2 minute read
PLAYGROUND GAMES– NETWORKING FOR A MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS TUCSON
JUDGES GREGG GARFIN FROM IE; JAVIER DURAN, DIRECTOR OF CCI; AND ROBERTO BEDOYA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TUCSON PIMA ARTS COUNCIL. PHOTO CREDIT: JOHN NOFS.
Networking for a More Environmentally Conscious Tucson
Advertisement
Call it matchmaking, with a social and environmental cause. Promising an evening of fun, funk, and fruitful partnerships, IE and the UA’s Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry (CCI) divided more than a dozen UA faculty members into four groups to vie for two $1,000 grants. Gathered on the rooftop of the Playground Bar and Lounge in Tucson for a playful mix of game show and speed-networking, each group had 45 minutes to conceive a socially and environmentally conscious project and five minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of judges. Faculty members who are part of the UA’s Art and Environment Network, a loose interdisciplinary collaborative convened by IE, had mentioned they wanted more opportunities to learn about each others’ work and to collaborate, said Gregg Garfin.“What better way than through a playful event?” Garfin said.
CCI Director Javier Duran and Roberto Bedoya, executive director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council, also judged the pitches from the gold, red, green, and silver teams. The 16 faculty participants hailed from social sciences, humanities, physical sciences, architecture, and the arts. Eight different departments were represented in the two winning groups, red and gold. “Each discipline contributed different perspectives on environmental knowledge,” Garfin said. “Collectively, through interdisciplinary collaboration, we can find new ways of knowing and communicating about our environment, our science, and important issues about the stewardship of our planet.” The red team created STEMM (Sustainable Transportation Environmental Memory Module), a compact tree planter that doubles as a module that provides public education on local climate change to people waiting at the public Sun Tran stops in Tucson. The team combined community education, urban landscape, and sustainability into their project to address climate change, said Margaret Evans, assistant research professor at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. The team also included Leila Hudson, associate professor of Middle Eastern and North African Studies; Katherine Morrissey, associate professor of history; and Linda Samuels, project director for the Sustainable City Project. “I was really struck by the synergies of the teams,” Evans said. “I don’t think I would have met these people, ever. The event was effective in getting us to know each other.”
The gold group’s concept, The Heat is On! Adventures in Community Mapping, will create a map that blends science and art to increase the community’s understanding of where heat island hotspots—areas that are warmer than surrounding rural areas—are located in Tucson. The masterminds behind the idea were Ben Champion, director of the UA Office of Sustainability, Eyal Oren, assistant professor of epidemiology; Joellen Russell, an 1885 Society Distinguished Scholar and associate professor of geosciences and planetary science; and Karen Zimmermann, professor at the School of Art.
