NATURE e x c a v a t i n g h i ( d d e n ) s t or i es of Gow anus Canal A T L A S : t h rou g h n a t u re - ma p p i n g m et hodol ogi es R
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The Nature Atlas is part of a graduate research project Engaging Nature: Exploring Multi-scalar Methodologies to Map Nature (2017) at Parsons School of Design, New York Through the Atlas, I employ alternative mapping techniques in order to excavate the unseen, tacit, or disregarded layers of nature within Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York. It is a compendium of interpretive and speculative maps, diagrams, illustrations, stories, and praxis projects visualizing quantitative, qualitative, archival, scientific, empirical, and anecdotal research. I employ mapping as a relational, reflexive, analytical, sensorial, and tactile exercise rather than mere spatial visualization technique. ~Ruchika Lodha
C ON T E N T S Preface
[i]
i. Primitive Nature
[1]
ii. European Encounter
[3]
// Nature and Society
iii. Commercial Glory
[7]
// Nature for Society
iv. Post-industrial Detritus
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// Nature as Society
v. Contemporary Nature
[ 15 ]
// Multiple Natures
vi. Actionable Engagement
[ 17 ]
// Compendium of Nature Mapping Praxis
vii. Conclusion
[ 33 ]
viii. Bibliography
[ 34 ]
PRE FA CE The Champa 1 from Mumbai This is how their typical day begins - my parents take morning walks together. Mum goes back home before dad jogs. She waits for dad to get back, to have breakfast together, but not before he picks mum’s favorite flowers - the white Champa (Plumeria) - from the garden in our building complex, which has spacious walking tracks abundantly lined with flowering or herbal plants and trees. That’s the favorite part of her day. She decorates our center table in the living room everyday with the flowers. “They bring happiness and positive energy within our home,” she says. Why am I describing this? Because, although it seems like a trivial or inconsequential routine in someone’s life, it was this deep association with the tree, that helped save the it from becoming a parking spot in our building complex. Lately, due to the increase in car ownership, the building management office decided to replace a few garden areas into parking spaces.
Mum and I would regularly talk about climate change, she is aware and concerned, but it never emerged as a cause for action until that day when the management office decided to uproot some garden areas that were an essential part of her day. She gathered forces in order to actively participate in meetings to find alternative solutions to the need for parking spaces without uprooting garden spaces. This was unprecedented, I had never seen mum so motivated and driven about participation in community meetings, because she held the opinion that the system was too hierarchical and indifferent to address the concerns, needs, and desires of its banal residents. [i]
Within the same system, busy schedules, and ideals, mum made time for the meetings and took initiative to organize members of the society... Why? What changed? Why was she determined to be heard this time? I realized it was mum’s deep love for the Champa that motivated her to pursue this endeavor. The Champa was an integral part of her day, it wasn’t ‘some’ tree, ‘somewhere’ being uprooted, it was hers! She had to protect it, she knew she could save it, she cared for it, she was its steward. Her passion towards the tree reverberated with and motivated other residents to join the fight and take action.
1. Plumeria, a flowering plant, is colloquially known as Champa in India
The Bigger Picture Biophilia is a hypothesis that suggests the innate affinity of humans towards other forms of life. Edward O. Wilson popularized this concept in Biophilia (1984) describing it as “the urge to affiliate with other life forms”. Humans do possess the tendency to seek connections with nature – whether as a place for escape from the busy and chaotic city life, or as scientists, researchers curious to learn about other life forms, or as designers seeking inspiration from habitats/environments of other life forms, or as artists fascinated by their colors, forms, shapes, and habits – humans share the love for living systems. It is this tacit, inherent connection between humans and nature that I explore through the Nature Atlas in order to broaden the spectrum of people, deepen their awareness and knowledge, and finally invoke curiosity to get involved and engage with nature in any capacity that allows or interests them. Although people may be aware and concerned about the environment, there are factors that deter them from being actively engaged with their environments. It could be lack of knowledge and expertise on how to engage or othering 1 of nature that prevents involvement and motivation or the mere degree of commitment that may be daunting. My mum’s deep personal attachment to the tree motivated her, overpowering her skepticism towards the hierarchical and unresponsive system, to care for her environment and it is these intimate associations that people share with their environments – tacit or explicit – that generate cause for action. I argue that engagement is the first step towards active acknowledgment, inclusion, and ultimately stewardship for environments (accreting towards nature at large), and such
personal associations and attachments with environments provide stronger and more permanent motivations for engagement and stewardship. These associations are personal and so are the motivations. The aim of Nature Atlas is to involve people with various interests and expertise to create a collective consciousness towards our environments. The Nature Atlas employs alternative mapping techniques in order to excavate the unseen, tacit, or disregarded layers of nature within Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York. The atlas is a compendium of interpretative and speculative maps, diagrams, illustrations, stories, and praxis projects visualizing quantitative, qualitative, archival, scientific, empirical, and anecdotal research. I define mapping as a relational, reflexive, critical, sensorial, and tactile exercise rather than mere two-dimensional spatial visualization. Additionally, it provides a wide range of inspirations and real-life projects to evoke the readers to engage with the environment in their own ways without suggesting one universal or true strategy. These projects may vary from informal activities for recreation or driven by the sentiment of stewardship of the environment or provide a motive for research. For example, Gowanus Souvenir Shop2 is a boutique store that displays and sells all kinds of ‘souvenirs’ from Gowanus (some actually found in / dredged from the Canal) supporting and encouraging local artists. Whereas, the Portraits of NYC 3 project by Jenifer Wightman explores the metabolic processes of micro-fauna in mud:water samples she collects from polluted landscapes within New York through her artistry.
The range of projects I enlist in the atlas provides a peek into the variety of ways in which scientists, researchers, students, artists, wanderers, poets, photographers, or designers can actively and consciously engage with nature, acknowledge the hidden layers within their environments. These experiences of engaging with environments will help build associations and relationships with nature in ways that will inculcate a collective culture to care for their immediate environments. Whether people believe in climate change or not, they would always fight to protect their associations within environments. My hope for this atlas is to nurture this attachment of people with their environments by providing them inspirations and real life projects, which would lead to a collective culture of stewardship and care among a broader people.
1. Othering here refers to the distance or separation between humans and nature (society/nature binary) instilled through socio-cultural or religious practices, politico-economic or infrastructure systems. 2. For more information: https://gowanussouvenir.com/ 3. For more information on the process and outcomes: http://www.audiblewink.com/portraits_NYC.html (Last accessed April 27, 2017)
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i. P rim i t i v e 1 N a t u re primitive
undomesticated
n a t u re
nonhumans
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sublime abundance
subsistence bounty
fecundity
reciprocal intimate
Diagram 1: Humans as relatively powerless inhabitants subsumed within and living intimately with nature which was the provider as well as the destroyer 1. Primitive: as used by Leo Marx in The Machine in the Garden. I use ‘primitive’ to describe both nature and the native inhabitants. Nature is primitive because it is wild and sublime as opposed to the order and organization characterized by cities. The native inhabitants characterize primitivism due to their absolute dependence on and intimate relation with nature. 2. Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015. 3. ibid. 4. By ‘living in harmony’, I suggest the relationship in which natives lived in conformity with nature, provision and savagery.
Gowanus – as we know it today – is located in Brooklyn in the City of New York. Fifteen hundred years ago, Gowanus was a result of moraine ridges left by receding prehistoric glaciers. The glacial melting resulted into the emergence of a creek. Gowanus was then a saltwater marsh and meadowland surrounding a tidal estuary. The earliest known inhabitants of the saltwater marshland and meadows were the “Native Americans, particularly the Lenni-Lanape group of Algonquin Indians.”1 The Creek was named after the chief of the tribe ‘Gouwane’. The natives shared and lived well off natural resources by seasonal fishing, collecting shellfish, and planting corn in outlying lands; the ‘natural tough grasses’ were good for animal grazing or weaving 2. It could be said that they lived intimately with nature, ebbing and flowing with its bounty. Diagram 1 is an abstraction of this intimate relationship between humans and nature. Humans perceived nature as a bigger reality of which they were a mere part. Nature was unpredictable and abundant at the same time, it was giving but also vicious, it was a force that they embraced and/or had to survive. Map 1 reiterates this relationship through the context of Gowanus Canal in the 1600s. The Lenape tribe thrived by seasonal fishing, collecting shellfish, and planting corn in outlying lands for subsistence, living in harmony with nature.
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unspoilt sublime
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tamed wilderness
return peace
leisure
cultivated nature
artificiality
economic sufficiency
Diagram 2: Abstraction of the pastoral ideal as the middle ground or reconciliation between wild nature and organized society
ii. E u ro pe a n E n c ou n t e r Brooklyn Facts 8 1660s: what was then called ‘Breuckelen’ housed 31 families and was a booming town due to Gowanus 1800: The population of Breuckelen reached 2400, settlements clustered along the Ferry Road and pastoral outer regions 1820s: due to ease and convenience of navigation across the creek and resultant establishment of markets, taverns, and slaughterhouses the population increased to 7000 people and 900 homes were built in order to accommodate the growing population
1. Commons refers to the practice of sharing resources - land, food, water as well as sharing the burden - floods, wilderness. 2. Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015. 3. ibid. 4. ibid. 5. ibid. 6. ibid. 7. ibid. 8. ibid.
Gouwane was ‘discovered’ around 1630s by the Dutch when the first European settlers arrived in Long Island who settled in the area intrigued by its plentiful and pristine character, a contrast to the civilized yet complex European cities. The Dutch settlers purchased lands from the natives, measured, marked, and delineated it giving them ownership over its use. They brought with them the concept of property and land ownership, unknown to the natives who shared land and resources. This notion allowed for a compromise between primitive ways of living (where natives lived contingent to wild nature’s unpredictability) and extremely ordered European societies. There would be reconciliation between wild nature and organized society through appropriation and taming of nature to achieve the ideal balance (see diagram 2). What first started out as informal demarcations using natural markers like trees, stumps, and foot-paths soon were replaced by more physical and deliberate boundaries like fences and other hard edges leading to destruction of the commons 1 and privatization of land, property, and resources. Soon, the European settlers began to regulate land and appropriate the geography for farming, fishing, and trading. Ironically, the natives were taxed for using or living on the same lands that they once sold to European settlers. By 1639, land in Gowanus already had significant agricultural value to early settlers and several farms had been established 2. In order to increase farm yields, the first tidal mill (Freeke’s Mill) was hand-dug around 1661 in order to control the flow of water from the creek to farming lands 3. Additionally, the geography was put to use for navigation. Although inconvenient, if not dangerous, to trudge boats through curvilinear
and shallow creek, it provided several navigation options for the Gowanus farmers to carry their produce to Manhattan markets. The oysters of Gowanus were famous throughout the world (they were big and tasty, besides, the shells were used as fertilizers 4). Besides the transportation of farm produce, there was exchange and flow of material, food, tastes, cultures, people, which in turn shaped the plantations within Gowanus. To further trade and commerce, in March 1704, two important public highways (King’s Highway and Old Gowanus Road) were constructed for transportation of goods and commodities 5. Building more navigable public roads and landing sites for boats became economically necessary as the grain production in Gowanus increased through the decades. Construction of infrastructure systems and promotion of regular ferry service in 1814 eased daily commute and led to increase in population along with markets, taverns, and slaughterhouses 6. The city of Brooklyn was formed in 1834 and it was rapidly becoming a major trade port especially due to the vicinity of New York City. According to Henry Reed Stiles (a physician and historian) “Gowanus was the first steps in the settlement of the city of Brooklyn”7.
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The Europeans introduced within Gowanus new concepts of land ownership, property, and regulation. They appropriated and tamed the topography by delineating land, water, fields, settlements, constructing mills and roads for farming, fishing, trade, commerce, and navigation. The creek became a means to cultivate and transport produce. These delineations between land and water, labor and leisure, nature and society that were nonexistent or mutable before the arrival of the Europeans became clearly defined boundaries with distinct meanings and functions. Nature was tamed and appropriated in order to create an ideal middle ground (like the pastoral ideal - diagram 2) between wild primitive nature of Gowanus and highly organized European societies. The topography was appropriated to fulfill needs beyond subsistence producing a dichotomous relationship between nature and society. These changes brought about shifts in the relationships of natives with nature as well as with European settlers. Map 2 highlights the concepts of property and ownership, undermining the significance of the topography of Gowanus (the use of boundaries in map 2 as compared to map 1). The map becomes a tool to depict the power and authority of European settlers over the land and its native people representing colonization and appropriation. The boundaries are not mere imaginary lines drawn on the geography, rather create real delineations by shifting the perceptions of resources and nature. The layers of the map depict these temporal shifts in the appropriation of nature and subsequent changes in epistemologies. They evince a struggle
and negotiation between the political and topographical landscape. Sometimes, the political boundaries subsumes the topography. For example, the mills constructed upon the creek in order to create ponds or reservoirs to aid farming, changing the course and flow of the creek water. However, there were times when the political landscape was worked around the topography. The case where marshlands only allowed settlements away from the immediate edge of the creek due to the seasonal fluctuations in water levels causing flooding banks. Either way, the maps affected the perceptions of environments among its inhabitants. Although there was a sense of negotiation or reconciliation between the two landscapes (topographical and political), such representations created distance between the land and its inhabitants, introducing the notion of otherness or outside– that nature was something apart from or outside of ‘us’. In other words, the necessity of creating a middle ground between topographical and political landscape itself led to the nature/society binary. This separation of ‘society’ or ‘civilization’ from ‘nature’ shifted the relationship between inhabitants and their environments. The intimate relation between nature and native inhabitants ow became dichotomous where nature was tamed and appropriated to create an ideal vision of the reconciliation of the two forces of civilization and nature.
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t sys
externality
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background
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profits
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r iator
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wasteful lands economic
machine industry flows systems technology infrastructure
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mechanized labor convenience efficiency
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economic growth economic independence
political
waste receptacle
development
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latent/potential value
surplus
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Diagram 3: Increased alienation between nature and society due to mechanical, industrial, political, and economic systems
productivity
iii. Co m me rc i a l Gl or y Brooklyn Facts 3 1830: Many early industries were set up around the Gowanus Canal leading to trade, commerce, and civic pride. Brooklyn became a city in 1834. 1840s: technological advancements like the steam powered grain elevator made Gowanus a major transatlantic trade hub. In addition to wheat produce, warehouses held large quantities of American commodities including tobacco, cotton, sugar. Many of the bulkiest imports into the country exclusively landed at Gowanus Canal ports. The development of Gowanus Canal and cheaper rates (as compared to Manhattan) led to increase in population of Brooklyn. In 1852, more than two 2000 homes were constructed. More than 100,000 Irish and 78,000 Germans immigrated to the ‘New World’. Gowanus promised job opportunities for immigrants due to conducive manufacturing and construction industries leading to population influx in and around Gowanus. In 1872, the population of Brooklyn was more than 40,000 inhabitants raising questions about health and sanitation (trade and commerce not on resulted in exchange of cultures, food, tastes, and people but also diseases).
1. Gowanus Canal History from nyc.gov; http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/harborwater/gowanus_canal _history.shtml 2. Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015. 3. ibid.
Gowanus saw increase in infrastructure systems for trade, economy, and civic pride during the ‘European Encounter’, the topography was not only conducive for cultivation and commerce but also for political and military reasons. Hills and forests were cut to create defense lines; lawless and unruly wilderness to create new homes. The nineteenth century saw the establishment of many early industries along the creek. Landowners in Gowanus had built warehouses and private docks for new commuting and commerce infrastructure. Allowing for transport of people and goods from Brooklyn to New York City and around the world. The use of the creek as an industrial thoroughfare and dumping ground for industry and civilization, led to drainage and sewage problems and navigational problems. For ease and convenience of navigation, to allow for increased maritime traffic, and for improved drainage of the meadows, there was a proposal for a canal to be dug out of the creek in 1838. The construction of the Canal began in 1849 by deepening and widening the Gowanus Creek and creating bulkheads along the waterfront until it was completed in 1869 1. Trade and commerce boom coupled with the advent of infrastructure and technological services such as the grain elevators made gowanus an important transatlantic harbor requiring improved infrastructure for increasing maritime traffic. This also encouraged unprecedented growth in manufacturing facilities and factories along the canal. Due to the lack of regulations and systems for disposing byproducts, waste from these industries and households was discharged directly into the canal without treatment exploiting, polluting,
and straining its capacity. Technological advancements made large scale undertakings, that were impossible before, easier and faster. Engineering marvels were seen as the solution to all systemic problems. Brooklyn city’s first ever large scale sewer system was planned, soon after the construction of the canal to solve problems of stagnation, sewage, and sanitation 2. The Pastoral meadows now considered useless lands rift with drainage problems were quickly being usurped by capitalist scheming and developments. The glory and heyday of gowanus simultaneously caused increased actill-effects on human health, overwhelming the capacities of the creek. Political and economic structures increasingly influenced and subsumed the topography of Gowanus. Infrastructural systems including the construction of the canal was seen as an engineering marvel that eased process of manufacturing, trade and commerce providing economical gains and convenience for sewage discharge. The canal became a raw material for exploitation and a waste receptacle for industries and society rather than an environment to inhabit and appropriate based on needs for subsistence (as in the 1600s). Mechanized labor, driving economic and political systems, and technological advancements, dictated its use and form changing the perception, function, and interaction with inhabitants intensifying the separation between society and nature (see diagram 3).
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1830: Early industries established around the Gowanus Canal: 8 rope factories 4 gin distilleries 2 white lead paint manufacturing 1 iron furnace glass, chain cable, glue manufacturing Increasing factories provided job opportunities leading to population influx within Gowanus and Brooklyn.
Map 3: The implication of New York State Commissioner's grid plan implemented for sale and development of Brooklyn ca. 1811 Source: https://issuu.com/proteusgowanus/docs/gowanus_canal_maps_1639_2004 Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015. Historical Study of the Gowanus Canal by GEI consultants submitted to Keyspan Energy, Inc. March 2003
Brooklyn Facts 3 During the 1870s, banks of the canal were littered with coal, lumber and companies, chemical works, textile mills and factories, schooners, barges, tugs filled the waterways replacing aquatic life (fish, plants, oysters). There was regular discharge of ash and other offensive material into the canal, Brooklyn Eagle reports (1876) documented that sometimes around a 1000 barrels a day. The Health Committee Report of 1877 revealed 9187 pounds of feces and 10,682 gallons of urine was expelled into the canal everyday. The quantity of foul gases were so great, that the fumes were visible on the canal water surface. The water contained waste paper, tin cans, coal dust besides fecal matter and kitchen waste and dangerous levels of E. coli bacteria that cause bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps, vomiting, fever and other serious illness. In 1872, the population of Brooklyn was more than 40,000 inhabitants raising questions about congestion, health and sanitation.
1. Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015. 2. The proposition of park as a strategy to raise property values reflects both the pastoral and industrial ideal of nature. The industrial ideal emphasizes the value aspect of economic gain or profit, whereas the park as a respite or escape from the grime, pollution, and chaos of Gowanus reflects the pastoral ideal. The mutability of the ideal of nature illustrates the multiplicity of epistemologies of nature. 3. Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015.
As the landscape of Gowanus shifted from Pastoral suburbs to increasingly manufacturing, so did its representations. The maps produced through surveys served political purposes overlaying grids subsuming the topography, shifting, shaping, and creating landscapes to suit human desires. Brooklyn became more paved and non-porous delineated by hard physical edges. Besides, infrastructural use, the topography was also altered for military purposes, cutting hills and forests, using foliage, hills as high ground and strategic points for defense. Map 3 illustrates this struggle between the topography and political grid, where ultimately, the political system conquers the topography by creating ‘artificial’ reservoirs, configuring the edges of the creek, creating orthogonal streets with little regard for the underlying topography or its expanded implications. The layers of Map 3 show the extent of re-structuring of the creek, testament to the how private interests change the landscape and narrative of a place. Daniel Richards was a prominent businessmen and one of the most influential forces responsible for (and investing in) cutting down hills and forests, filling up marshes, leveling uneven land, regulating streets, constructing docks, kicking off a series of topographical changes to Brooklyn’s rolling landscape pushing strongly for rapid development by taking advantage of the topography of the creek to increase its value 1. Nature was perceived as a resource to be appropriated and exploited for economic gains, so much so that the proposition of a park was made with an intention to raise property values, depicting how political, economic, and private interests shaped the landscape 2.
The canal came to be seen as an engineering marvel that eased the process of manufacturing and commerce, provided economical gains, and convenience for sewage discharge. This created an increased distance between humans and nature through systems that dictated its use and form, changing the perception, function, and interaction with inhabitants. The canal became a resource for exploitation for human progress and development rather than an environment to inhabit and appropriate based on needs for sustenance (as in the 1600s). This shifted epistemologies of nature changing the relationships of humans with their environments.
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Map 4: Post-industrial charm: Gowanus ca. 2000
i v. P o s t- in d u s tr i a l D e t r i t u s Since the stock market crash during the Great Depression in 1929, development and construction in Gowanus were almost completely at a stand-still due to lack of investments. Among other things, falling demand of brick, lumber and other building material, changes due to progress of technology and innovation (electricity replacing gas or coal power for heating, rail and road transport over waterways), and accumulation of filth of overpopulated civilized neighborhoods led to ruinous effect on the glorious Gowanus 1. The century and a half long industrial history that led to its glory, progress, and development also resulted in extreme contamination and toxicity in the canalraw untreated sewage (overflowing from the sewage drains) floated in the canal, oxygen levels in the canal water plummeted so low that no aquatic life could survive within its waters, water was too polluted for consumption leading to diseases or death, there were sightings of strange creatures called Gowanus Monsters like the three-eyed catfish within its waters.
1. Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015.
During this period of decline and stagnation, the low rents in Brooklyn attracted ‘hip crowd’. Artists were fascinated by the post-industrial landscape of Brooklyn and moved into abandoned factories, they saw beauty in the grime of Gowanus. Unused and neglected factories were retro-fitted into loft-style stores or artist studios. This shifted the culture within Gowanus, what was seen as filth and pollution now became fashionable and charming. Map 4 hyperbolizes the post-industrial landscape of Gowanus Canal. The map is a juxtaposition of industry, trade, commerce, prosperity, stagnation, toxicity, grime, romanticism, and charm. This perception of Gowanus Canal exposes contesting
and overlapping epistemologies of nature - the grime and grit that is seen as a threat to health, sanitation, and civic pride is also romanticized as beauty or charm through nostalgia of a prosperous time, functional place or intrigue and fascination of the unknown (furthering distance between humans and nature due to perceived difference). The collage assembles these differences, overlaps, and multiplicity of epistemologies of nature.
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Mesh
A
n ge
cie
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Assemblages Diagram 4: Ecological understanding of reality, where the concept of nature is abolished to identify the agencies of all matter, equally
Brooklyn Facts 4 1960s: There was some awareness and fund raising for revitalization of the canal, funds were used to plant 400 trees, daycare center, and senior citizen center. However, what they really sought were sewage treatment plants. In 1975, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection took the first step towards massive pollution control program, dredging 20,000 cubic yards of sludge from the canal bed. In 1999, the flushing tunnel was finally activated leading to a rebound of marine life, increased oxygen levels and decrease in foul smells. Instead of dead dogs floating in the water, people could spot pink jelly fish, blue crabs, and schools of fish for a change! The commissioner of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sent a letter to New York regional administration of the Environmental Protection Agency to enlist Gowanus as a Superfund site in 2008.
1. Gowanus Canal History from nyc.gov; http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/harborwater/gowanus_canal _history.shtml 2. A concept made accessible and popular by Rachel Carson in The Silent Spring (1962), Environmentalism, as it relates to the concern for the environment looking beyond human-centered approach, the awareness of the interconnectedness between human actions and environmental impacts. 3. Ecological theories as explored by Timothy Morton (The Ecological Thought) and Jane Bennett (Vibrant Matter). 4. Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015.
In the late twentieth century, residents and government officials raised concerns regarding the effects of the toxicity and contamination in Gowanus Canal on environment and human health. The site (surface water, groundwater, sediment layers) was studied, sampled, and eventually categorized as one of the most polluted sites in America. It was designated as a Superfund site on the National Priority List in 2008-2010. The site is now managed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and undergoing remediation and cleanup processes 1. The remediation processes enmesh a multitude of actors endorsing varied interests, complementary or contentious. On one hand, the remediation plans envision the cleanup of the canal, public access to the new waterfront and amenities, and health benefits. This improves the aquatic habitat promising plant, animal, bird, and aquatic life within the region, reducing chances of waterborne diseases and exposure to toxic elements. And of course, provides a pleasing visual and olfactory setting! On the other hand, this vision is creating real estate speculations driving up property values, which in turn lead to displacement of longtime residents and business owners (due to increased rents and unaffordability) problems like unemployment. To add to the complexity, new rezoning laws are being implemented that aim to promote mix-use facilities allowing residential and commercial uses replacing manufacturing zones. The Canal is currently undergoing the process of remediation involving local, city, state, and federal government agencies, non-profit organizations, experts, private design
firms, and community, but not all the stakeholders at the table possess the power to make decisions. Although there were concerns about the implications of industry on the environment and human health and awareness of the interconnected relationship between humans and nature, this knowledge was either esoteric or superficial. The experience or manifestation of environmentalism 2 was far from its theoretical ideal. Diagram 4 elucidates how ecological theories 3 refrain from the nature/society binary in order to envision reality as an ontologically flat mesh, where all matter (whether living or inanimate, human or otherwise) has agency and humans do not occupy a pivotal role or position within the mesh. Even though there is awareness about the interconnectedness between nature and human civilizations, there is no absolute collapse between the experience of nature and society. Although the boundaries of the nature/society binary have become flexible, ambiguous, or porous, nature is still dominantly perceived as something outside of society. Even though there is scientific research that delves deeper and farther into space and time, these geologic scales are not comprehended through everyday human experiences.
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v. Co n te m p or a r y N a t u re The current remediation plan envisions Gowanus Canal as an amenity to human society, an accessible piece of nature with flourishing habitats for plant, animal, bird, and aquatic species. Even though there are efforts to clean the canal and employ design strategies to acknowledge, address, include, and improve habitats for other species that cohabit the environment with humans, the vision co-opts the idea of a pastoral ‘garden’ that manifests the reconciliation between deteriorating wild nature and extremely chaotic society through technology. Although there is awareness of the reciprocal and interconnected relationship between societies and nature, nature is still perceived as an externality to situate, support, and satisfy society. The knowledge produced through literature and scientific research that promote ecological thinking are often inaccessible or abstruse to laypeople.
1. Human-centered or serving human needs, desires, or causes. It leads me to question whether it is possible for humans to imagine the world ontologically flat, or envision a reality where an ant (or another arbitrary organism or inanimate matter) occupy the same importance or position as us. 2. Publicized rendering of Gowanus Canal Sponge Park plan by dlandstudio, a design firm at the forefront of the park plan as part of the remediation scheme.
The remediation vision of Gowanus Canal addresses multiple ecologies of plant, animal, bird, and aquatic life that cohabit the environment with humans. It employs design strategies to acknowledge, address, include, and improve habitats for other species. However, this vision (and visualization) promotes Gowanus Canal as an amenity to human society, an accessible piece of nature with flourishing habitats for plant, animal, and bird species. Even though there are efforts to clean the canal and make it toxic-free, the vision co-opts the idea of a plentiful and serene pastoral ‘garden’ that manifests the reconciliation between wild nature and extremely order (or chaotic) society. It emphasizes the industrial character of the canal by romanticizing factories, retrofitting them into lofts. The vision also recognizes the relational and ecological way of thinking by
acknowledging the reciprocal relationship between humans and their environments and including nonhuman inhabitants within the plan (even if a little anthropocentric 1 - recognizing aquatic plants and organisms to break down and absorb toxins through phytoremediation). The remediation design plans reveal a palimpsestic view of nature through different historical layers that may be diverse but not distinct. The vision elucidates multiple perceptions and epistemologies of contemporary nature by embracing historically accreted, diverse but overlapping ideals the pastoral garden, industrial charm, and ecological biodiversity. The exploded rendition (Map 5) of the Gowanus Canal Sponge Park Remediation Plan 2 exposes the accretion of layers and multiplicity of epistemologies of nature within the context of Gowanus Canal. These layers may be contesting or complementary, different but overlapping, and perspectival, but are they not absolute or rigidly distinct.
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vi. Ac t io n a ble E n g a g e me n t The Nature Atlas is an exercise to identify, observe, and acknowledge hidden layers of nature through alternative mapping techniques. I explore mapping as an immersive and engaging exercise that goes beyond mere top-down, hierarchical spatial visualization technique to encourage a relational, reflexive, analytical, and sensorial approach to experience the environments we inhabit.
My hope for this atlas is to generate curiosity among people about their environments, to elicit a culture of stewardship and care among a broader people by nurturing their personal attachments and associations with nature, without advocating a single, universal epistemology of nature.
The first section of the Atlas is my journey of engagement to explore Gowanus Canal through alternative mapping techniques. While I see the Atlas as a cartographical and pedagogical intervention, through the next section of the Atlas, I identify similar projects and practices that critically engage with nature through various disciplines and skill-sets including science, research, design, photography, art, and pedagogy. This collection hopes to provide inspiration and invoke readers from various backgrounds, with diverse inclinations and capacities to engage with nature by actively observing, acknowledging, interacting and engaging with their environments. This approach addresses the diversity of the ways in which people understand and experience nature or engage with their immediate environment in their own ways without suggesting one universal or true strategy. This ongoing library will also build a network of people with similar interests providing opportunities and possibilities to share knowledge and collaborate furthering engagement with nature.
Photographs (overleaf) provided by authors or shot by me
I envision this atlas to be a step towards the creation of a larger collective of knowledge that recognizes the hidden, tacit, disregarded layers of nature through an array of creative approaches and methodologies by active and actionable engagement.
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-5 Contaminants PAHs
sulphate
t hal ium
nitrogen
PAHs
iron
silver
nickel uoren e
bis(2-et hyl hexyl)pht halate
mercury
acenapht hene
lead
met hyl - tertbutyl et her
copper
bromofor m
cadmium
btex
barium
contaminat ion factor b eyo nd safe levels
20
18 40
16 35
14 30
12 25
10 20
8 15
6
4 10
2 5
0 0
contaminat ion factor b eyo nd safe levels
Map 6: Gowanus Canal Contamination Source: Gowanus Canal Public Health Assessment Final Release. Prepared by New York State Department of Health. January 2017
50
45
s u rf a c e a ir
s u rf a c e w a te r
s u rf a c e s e d i m e nt
soft s ed i m e nt
na t ive s ed i m e nt
The contamination found in the air at the surface water of the canal is detected with odored fumes due to decaying waste. However, contaminant concentrations in air samples were found consistent to those of samples from a typical urban environment and thus safe for inhalation. Surface water shows visible sheens indicating toxic oils. Contamination in the water affects aquatic life and prohibits fishing for ingestion.
The top 1 to 6 inches of the soft sediment layer is called the surface sediment layer.
The upper layer accumulated over time since the canal was constructed (between 1849 1869). Its depth varies from 1 to 20 feet across the length of the canal. The layer is characterized by dark gray black color with a composition of sand - silt - clay mixture and variable amounts of gravel, organic matter (like leaves and twigs), trash, visible sheens emitting sulfur-like odor.
The bottom layer present before the construction of the canal, the native sediment layer of the Gowanus creek, is characterized by brown, tan, light gray color composed of mixture of sands, silts, clay and peat.
Interpretive ‘Report’ing Cartography, Research Concept: Interpretive ‘Report’ing is a method to translate long, tedious, and abstruse scientific reports into accessible and legible (visual) information to a non academically or scientifically inclined population. Map 6: Gowanus Canal Contamination illustrates the contaminant levels within the various layers of the canal through information extracted from the Public Health Assessment Report 1. This mapping exercise allows for an interpretive and analytical approach to delineate the aim and relevance and eliminate redundancy of quantitative information besides making it concise and easier to understand. Process: The background collage (in map 6) indicates the sediment layers of the canal accompanied with information on its depth, composition, and color. The graph indicates the factor by which the contamination exceeds (positive values) or recedes (negative values) safe levels for human consumption. The first step in the process was to read the report completely in order to understand its aim, method, disclaimers. Next, I made notes about what kind of information was shared and how the data was collected summarizing the information already provided. The next step is crucial, where I reflected on the information before simply visualizing it. The aim of my mapping exercise is not mere visualization of information but to make the information intelligible in a way that was relatable, useful, and revealing. Instead of illustrating the contamination levels provided via a tabular format, 1. Gowanus Canal Public Health Assessment Final Release. Prepared by New York State Department of Health. January 2017
I decided to convert them into factors of safe levels for human contact or consumption. The report studied and sampled sediments from Gowanus Canal and that from Upper New York Bay for reference. I took the reference value (considered safe/nontoxic) as my zero level. Now, in order to really reveal the level of contamination, I divided the study sample values (of Gowanus Canal) with the reference values (Upper New York Bay). Thus, the map does not depict the absolute levels of contamination (that are irrelevant to laypeople without knowing safe levels) but provides a comparative value that can be understood and revealing. Additionally, the map revealed that the level of contamination in the native sediment (the ‘natural’ sediment layer of the creek that preceded the construction of the canal) is way below harmful levels, where as the layers of sediment collected over the years after the construction of the canal show higher levels of toxicity. The chemical compounds that we consider harmful are in fact the result of centuries of industrial and human waste dumped in the canal. Outcome: The reflective mapping exercise not only produces a concise, focused, and relatable outcome, but also helps to elicit inferences and conclusions that may lead to further questions, potential research, recognizing patterns, comparing models and studies which might be difficult to decipher through the rigid or confounding format of scientific reports.
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Oral Ulcers Abdominal Pains Diarrhea
Skin acne and rashes Liver, stomach, thyroid gland damage Memory and learning disabilities Anemia Impaired reproduction Liver and biliary tract cancer
Blood, liver, kidney damage
PAHs
Risk of Cancer
inh
Chromium
ala
tion
PCBs
in i sk es ing c n ski
ge
n
on
Arsenic
ing
ing
Lung, skin, bladder cancer Nerve and liver damage
ti
on
tac
co
sti
nta
on ct
t
estion
estion
High blood pressure
Vascular system damage Learning deficiencies
Pathogens Hepatitis A Eyes, ears, nose, organ infections
Map 7: Gowanus Canal Dynamics Source: Gowanus Canal Public Health Assessment Final Release. Prepared by New York State Department of Health. January 2017
Relational ‘Report’ing Cartography, Research, Theory Concept: Relational ‘Report’ing is a step beyond Interpretive ‘Report’ing. As the name suggests, this method allows to map the relations between things, facts, implications, causes in order to understand the connections within a situation or context under consideration. Map 7: Gowanus Canal Dynamics entangles multiple actors, issues, and processes through interconnected relations. This exercise expands beyond a confined situation or issue to examine its implications or causes (relationally) through a wider cone of vision, in a broader context.
1. Gowanus Canal Public Health Assessment Final Release. Prepared by New York State Department of Health. January 2017 2. A concept made accessible and popular by Rachel Carson in The Silent Spring (1962), Environmentalism, as it relates to the concern for the environment looking beyond human-centered approach, the awareness of the interconnectedness between human actions and environmental impacts. 3. Ecological theories as explored by Timothy Morton (The Ecological Thought) and Jane Bennett (Vibrant Matter). 4. Implosion-Explosion explored by Neil Brenner as a method to map the topic of research not merely in itself but as it relates to a broader, planetary context. The constant shift in the frame of reference from empirical to planetary scales results in a more comprehensive and holistic (relatively) method of examination.
acknowledge the world through relations at micro, global, or even planetary scales. Relational mapping employs implosion-explosion 4 method to elicit multi-scalar causes and effects of the topic of study (contamination) through a particular empirical context (Gowanus Canal) relating to broader or theoretical concepts of planetary scales.
Process: Map 7 assembles the actors, issues, and processes within a workable canvas in order to understand how they are related without concluding into a linear causal relationship. I commence by gathering information from the Public Health Assessment Report 1 with an agenda in mind- Why is the contamination report relevant? I begin with the purpose of unraveling contamination through its relations with causes, exposure pathways, and effects on human health. After identifying what contaminants were found in the canal, the next steps involved further research about where each of the contaminants are released relating to the (industrial) history of the Canal, the health impacts on humans, and possible ways in which humans can come in contact with or consume the contaminants. The next steps were to draw connections between contamination, industries, and health implications. Outcome: The shift in conceptions of nature brought by environmentalism2 and ecological thinking 3, led to investigation of nature through broader frameworks, beyond visible or perceptible systems, to transcend nature/society dichotomy,
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Exploring Invisibility through Verge 2017 A workshop on economy/ecology through research, pedagogy, and multi-disciplinary collaboration
Exploring Invisibility through Verge 2017 Pedagogy, Research, Multi-disciplinary Collaboration Ruchika Lodha is an architect, designer, urbanist interested in studying human-nature relationships within urban contexts through multi-scalar and alternative mapping methodologies. Francisco Miranda is an urbanist lawyer conducting research on the policies of extractive economies and its implications of rural-urban communities. They were graduate students at Parsons School of Design, New York pursuing MA Theories of Urban Practice at the time when the workshop was conducted in February 2017
Photographs (overleaf) shot by me and my peer (Francisco Miranda) during the Verge 2017 event organized by graduate students of The New School
Concept: Verge 2017, an event organized by students of The New School provided a platform to explore various disciplines through the theme ‘invisibility’. I collaborated with my peer to organize a workshop that explored invisibility through the intersection of extractive economies and environments. The workshop aimed to engage students and scholars from various backgrounds in an open-ended collaborative discussion around invisible actors, systems, and structures within the framework of extractive economies and environments. Process: The workshop was a two-day event where our goal was to head an exploratory discussion regarding invisibilities around extractive economies and the environments from which they extract. Since the participant selection was not something that we could control, we curated the workshop for participants from a broad spectrum of disciplines. We began by introducing broad concepts like economies, nature, resources, exclusion, invisibility. The first exercise involved a brainstorming session where participants discussed what these terms meant for them, revealing multiplicity of perceptions and connotations some contesting, some complementary, some unusual. This is where the diversity of the group played a really important role. Step 2 involved identifying major actors and stakeholders within two the case-studies that we presented to them (one of which was my research case of Gowanus Canal). The participants drew connections between actors within the scenarios using different styles and intensities of lines to identify weak, strong, potential, missing, redundant connections. This step helped identify invisible, ignored, powerful,
suppressed actors and relations between actors and connect situated issues with broader concepts explored. The next step was to outline ideal scenarios that identified and gave agency to invisible actors and weak connections. The final steps were to define potential outcomes for the envisioned scenarios and devise strategies (through design, policy, activism, pedagogy, community participation) to achieve the scenario. Another interesting exercise that we conducted was ‘take a stand’ where we drew a line on the floor and marked either side with a ‘strongly agree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ and the line became a middle ground or indecisive space. We asked questions regarding their epistemology of nature? Is city nature? Do we encounter nature through our everyday practices? Is it possible to recognize nonhuman nature to have the same level of agency? Is it possible to abolish the nature/society binary? Among exceptionally varied responses, the most interesting one, for me personally, was the thought that even though there may be recognition of nonhuman nature, it would still be seen through their present or future value to humans. Outcome: The open-ended exploratory workshop brought many intersections and contradictions to light. It was illuminating for me as a facilitator and co-participant to collaborate with students and scholars from diverse disciplines and work through the differences and overlaps in epistemologies of nature and ideas to devise strategies to address invisible actors within our ecosystems.
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Invasive Pigments and Next Epoch Seed Library ongoing An art and research driven exploration into urban nature
Invasive Pigments and The Next Epoch Seed Library ongoing Socially Engaged Art, Exploration, Recreation, Theory, Research, Pedagogy Ellie Irons is an inter-disciplinary artist from Northern California and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York since the past ten years. She has a background in environmental science and painting and drawing. She also teaches media foundations, painting and drawing at museums and elementary schools. http://ellieirons.com/
Concept: Ellie’s practice explore human-nature relationships through interactive, exploratory, recreational, and fieldwork based methods. The Invasive Pigments project focuses on what she calls ‘spontaneous urban plants’ or invasive weed species that grow within densely populated and developed urban landscapes in order to make pigments to produce paintings, diagrams, or field guides. Whereas, the Next Epoch Seed Library is an archive and seed exchange program. Process: Ellie began her journey into nature when she was about 7 years old. She saw her first food-web diagram and was immediately fascinated by the biology of plants and animals and she wanted to be able to paint like that. Some of her first inspirations for paintings were field guides rather than fine art paintings. She kept practicing through her undergraduate where she studied studio art and environmental science. She was painting a series of post-apocalyptic environments of human-nature collisions inspired by vast natural landscapes in California. It wasn‘t until she moved to New York City from a ‘rural’ background in Northern California that she started to question the nature/society binary that has been passed on generationally as she struggled to find content inspirations for her drawings.
Photographs (overleaf) provided by Ellie Irons documenting her practices: Invasive Pigments and the Next Epoch Seed Library
Her passion towards nature and painting intersected through what she calls ‘urban spontaneous plants’ or invasive weed species and ‘pigments’. That was the beginning of the Invasive Pigments project. She forages for plants to document names and characteristics (including color, size, habitat etc.) and also collects flowers, picks fruits with vibrant colors to make
pigments. She mashes the petals, fruits and strains them using a sieve, then mixes them with a natural adhesive in order to get the right consistency. She then uses the pigments to make her art. The Next Epoch Seed Library began as a seed exchange program with her fellow artist. It has now grown to become an archive of collected seeds of weed species and produced new literature on the characteristics, values and uses that does not exist because the species are not considered valuable. Outcome: Through both these projects, Ellie encourages participants to explore and engage sensorially with their environments. The exercises serve dual purpose of philosophical and research based examination of epistemologies of nature and an empirical creative, exploratory and recreational mode of engagement with environments through fieldwork. Although these exercises do not need expertise, Ellie has developed field guides (some made by using her invasive pigments) to document information about weed species and to inspire and guide people with the process of either making their own pigments, collecting seeds for exchange, or wandering around the environments to encounter urban nature. Through her passion in painting and exploring nature, both these practices, question the dominant epistemology of nature/society binary and inspire people to actively engage and interact with, reflect on their environments. Besides, her work recognizes and highlights the ubiquitous but invisible, undervalued, ignored, and overlooked ecologies within our environments.
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Project for Calendar Studies 2006 - 2008 A temporal study of tidal events through science, art, and installation
Project for Calendar Studies 2006-2008 Science, Art, Installation David Eustace is a Canadian artist who explores, through painting and installations, natural phenomena such as celestial movements and temporal changes by employing interactive processes to document shifts in environmental elements. http://www.dfeustace.com/about/
Concept: Project for Calendar Studies was an art installation by David Eustace that explored tidal events by tracking changes through layers of accretion and dissolution within Gowanus Canal. The aim was to record the temporal and sectional layers of Canal water onto a canvas to compare, collate, juxtapose the experience of passage of time with literature on the concept of time. Process: In order to document the abstract and empirical tidal notions, David decided to use a large canvas to record the rise and fall of tidal movements overlaid with scientific markings denoting the passage of time. First, he dropped a string into the water to gauge the depth of the canal. He then, bought a commensurate length of 10 ounce cotton canvas and spray-painted, drew, stenciled scientific notations, symbols, and signs marking the passage of time before dropping it into the canal. He fixed the canvas in place by clamping it to the edge of the canal wall. He conducted several iterations, one where he glued raw iron filings (without curing, to see the effect of corrosion due to contact with water) onto the canvas before descending it into the water, one without any prior markings and so on.
Photographs (overleaf) provided by David Eustace documenting his process from June through September.
David left the canvas in the water from anywhere between 2 weeks to several months. The findings varied depending on the materials and seasons. He noticed that the canvas accumulated layers within 2-3 weeks during the summer, due to intensified chemical processes owing to the heat. While it would take months for the canvas to collect information during winter months due to lower metabolic rates of organisms in the cold water, slowing chemical processes.
Also, the canvas revealed tensions between the tangible (markings accumulated on the canvas) and abstract (equations and markings drawn on canvas) documentation on time. In other words, the scientific equations and markings drawn on the canvas anticipating the levels of tides did not coincide with the markings made by the actual tidal flows within Gowanus Canal. This experiment produced an empirical exogenous knowledge of time within Gowanus Canal. Outcome: This project was an exercise to bridge the gap between abstract and experiential knowledge about the passage of time. I would call the canvas as a map that quantifies temporality of Gowanus Canal at a human scale through an interactive and open-ended installation. David’s personal interest in tracking and recording movement over time was manifested through an exercise that mapped nature through an active engagement with the environment. The map elucidated a new approach to experience and record time within and through our environment.
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Portraits of NYC 2012 An experiment in art and science to expose relationships between life and landscapes
Portraits of NYC 2012 Art, Science, Theory, Research, Fieldwork Jenifer Wightman is a research specialist at Cornell University working on greenhouse gas inventories of agricultural and alternative energy systems. As an artist, she is curious about ecological phenomena and began making science-based art in 2002. Through her work, she creates experiences for viewers to observe and reflect on biophysical transitions as finite materials cycle between a figure and its field, through cycles of destruction and creation. http://www.audiblewink.com/portfolio.html
1. In Robert Smithson's 1973 Artforum article Frederick Law Olmsted and the Dialectical Landscape, he suggested that the art of remediating could be termed "mud extraction sculpture" where "a consciousness of mud and the realms of sedimentation is necessary in order to understand the landscape as it exists." 2. Superfund is a term given to sites that are extremely polluted and toxic for inhabitation, commonly resulting from industrial history. These sites are supervised through federal and local governments to undergo remediation. 3. Vitality as explored by Jane Bennett in Vibrant Matter where all matter, whether alive or inanimate, human or nonhuman is said to have inherent tendencies and agencies to actively cause change. Photographs (overleaf) and information provided by Jenifer Wightman
Concept: Portraits of NYC is a survey of the microbiology inhabiting the waterways of New York City. Jenifer re-interprets Rothko within the city through her passion for art and living landscapes. Process: Inspired by Robert Smithson 1, Jenifer explores extraction as a process of selection (positive, desired action) and rejection (negative, discarding action). Furthermore, she says that ‘the wastings from production, often recognized for having adverse impacts on the ecosystem, creates new landscapes’, or Superfund 2 sites as known in the United States. Her fascination for and curiosity about the living ecosystems within New York City’s three Superfund sites resulted in the Portraits of NYC project. She built 5 steel and glass frames to hold mud:water samples that she would collect from polluted waterways. Each frame was filled with the mud collected from one of the following sites: Hudson River (Polychlorinated biphenyls), Gowanus Canal (mire of industrial wastes), Deadhorse Bay (exposed landfill), East River (raw sewage), Newtown Creek (oil spill) and kept where they could receive sunlight. Though difficult to see individually, microbes existing within mud photosynthesize pigments. The pigmented bacteria compose a landscape. As the bacteria express themselves (i.e. live: consume, reproduce, deplete resources, release wastes), they exhaust their habitat and create an altered landscape suitable to a successor. The appearance/disappearance of color indicates both procurement and loss of finite material resources as defined by the physical and chemical changes and processes within mud:water samples. Thus, transition of color indicates
ecological succession of micro-fauna colonizing New York City. Outcome: As evidenced by the vibrant and literal portraits (see overleaf for pictures of the process) made from the mud of Superfund sites, New York City “wastescapes” still afford simple, highly adaptable, single-cell organisms a viable landscape to craft a unique, colorful, and synthetic existence. However, these human-transformed habitats are not conducive for all life but the industry of microbial metabolism thrives. Jenifer’s portraits are a map that indicate the intimate, malleable, and reciprocal relationship between life and landscapes. It is a microcosm of sorts that depicts the effects of laws of conservation of mass on resources of finite landscapes. Jenifer identifies the invisible (if not inanimate) layers of the environment and illuminates its vitality 3 by exposing the biological transformations within mud:water composition. This active ‘mapping’ exercise helps reflect on the notions of life and landscapes, to analyze our epistemologies and boundaries of nature.
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Solar Cells Skill Share 2017 An ongoing research and skill-sharing project about DIY solar cells
Solar Cell Skill Share 2017 Scientific Research, Academia, Citizen-Science, Design, Innovation Ana Remis, Sasha Hodson, Zef Egan are students at The New School, New York exploring and experimenting with the intersections between ecology, energy, research, design, and innovation.
Photographs (overleaf) shot by me and a fellow participant (Molly Johnson) during the Solar Cell Skill Share workshop
Concept: The Solar Cell Skill Share workshop aimed to introduce DIY solar cell fabrication to a broad spectrum of participants. Although in its nascent stages, the research project aims to make solar cells fabrication accessible (and interesting) to people from diverse disciplines, backgrounds, and professions. Process: The Solar Cell Skill Share workshop began with an introductory presentation delineating the aim and hypothesis for the research. The solar cell kit contains two transparent conductive glass plates (as electrodes), scotch tape, pipette, graphite pencil, hot plate and conducting material. The solar cell works on the principle of conduction through sunlight on natural dyes (from flowers, plants, and fruits). The pictures overleaf describe the process of making a solar cell. Even though the readings were small (or insignificant to actually be functional), we were able to record conduction through multimeter even with diffused light. The workshop identified its shortcoming and research focused on ways to produce modular solar cell but on a bigger and functional scale. The facilitators showed videos of other examples of dye sensitized applications through architecture, furniture design, household appliances, where dyed panels (as building facades, table tops, kitchen vessels) would absorb sunlight and produce energy through conduction to power small objects like phones, table lights, portable speakers. The workshop also identified how much energy was spent in order to arrange for the workshop and the materials required as compared to the massive amounts of energy consumed to manufacture material for contemporary zero-carbon design strategies.
Outcome: Besides learning about how natural dye and sunlight could be used to fabricate energy through conduction, its wide range of possibilities for applications was the main take-away from the workshop. The conversations ranged from dye-sensitized fabric to charge phones in parks to modular DIY solar cells that can be made at home. The workshop combines research, citizen participation, collaboration, design and innovation in order to actively and consciously think about our impact on the environments and devise innovative strategies to mediate contemporary energy crisis through small scale strategies. They argue about the pros and cons of large scale solar panels (expensive, requires expertize, sophisticated technology, specific weather conditions, large investments) versus small scale modular solar cells (inexpensive, requires minimum supervision or expertise, expansive applications, portable). Such research projects open-up topics like ecology, energy, resources to citizens and make technology accessible, encouraging and allowing citizens to participate in addressing these challenges rather than being submissive to hierarchical systems.
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CO NCLUS IO N Nature is a realm with many meanings and manifestations. The ambiguous genealogies debunk a universal theory to understand (epistemology) or know (ontology) nature. My interest lies in exploring the multiplicities of epistemologies of nature and the shifting relationships of humans within nature in order to elicit new ways to engage with nature within situated environments. Contemporary concepts of nature may advocate ecological thinking1, but that knowledge is esoteric or abstract and nature is, even today, predominantly understood through nature/society binaries. Instead of challenging fundamental ways in which we understand nature, I choose to work within the variable space in order to (incrementally) shift the narratives of nature. I develop the Nature Atlas which employs alternative mapping techniques in order to excavate the hidden, tacit, or disregarded layers of nature within Gowanus Canal. This collection of ‘maps’ is both a research method and a presentation technique that translates abstract and esoteric knowledge to understand and engage nature within empirical context in two ways: one, by re-telling the story of Gowanus with the focus on human-nature relationships, and two, by addressing the diversity of epistemologies of nature through an assembly of praxis projects in order to create a collective knowledge of and engagement with nature. The purpose of the atlas is to invoke diverse ways of perceiving, understanding, and engaging nature by actively and consciously interacting with our environments through various practices across disciplines, inclinations, expertise, and capacities.
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This compendium of a diverse range of possibilities to engage with nature is complemented with a field diary that motivates curiosity and inclination into actionable engagement through creative fieldwork. I create Know Your Neighborhood Wildflowers: a field diary of Gowanus Canal as a (prototype) invitation for people to walk around their neighborhoods and identify wildflowers - their characteristics (color, height, leaf-shape), habitats (fences, cracks within concrete, vacant lots), ecologies (birds, insects, animals attracted to or around the plant). The field diary in not only a field guide that provides information but also prompts curiosity about the wildflowers or invasive species that grow within/around Gowanus Canal. It becomes a personal field diary to note down experiences, ideas, questions, sketches through fieldwork. I envision the Nature Atlas and the prototype Field Diary as a step towards the creation of a broader collective of knowledge and diverse means to consciously and actively recognize, interact with and engage nature through sensorial experiences, reflection and speculation in order to understand how we intervene with/in the Anthropocene.
1. Ecological thought as explored by Timothy Morton and Jane Bennett where reality is imagined as a mesh that recognizes all matter at the same ontological importance, where humans do not occupy a hierarchical position.
BI BL IOGRAP H Y Books Alexiou, Joseph. Gowanus: Brooklyn's curious canal. New York: New York University Press, 2015. Bennett, Jane. Vibrant matter: a political ecology of things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. Carson, Rachel. Silent spring. London: Penguin Books, in association with Hamish Hamilton, 2015. Marx, Leo. The Machine in the garden: technology and the pastoral ideal in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Morton, Timothy. The ecological thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012. Schmidt, Alfred. The concept of nature in Marx. London: Verso, 2014.
Articles and Reports Drake, Susannah C. and Kim, Yong. Design Approaches to Ecological Restoration: Gowanus Canal Sponge Park, 2011 Gowanus Canal Public Health Assessment Final Release. Prepared by New York State Department of Health. January 2017 Plan of the Town of Brooklyn and part of Long Island; surveyed in the Years 1766 and 1767
Online dlandstudio projects; http://www.dlandstudio.com/projects_gowanus.html Eustace, David. http://www.dfeustace.com/ Gowanus Canal History from nyc.gov; http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/harborwater/gowanus_canal_history.shtml Gowanus Canal Maps https://issuu.com/proteusgowanus/docs/gowanus_canal_maps_1639_2004 Gowanus Souvenir Shop. https://gowanussouvenir.com/ Historical Study of the Gowanus Canal by GEI consultants submitted to Keyspan Energy, Inc. March 2003 US Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Sediment Contamination Treatment Plan www.EPA.gov/region2/superfund/npl/gowanus/ Wightman, Jenifer. Portraits of NYC. http://www.audiblewink.com/
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Although it has not been deemed as an official division of geologic time, the current age is being considered as the Anthropocene (by some scientists, chemists, environmentalists, and policy makers thus, informally popularizing it) - an epoch where humans have an unprecedented impact on the geology and biosphere of the Earth. The recent acknowledgment and awareness of the anthropogenic nature of contemporary policies and practices have provoked theories that speculate an imminent apocalypse of human civilization and thus an urgent need for humans to live responsibly and sustainably. At a moment like this, it is important to understand, analyze, and evaluate the impacts of humans as individuals and as a species on the planet. Although it may not be intuitive or conscious, the process begins by actively assessing individual and collective engagement with/in their environments and eventually, on a broader or planetary scale, with/in nature. I develop the Nature Atlas as an alternative mapping exercise in order to excavate the hidden, tacit, or disregarded layers of nature within Gowanus Canal. The Atlas is a compendium of interpretive and speculative maps, diagrams, illustrations, stories, and praxis projects visualizing quantitative, qualitative, archival, scientific, empirical, and anecdotal research. I employ mapping as a relational, reflexive, analytical, sensorial, and tactile exercise rather than mere spatial visualization technique. I envision the Nature Atlas as a step towards the creation of a broader collective of knowledge that yields diverse ways to actively and consciously recognize, interact with and engage nature through sensorial experiences, reflection and speculation in order to understand how we (may) intervene with/in the Anthropocene.
Ruchika Lodha is a designer, urbanist, and architect who earned her bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Mumbai, India where she researched one of the most backward villages and designed a skill center for artisans to stimulate dwindling local art, craftsmanship, and culture and create a platform for local communities to interact and exchange with a broader, global community. Since, she has worked with design firms at various scales including architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture. She graduated from the MA Theories of Urban Practice at Parsons School of Design, New York in 2017. Her current research focuses on developing alternative nature mapping techniques to facilitate active, conscious, and unconventional methods to experience, interact and engage with urban environments.
Map outlining the re-configurations of Gowanus Creek since mid-nineteenth century