centre

The anthropocentric view of nature does not necessarily begin with the belief that nature was made for humans, or that it should simply be ruled by them. Rather, the desire for control emerges through the desire to understand.

Understanding is humanity’s greatest instrument of domination over what falls within the limits of the known. In the pursuit of knowledge, what exists is repeatedly contorted, classified and conformed to fit the structural confines of human understanding.

Everything must find its designated place within the system: Every animal, plant, stone and stick. What remains are not necessarily the things themselves, but ideas of things—their abstractions.

By abstracting reality, it becomes easier to arrange, compare, categorise, and ultimately control. The world is broken down into comprehensible pieces, reshaped to fit the puzzle of an anthropocentric desire for knowledge and order.

photos © Raphael Fischer-Dieskau