Do we really need the wall?

I was in North Wales recently. Yes, it rained.

But it didn't matter I was with friends having fun in the beautiful wild surroundings of the welsh mountains of Snowdonia.

A friend remarked on a long stone wall running diagonally up the side of the mountain peak you see in the picture, no doubt built some 100 years ago or so to keep the sheep to the hill side. He felt it was a feat of incredible design, labour, effort, precision - another friend agreed with him.

But gazing at the wall, I couldn't help but see it differently. To me it was a long scar scratched onto the surface of nature. It had no place there, other than serving its human intent, it did nothing but detract from the beauty and rawness of the environment.

Working in the 'creative' industries in our current time of climate and environmental crisis, I feel there is a duty for us to manage 'creativity' with greater responsibility. It's easy to celebrate design fetishism for the aesthetic, or wonder of human ingenuity, but if it doesn't harmonise with our natural environment, it is nothing more than a wound that will leave a scar on the future landscape for generations to come.

I'd urge you as co-workers in our disciplines to shift our perspective of creations we celebrate. Look beyond the wonder of what we can make to serve us as humans and ask yourselves the question: Does, this really belong in the world? Does it add to the beauty of what already exists? Does it really add something, or is it taking something away? Do we really need the wall?