Response to Final Projects

In this Art and Ecology Summer course, we were lucky enough to be blessed by students of all disciplines. As a result, all of the final projects presented a unique and interesting perspective on the theme. One of the readings in our packet emphasized the importance of diversity when creating a sustainable system, and I can't think of a better example than all of the ideas that came from the different students. While each project varied in content, they all tied together in a unexpected, yet functional way.

How do we bring more awareness to the community about local food and sustainability? Maybe it is to create a sign pointing in the direction of farmer's markets within walking distance. My classmate, Meredith, creatively designed a method of wayfinding in order for the quest for fresh food to become easy and accessible. I appreciated her use of legitimate signage juxtaposed with the infinite possibilities of art. And maybe on this quest in search of a healthier choice, eyes will be open to new ideas and observations. 

Teresa cleverly designed a zine in which readers may unexpectedly find themselves more in line with their environment. She uses native plants to reiterate our relationship to the city we live in. She also made a point to distribute the zine in unexpected places. Almost to insinuate that you can find beauty in the most unlikely of places. Jennifer also capitalized on this concept. She wanted to show how gardens don't have to be deliberate and don't have to disrupt the flow of our natural world. She created "matchbox gardens" to invite people to see planting as an opportunity rather than a large endeavor. 

Keenan, on the other hand, used his knowledge of design and architecture to create a model for a "toolbox". After a series of surveys, he discovered why people may or may not garden at home, he designed a prototype garden box along with a data collection to make it easier and more attractive to people who want to have a successful in-home garden. 

Then, there was Iktemal. She brought a whole new perspective into the study. Not only did she reach out to kids in her community and cultural background, but she related growth and nature to a situation very close to her. Seeing the native Palestinian flowers hung next to the apartheid wall was extremely moving. 

I was thoroughly impressed with all of the completed projects, which throughout the process helped me complete mine. Stay tuned for an update on the "Infinity Garden."

Zine

Here is the finished version of my zine for your viewing pleasure.  Look for a copy in your neighborhood--I plan to deposit them in surprising spots all over town!

Urban Infiltration Intervention

Urban Garden Toolbox

What can I do? The question follows me as I turn and face the world. A world where human actions increasingly alter ecosystems, the climate, and the environment without fully understanding the consequences and the disharmony of these alterations. How can anything I do change the course of this overpopulated, quarreling, economically addicted, and technologically religious human force hurtling further into discord with the movement of the planet? Especially in the Western world, where individualism runs so thick through our veins?

These questions prompt me into action. Inch by inch, what can I do?

Inch by inch. I can grow food. Right here, right now. I can grow foods of many varieties, learn the trials of the Earth, the water, the sun, and share with others what I’ve learned. By daring to do, I can experiment, succeed, revise, and grow with the sprouting seedlings. There, something in my control, something manageable.

Inch by inch. I can grow connections. It bears underscoring the fantastic abilities this age offers, interconnecting billions of people across the planet, across nations, states, cities, communities. Individually, we build many marvelous monuments. Communally, grow exponentially in creative adaptive capacity. Synergy. Using the technology we build as a sharply honed tool, we can tap into this immense creative energy. I can grow connections, and through them, share with others what I’ve learned, and learn and adapt from others through what they share.

Inch by inch. I becomes we. We, the People. But more than just our human-sphere. We, the Land. The Land Community. We change the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. We become what the Greeks called kosmopolites, “citizens of the world.” We can grow our own roots into the Earth, share with it what we have learned, and by accepting our citizenship, learn a great deal from the Land Community.

Inch by inch. We build a Toolbox. With our own hands, with our own inspiration, our own processes, we assemble an adaptive, evolving, and stacking movement towards land citizenship. Through the direct, unconverted, and un-interpreted experience of making a home for living members from the Land Community, caring for them, and taking sustenance from them, we build connections with the essence of our Earth, with each other, with ourselves. We begin to assemble knowledge, we begin to expand awareness, understanding. We begin to balance our disharmony.

“Inch by inch—

Little snail

Creeps up and up Mt. Fuji.”

~ Kobayashi Issa

Rendering: Residential scale

Rendering: Walmart parking lot

Rendering: Civic Plaza

Outer and Inner molds used for the Papercrete 

Outer mold perspective

Measurements for the wooden version (still under way!)

Papecrete garden toolbox prototype

See related posts:

Toolbox, Project Update 2.0 

Toolbox, Project Update 1.0

Urban Gardening Survey

Flowers of Palestine

Wanted to post some prints from the book "Flowers of Palestine" for everyone to see, which were a collection from the 19th century book "Wild flowers of Palestine". Here is also a great article on the indigenous flowers/plants in Palestine. I am intrigued by places, spaces, and time. Most of all, human interaction...

"Palestinian flowers reflect the country itself: its ancientness/antiquity, its gentleness...."

Way finding, multimodal, and local gardens

Map of current community gardens in Albuquerque with walking and biking radii and bus routes noted.

The trend for the last 60 years in the US has been for us to rely more and more on the automobile. The car has made it possible for cities to become less dense and spread out to the fringes. This has created large neighborhoods that are not close nit or self-sufficient. People don’t shop at their small local grocery anymore where they can run into their neighbor. Now we all get in our cars and drive. We drive to the huge big box store with faceless workers and customers. And where is that food coming from? Do we care? With our dependence on the dwindling supply of resources we really should care. It’s hard to believe that these major issues could be solved very easily and maybe that’s true but there are things that can be done to help us turn back time in a sense to a time when we weren’t as dependant on imports. What if our need for gasoline was reduced? What if we could give jobs to our local economy? What if traveling around our neighborhoods was easy, cleaner, and less stressful. There are so many ways that the way we choose to travel and the produce we chose to purchase are related. Can community gardens exist in most neighborhoods? How would this effect pollution due to shipping of produce to our grocery stores? How would it affect the local economy? Would the public become more aware of what is seasonally appropriate? Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone in a city could be within 5 miles of a local production garden? The benefits would be profound. People would get to know their neighbors again, get their hands dirty, and become more connected with their food. I would like to propose a way for the public to locate these gardens and access them through multiple transportation sources. This would be a 3-part objective. Traffic signs would be installed to direct exiting points and turns to the gardens. On street directives would target the cyclists, and tall poles with embedded information would speak to the pedestrian. All of these installments would be within a reasonable traveling distance for the corresponding travel mode. The walking distance would be set at ¼ of a mile, cyclist prompts would be within 5 miles and the traffic signs would reach to 10 miles. These installments have the potential to be used all over the US and around the world. Although the physical manifestation of the way finding material would be universal, the information attached to would be extremely site specific.

Prototypes for garden signage

Signs and stencils

Prototype signage at Nob Hill Grower's Market

Invitation to Infinity

Click image to open video, or goto: http://vimeo.com/69775023

So much of life seems linear. We are taught to think in a spectrum that has start and end points. Something is created and follows a path until that something must end or run out. Consequently, it is simple to measure the rise and fall of multiple topics pertaining to this matter. Just put them on a graph with the X and Y axis and see a very two-dimensional way of existing. When it becomes easy to perceive things as finite, the process of thinking cyclically disintegrates. But we must not lose this.

Because if we lose this, the reassurance that the mystical concept of infinity becomes smaller and harder to understand. In a time like the present, if we lose that belief that everything moves in a three dimensional pattern of harmony, we lose any hope for a sustainable future. Our existence will become finite.

Consider this an invitation. An opportunity to challenge yourself to think outside of the gridlines and beyond the terminable pathway. If this can be achieved, suddenly one starts to understand that the pattern that the sun follows is no different than the growth and decomposition of a tree. Suddenly it becomes clear that humans follow a similar pathway throughout years of history. We grow, we decline, we rise and fall and repeat ourselves. Whether it be on a daily basis or measurable throughout centuries. Charles Eisenstein believes that the only way to break our fallible want to measure things two-dimensionally is to consider this to be a time where we are being born into a new paradigm. “The present convergence of crises––in money, energy, education, health, water, soil, climate, politics, the environment, and more––is a birth crisis, expelling us from the old world into a new.” Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition.

And is this is understood, we can all act as components of change. We can provoke a movement towards creating a better world, like many people have done in the past. By supporting this new way of thinking, more of us will understand we do have a say in how we perceive and conserve the natural world. We do have control in deciding how we are going to relate to it and protect it. This is an invitation to regain that mystical concept of infinity, of seeing things in 3D and doing what seems impossible. And is with this kind of faith in a cause and direction, that we will move towards a world without endpoints, where anything is possible.

The Infinity Garden

When entering into this Art and Ecology summer course, I was infatuated with this concept that seems to be present in so many aspects of life. The infinity symbol is used in math to represent a pattern of a never ending sequence of numbers. It is also the shape that is made if the sun is measured every single day for a year in a particular place. It seems so interesting because of the initial habit for use to think that things are cyclical. I became enamored by the idea that things do not function in a line or a circle, but rather in the same pattern as infinity.

How I decided to relate this to ecology was to create this symbol on a vacant lot in the University neighborhood. Using the site where one of the oldest houses in Albuquerque once stood, some dedicated friends of mine and I constructed a rock sculpture in the shape of infinity. Being about 40 feet long and 15 feet wide, this is relatively hard to miss on a pleasant stroll down the street. I also chose to build here because of a guerilla movement that was already in action. People had created a "seed shrine" near a tree on the corner of the lot. More and more people began to contribute to this shrine and I thought, what a great idea if we could plant those seeds and create a community space.

So far we have had three work days and I have recruited about seventeen people to help when they have the time. Although the ground is arid and nearly concrete, we are determined to rebuild the soil and plant sun-resistent crops like corn and sunflowers. The dream is alive and we can't wait to keep working. I've created a facebook page where I will post updates on the progress and hopefully attract more followers. It was a great experiene for me to put this concept of infinity into something tangible, yet still holding on to the mystical idea that things continue forever in a peculiar, yet undeniable, cycle.

Check out this video about the Infinity Garden on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/69775023
Also, if you're interested, follow the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Infinity-Garden/145422755652609

Wrapping Up

As part of the open-sourced approach that I’m taking with the Garden Toolbox, here are some schematics I used when making the papercrete mold, as well as the slightly modified version for the wooden box. Over the week I would like to make a printable paper model where you can cut on the dotted lines and have your very own mini paper Toolbox! I’ll post that up as soon as it’s done.

(Click images for a larger size, it's way better)

Outer and Inner molds used for the Papercrete 

Outer mold perspective

Measurements for the wooden version (still under way!)

Also, I wanted to thank you all so much for making this class so enjoyable and inspiring! So often, I get into the dusty parts of issues like local food vs. industrial food, global climate change, and sustainability and get so dried out and un-inspired. But from an art-expression perspective, I’ve rediscovered that drive, the intrigue, the myth, the wonder that keeps us going. Each one of your projects sparked this wonder in me, and really motivated me to continue with renewed enthusiasm.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all again, and inviting you to join in the Toolbox community when it goes online (hopefully soon!).

Cheers all,

Keenan           

            

Global articles can impact Albuquerque

Here are some good and quick articles about designs being installed and issues going on around the world related to plants, sustainability, land use, art installations, public infrastructure, ect.

Click here

PALESTOPIA

2013. Qalandia Checkpoint/Apartheid Wall, Palestine. Iktemal Jaber.

Fugitives of the land--
A birthing seed frees the oppressed heart, making plants the ultimate healing medicine to the human mind. A flower is proof of our existence—of water, of air, of sunshine and of land. Like a refugee, it sails upon whirlwinds and returns back to its native sands. Beautifully resilient it stands and caresses the land, knocking through the stones and the walls holding its roots down. Land filled with milk and honey, exiled and deserted like quick sand. A starling orchestra of flowers interrupts the dopey autocrat, with the pulse of the olive seed prevailing, rebirthing, and breaking through. The children of the land, speckled like seeds swimming through the rivers, they are created whole, endowed with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder, worthy of respect. Children are original blessings, here to learn their own songs of purpose like flowers reaching beyond walls. They are entitled to love, to dream and belong to a loving village as their home. Where the land holds on to their smiles like a prisoner holds on to freedom. As a confused lover searching every petal for an answer, seeds become our prayer beads. We emerge and transform from their absence, only to dance under the Canaanite moon with the tulips, and the pheasant’s eyes of Palestine.

Praying and awaiting for the right of return.

 2013  Palestopia  Iktemal Jaber

2013 Palestopia, (Installation View), Iktemal Jaber

See related posts:

Flowers of Palestine

Sprouting update

Sprouting workshop project with children! (video)

Nina's class in Local Food, Urban.. I think was a huge success.  I have been made aware of the Apartheid wall in Palestine and its effects on the Palestinian's who are "scattered like seeds in the wind". I was moved by her manifesto and hope to see more of her work.I have learned about environmental design from the architecture students and how incredibly meticulous they are about gathering and interpreting information.  The photo documentary student showed me how beautifully one can depict the big idea of gardening and how to put that into play.  I thought that she had a unique gift of using self reference to figure out her place in the world.  The Zine student had a way of coming up with a different view in which she literally showed the different view.  Her raw way of drawing I am sure to see in comic for the future.  I also enjoyed Nina's generous teaching methods which allowed each student to really perfect their own ideas.  I think that this diverse group of students worked well together to bring each person's unique gifts to the table.  I did not have the chance to say farewell to everyone,  but I hope to see your work in the future.  I hope that we all take a bit of the class with us into our lives and think about ways to inform the rest of the world about food, water and conservation.  I hope that we all continue to think about food and its place in our lives.  If we continue to use up our resources in the same way what will we leave behind for future generations. 

"Eat the City"

Great article from the Design Observer on converting abandoned urban spaces into productive, edible landscapes. Click here to view article.

The Farm by the Freeway project by Bonnie Ora Sherk helped to challenge the concepts of community art.  I like the idea behind this project to bring about change.  I feel this is another example of how a community can acquire a space in order educate and inform.  “The farm sought to create a radical ecological model that facilitated nonhierarchical interactions, a cornerstone of countercultural organization and activism embraced by cultural radicals from the Diggers to Jerry Rubin’s Yippies.  (Crossroad Community(The Farm) by Jana Blankenship,1974-87), pg.44)   This project examined public urban art.  This work explained something very important which is to exist harmoniously with nature.  As the human population grows and slowly encroaches on all other environments, we must figure out a way to live together and to provide food for the populace. I agree that unused spaces should be used for community gardens.  Public garden space should be part of every neighborhood.  Along with the planning of gardens should be a plan to help save water by using greywater.  I feel that this conversation should be part of the city of Albuquerque’s agenda.  Basically, if we don’t have food or water who will be around to live in the city anyway.

Toolbox, Project Update 2.0

Today I poured the papercrete mold for the first prototype of the toolbox! The process was long and grueling, and complications with the mixture ratios set me back a bit. After the testing two of the different mixture ratios, I decided to go with the following recipe, encouraged by the good results from test mold #2:

• 55% wet paper pulp
• 20% clay (earthenware)
• 15% Portland cement
• 10% dry sand
  
  

  

  Test mold #2

Paper shredding and pulping—the first step—turned out to take up the most time. I used my paper shredder to munch up about three days of Albuquerque Journal newspapers, and then put this chaotic jumble into a five gallon bucket and filled it with enough water to cover the paper to blend it with a mixing bit.

With the paper, I learned that a longer soaking time kept the paper from just spinning around and clumping up around the drill bit, and this is where most of the delays came from. Blending with the mixer drill bit resulted in this very soggy paper pulp, which needed staining off of its excess water.

At the same time the paper soaked away, I got my very dried out clay soaking as well. (If you were using new earthenware clay, soaking wouldn’t be needed.)

Next up, measuring and mixing! Because of the volume the mold needed, I ended up using two five gallon buckets. The actual volume of the mold was a little less than 1 cubic foot. After some number crunching, I marked off the percentages on the side of the buckets. Then I added all the ingredients, layering them for easy measuring.

What followed was a frenzied shoveling/mixing/drilling rampage. I was so covered in clay and cement I dared not touch the camera, but here is the completed pour after I filled the mold. I had some warping issues with the side panels, which is why it bears a resemblance to a fortress with all the blocks.

Not too shabby! My biggest concern is the drying time, but I feel confident that it will be able to survive the drive to campus on Thursday. The Portland cement will be cured by then (it's already setting up nicely), and the rest of the moisture will soon follow.

Exciting stuff!