Wark reflects on how modern nature tourism often prioritizes “second nature”—human-made environments—over authentic nature. On her family trip to Mount Zion, the park’s vast canyons and rock formations inspire awe, but this grandeur is soon filtered through rituals like taking selfies. Wacker’s RV transforms the wild into a comfortable, controlled space, making nature feel familiar. The author argues that, for many, the experience of nature today is more about engaging with manufactured environments than truly connecting with nature.
“For while sublime nature is an artifact of leisure, access to that nature is somebody else’s work.” In modern tourism, access to nature is framed by industrial culture, with the “bourgeois class” viewing it as a leisure product, disconnected from the labor behind it. The author critiques how culture, religion, and industry shape nature, concealing its true origins. Third nature, through extensive and intensive vectors, has redefined our connection to nature, making the world more data-driven.
The author explains how mechanical reproducibility aimed to make second nature visible, but now both second and third nature shape our experience of nature. On the RV trip, second nature shapes the experience, while third nature organizes the journey and our connection to nature. According to Heidegger, second nature turns nature into a “standing-reserve,” a resource to be controlled. However, while it connects the world in ways previously impossible, it cannot control time. While third nature increases convenience, it mainly benefits corporations by turning nature into a resource. “However, how long can third nature last before it is overtaken by geological time?
KEYWORDS:
- Second nature- refers to the human-made environment—the built world that is shaped by human activity, including technologies, infrastructure, and systems. It is the world of manufactured objects, urban landscapes, and industrialization that exists alongside, and often in contrast to, the natural
- Sublime nature- refers to experiences that overwhelm our senses and reason, like vast landscapes or powerful forces, which evoke both awe and fear. It surpasses human understanding, revealing nature’s infinite scale and our limitations, while still inspiring a sense of human greatness.
- Standing-reserve- refers to mass production of objects or experiences, making them accessible to a wider audience. McKenzie Wark describes it as transforming second nature into something visible, but it often abstracts or distorts the original experience of nature.
MICRO-ESSAY on “Adventures in Third Nature” by McKenzie Wark
