Emma Critchley ©

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  1. We Do Not Know What We Cannot Name, 3 minutes, HD with Sound, 2018



    'We Do Not Know What We Cannot Name' responds to an article about the Oxford Junior Dictionary’s proposition to take out words relating to nature like ‘acorn’, ‘buttercup’, ‘conker’ and replace them with words like ‘attachment’, ‘broadband’ and ‘chatroom’ to “reflect the world children are living in”. As stated in a petition to Oxford University Press signed by 23 acclaimed authors, there is a belief that culture and nature have been linked since the beginning of history and for the first time there is danger that this link is becoming unraveled. There is a sense that childhood itself is undergoing profound change. Through researching symptoms of Nature Deficit Disorder, Critchley wrote her own ABC, which explores the potential psychological and social implications of the world the junior dictionary presents, which she asked children aged between 7-9 to recite back to us.