The Gym Environment

Over the past few months I have been going to the gym three times a week and working out with a personal trainer in attempts to get out of my freshman 15, which is going into its third year. I never really noticed the gym’s environment until Professor Bell brought it to my attention. Unlike the student rec plex, Simply Fit is packed with MILFS (I will assume no one needs that explained). First lets start with the gym’s aesthetics. Every wall is covered with mirrors except for the windows in front. You are left with no choice but to see yourself for the duration of time you spend there. Then there are TVs suspended from the ceilings in front of countless machines. Now lets move on to the people. The majority of women are in their mid thirties to forties, and they all look ten times more “fit” than the twenty something’s I see on campus (including myself & my friends). They are all clad in their Nike tanks, which are clearly matched to their shoes. Then there is me, 21yrs old and in an oversized t-shirt and baseball cap, huffing and puffing next to the mom that is running her ass off on the treadmill making it look effortless. What is it with this age demographic? Do these women only get to interact with other people (besides their children) at the gym? Are they trying to prevent their husbands from cheating on them (funny thing is they end up cheating on their husbands with the trainer)? I look forward to reporting back on my findings.

What is Environment?-- Motsinger

What is Environment? Specifically what is the environment in film? Well clearly an environment must be a location, that much is clear. It is also clear that Environment and Nature are intertwined, but is nature only outdoors. No. Environment and nature are by far not that simple-- in order to understand Environment and Nature, one must attempt to understand the cycles of life and the interactions that lifeforms have in a given location.

Living organisms play just as big of a role in the environment as minerals, rocks, rivers, and mountains. Without dead animal fossils being compiled into dirt there would be no mountains-- proving the importance of living forms, along with their decaying carcasses. We as humans tend to believe that nature is "over there," in other words nature is outside of our cities and homes. This is a completely inaccurate assumption. Cities have their own environment and nature that they birth on a daily basis-- for example: factories releasing toxic fumes into the atmosphere and traveling into the lungs of birds, humans, and other living beings. Therefore, to assume that humans are separate from nature is completely outrageous.

Now that I have explained, to some degree, what exactly Environment constitutes, it is clear that Environment in Film should be interpreted in the same way. Whatever the camera lens captures in a specific environment, whether the film be a documentary on dolphins or a movie based on the intergalactic colonization of a race of aliens' home planet. It is all Environment, and it is all Nature.

Neglecting to mention that every single environment is a constantly changing form would be a huge faux pas. Every given environment is just as lively as any given organism, precisely because every environment is constructed by living organisms. Environment and Nature is relevant even within the structure of a human body-- we are constructed of cells with nuclei, amoebas, and microscopic organisms that help carry out our functions (such as digesting parts of out food). Therefore it is safe to say that Environment is simply, yet profoundly, EVERYTHING.

- Sam Motsinger