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Final Notes

All projects have research, proposals, project documentation, and summaries below including three projects which I reworked and pushed further from their original state. 

The photograph above was taking during the class scavenger hunt.

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Reworked Project 2

To complete our project Natalie and I contacted several organizations about donating the beehive we constructed of their use. We also sent photos and explained that we had not yet constructed a closing piece to the beehive and asked what they would prefer if they wanted the beehive!

Below is the list of the directors/organizations we have contacted about the beehive donation.

1. GMU Honey Bee Initiative

-German Perilla : Director

2. DC Beekeepers Alliance

-dcbees@dcbeekeepers.org

3. Cunnigham Park Elementary School

-Kathy Coles: Science Teacher

(Natalie’s friend’s mom is a teacher at a local elementary school and we asked if she could use the hive to teach her students about bees and ecosystem services.)

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Reworked Project 4

Since the sculpture shop was inaccessible, I decided to continue the same theme as the original bench by drawing rough sketches and blueprints for other ‘grow’ benches. These are pieces which can be a part of the same installation. Each blueprint has its own theme including bees, bugs, small critters, fish, and plants. By continuing to create new designs with different types of nature, the human interaction between man’s nature and nature is further explored while maintaining a similar structure for a larger experiment.

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Reworked Project 1

I decided to bring the “local ground beef label” I designed into the real world. I figured it would be easy, but of course the ground beef was being restocked and looked at by customers. Eventually I found an opening and placed it in plain site. This is a photograph of that event.

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Project Summary

For this project I bought local sweet potatoes, wild onions, and strawberries.

This project was my favorite project beyond the benefits of eating. This project has real world application. Since the benefits of buying local had been identified in a classroom setting, the statistics and factual information was easily transferred into the real world. This is important because so often vital information is lost in classrooms because it is not used outside of the class. Although I did not have an opportunity to have conversations with local farmers, the small selection of local foods that I found struck a chord. These were my neighbors have worked for this, not a large corporation of machines and production lines. It made me appreciate it more. it also made consider what I normally eat. The limited selection only made the purchases and meal more special. Seeing the ways people creatively made their dishes was both uplifting and fun.

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Share Proposal

For this project I want to network with local farmers to find out more about where this food comes from and how they maintain a flow of customers. I am open to any types of food, but I am mostly interested in finding things that be put on the grill since I already a project on ground beef. I want to find food that can be used as both an entre but also seasoning for during the meal.

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Research: Share

Johnathan Schifferes – Measuring Your Social Impact

     Why are the benefits of locally grown food being ignored? The benefits in the community are there in both the local and the commercial field. Growing food locally rises questions which might otherwise be uninvestigated: including how food is grown and what it contains. It also creates a home-team environment, rooting for the underdog and all that jazz. This creates one unified team that is willing to work together to fulfill one local vision, which then can only spread into larger opportunities including people outside of the central grow local business.

    It becomes beneficial to more people and therefore areas. These areas’ officials will protect these things and help build them finically and spatially. So how does the liveliness of grow local benefits stay electric? Attraction. Food is everywhere and there is always a decision to be made. We live in a landscape of signs which is makes independent and more natural business a minor competitor in this super competitive landscape; therefore, information needs not only be recorded and spread but needs to be energizing the town. The product and the space is already

    Beyond most things that is sold at fast food and even corporate super markets, there should be no problem beating them. Unfortunately, many people are driven by business, concerned with failure and success. Local markets need only to find their own unique way to show that they are great and should not only be given an opportunity but be provided with sustainability.

 Laura Parker  - Taste of Place

     Each strawberry tastes differently, even if its subtle. A strawberry from a different place might even taste more differently. So conceptually we are talking about a location tasting differently. So the taste of place project is a great idea… conceptually. But the artist is right about the attention to taste and the differences that our sense of taste can pick up. This project gets us thinking a little bit more about the normal foods we consume and how location and production differences effect what we are consuming into our body. Every decision a farmer makes will not only affect the taste but the health benefits or concerns that come with their process.

 Viviane Le Courtois – Tea Time

    What is a break? How often we confuse the breaks with living. Tea is one of those breaks which I challenge to be more. And so does this artist. Many times over again in art we decide to look at something somewhat common and spend more time with it in order to feel it or understand it more. Her set up of natural tea ingredients in a place of is combination of this feeling and understanding. We see artist’s physical interpretation of tea while enjoying what it actually is. This creates a lively environment which brings action and contemplation into a full circle.

 Viviane Le Courtois –  Grazing

    The social experience created by the artist raises many questions to the way we normally share culinary social interactions. This experience not only slows down the understanding of what we are putting into our own bodies on a normal basis, but also the food which our food is eating. It is experimental, but the practice is somewhat radical. To reverse normality’s in consumption, to remove the dominance over life and instead to live with its growth only entwining our decisions with its natural path. This installation becomes a very real way of experiencing this crisscross existence in a way that can change the core of what we already believe.

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Project Summary: Grow

     The hypothesis that human nature would collide during the designing stages and craftsmanship is true, especially when working on a project that emphasis the fusion of nature. The final project became a strong piece of a larger project. Its communal and enjoyable. It interesting to think that while you are resting on the bench, you are sharing a space with an animal’s home. So much of human interaction is between human life and the observation of animals. This projects is real opportunity to bring the two together in a somewhat personal way. I’m curious to not only see reactions from human when birds land quite near to the bench, but the reaction of animals. How long will it take for both the animal and the human to be comfortable around each other?  The project includes a nesting shelf made for a robin but that does not take. This project becomes a sort of investigation of tepidness of animals, especially bird species. Will any animals naturally be accustomed to building nests around humans or will they have to adapt. I think the location of the bench is going to have the strongest impact. If it is in a highly trafficking area, there is a possibility the birds will never use it, but if it is placed in the correct location which still includes human traffic then the experiment will be stronger and both animal and man can grow a bit closer together.

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Project Proposal

Growth is a special characteristic for all life as it is natural path for expanding being and breaking limitations. For this project we will be constructing a sculpture with primary focuses on usability and conceptual thought. How do we react with nature, and how does nature react with us. So we will be making a bench that surrounded by nesting areas for birds and other woodland creatures. It is a group collaboration project which presents an opportunity for me to work with other people in both the design and construction. This is important because it too is about nature reacting with each other, just this time it is limited to human nature. We will be collecting wood from around the area as well as chopping down some dead bamboo near campus. We will be placing the object somewhere for the general public to observe as well as participate in. By the end the project will have different parts and become a part of a larger installation.

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Grow Research

Text

    The idea of guerilla gardening is a unique combination of vandalism and productive activism. The spaces we occupy as humans are dictated by ownership and jurisdiction, but there are vacancies, both rural and not. These vacancies are either overlooked, too expensive to fix, or are surrounded by bad adjacent areas. It is both a waste of space and a bad connection between good areas. Flowers are both beneficial and beautiful, solving the problem of waste and visual eyesores. Since the vacancies are filled with the physical human action of throwing seeds into the environments, the conversation creates an argument between human placement and natural means of nature growth. Nature is meant to grow and it does. By supporting the idea of natural growth in places where it elsewhere would find a way to survive in a nonurban environment instead of opposing the placement of non-natural structures. This is a power of nature, it inherently has the right to be a part of life and be protected which includes its growth. Beyond that, the placement of nature and its productions is good for places which normally wouldn’t see it. Big cities get caught up in faster lives with more to do; therefore, there decisions are quicker and less contemplated on issues such as environmental impact. By growing gardens in these types of areas people get to slow down and hopefully make better decisions, including helping with movements that are already in motion both in and outside their city.

  Liz Christy – Community Garden 

    This project was important in beginning activists for urban reform. With success in a location like New York it opened the door for similar projects. It did not just give the opportunity for other farmers to spread their labor in urban areas, but it also allowed the community to contribute and interact with them which they might have not done. It spreads beyond the human community though. It also gives opportunity for animal and bug life. Spreading is the nature of life. And like Christy’s use of seed bombs, things can be spread and reached in places which life otherwise would have a hard time trying to settle into.

 Shelly Sacks 

    The aesthetic of ‘enlivened being’ is interesting. It is the transformation of material manipulated by human process into a non-material ideation of the material manipulating itself and actually becoming the process. This makes the human participation less action-based and channeled into conceptual ideas including responsibility to protect basic natures of life including the anticipation of the future. So the relationship between man and the very core of life becomes transmitted into social reform and interaction. By understanding the needs of other things of life, man understands their responsibilities including the necessity to help another and allow for a better future through spiritual and creative processes.

 Susanne Cockrell and Ted Pruves 

    Their distribution process which uses a steel pushcart is a refreshing take on an old essential. It reminds me of times before the commercial grocery stores. Its communal. It triggers the very essence of living with another on a humanistic level. Which is based on eating regularly and healthy to maintain a healthy life. Some of the food they harvested was given away for free, something you would never find at a commercial grocery store because for whatever reason they would rather throw away their excess food. The local group collectives on the project also created neighborhood resource maps which is essential for developing the idea of local healthy living which mimics the same benefits of the pushcart. Although the there is knowledge of local resources in most areas, it is very limited and overlooked because of the distribution of the information and it lacks emphasis on benefits which would statistically destroy the benefits of commercial shopping.

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Project Summary

    The results of this project are heavily reliant enjoying the moment and interacting with the environment which is naturally flowing. As we picked our materials, we experienced their nature and almost mimicked their growth on the way, coming from the ground up to the walls edge. It was natural reactions that lead us to the final composition rather than preconceived design or overthinking. By the end the colors and placement create movement in the piece and mimicked life with just enough of a human touch. Two artist working on the same piece became another reaction sequence, she would place something and then I would react to what she had just done. In the end the piece seems to blast off, like a delicate flower would in the wind. Also it took control over this manmade environment which it lived. It conquers a giant concrete wall and soars above littered cigarette butts. This is important because it shows that nature still shows priority and more importantly can be understood. Although complicated nature is the very simple structure of what life really is. The biology collides with our world’s physics and teaches us a lot about life in general. After reflecting on this piece, I see how nature is its impact on us and I wish to learn more about its inner-workings in the future.

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Remediate Proposal

    Using the objects that we find near the art building at George Mason, we will be entwining the environment which already naturally expanding into each other. We will choose the wall by the zigzag ramps. This is project will be done between me and Natalie. We will focus on weeds rather than flowers which have color. We will apply these weeds to the wall with the preexisting vines which live on it. We will treat the wall like a canvas with arms. Then we will create an image by tucking the weed stems into the vines whichever we think is best. The choice to use materials that are close by is really important for the concept. It is combination of things which we can see being a part of each other, yet creating something that would never actually entwine in this way. Instead in  a way it’s the  human nature that is entwining with it.

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Remediate Research

Text 

    Life has a way to grow and expand. Human life however has major dominance over natural life. As life continues to grow, we too want to expand.  We use other worldly elements to create this expansion, impacting their growth. So in a way we are inhibiting our own expansion by inhibiting the growth of the world we live in. By recognizing it however, we have the opportunity to restore. Since we all share space, we are all sensitive to what it used for. Nature is accepted. It is something we share with our neighbor, something that does judge us back. Therefore, we can have a relationship with nature that is more rooted in the fundaments of what it means to live. This connection to nature on an individual judge-free relationship is what connects us. With restoration-type projects can appreciate life and see the only destruction of our touch. Thus, we can understand our touch and use it to only destroy problems. We can use our talents to connect nature to the general public through art. Art has to potential to slow the world around in order for greater understanding and a chance for teaching. Since nature is vastly important in our existence, we need to stop and understand how much we impact it and also that we have the power to work with it instead of against it.

 Chapter Two

The identification of concerns is necessary for preventing them from turning into something worst. Some animals and plant life might not be endangered, but are being currently negatively impacted by the environment that is currently involved with their life.

  Jackie Brookner- Biosculptures

    The space that sculpture occupies allows it to partake in more, and something greater. This sculptures become vessels for both nature and its preservation. The hand sculpture has symbolism for the way we take care of life. It is not only evokes the idea that we have the power, but literally shows itself through something made by hand. We hold nature’s place in the world sometimes. And sometimes it is fragile. It needs care, and we need to understand that in order to protect it and let it grow into its full potential. As the moss grows on the manmade structures the fusion between our existence is realized.

 Betsy Damon- The Keepers of Water 

    Since water sustains all life, its importance is tremendous. And maybe due to this consistent need for it and more importantly use of it, it can become ignored. We gather the resource from a place that we usually do not live directly near. Some of these projects took floating objects and grew things on top of this resource. Bringing the land to the water. Its unusual to see this combination in this way. It Water needs to protected from ignorance, and I think that showing things directly connected to water helps people understand that it is more than a source for us to grab from. It is something that can be affected, contaminated, and even taken away if we do not protect the sources which we draw from.

 Joe Scanlan- Pay Dirt

    Dirt is a pretty simple concept, but is really more complicated than its initial understanding. The installation of dirt was simple enough to understand, people use dirt and use it to construct what we want in the world. But its contents ranging from coffee grounds, to egg shells, is interesting in thinking what really has become of the one the most basic elements of the earth, the actual earth. Everything we leave behind is combined into the ground and slowly decomposes. What environmental impacts does this have? Some things contain chemical that do not just disappear, they are absorbed into other resources which affect other projects. Who knows how far this contamination can go, we need to be cautious of this reaction.

 Art, Environment Action by Radhika Subramaniam

    Since the what me make is only the applied combination of the resources in which we find, who says things are meant to be used once. Re-purposed materials allows multiple possible outcomes for an object not just a material. This allows for combination to connect to combination, reworking materials until they are nothing more than a means to be consumed by nature in a healthy and progressive way. We must have the mentality that things can be fixed and renewed. Urban renewal projects are a good example of this. By getting residents involved they are giving a chance for nature to live in a place which is usually sustainable for man and his conveniences. This is territory, we dictate what is control. We need to balance things. The “Map Knitting” project helps visualize this idea. This shared territory is a more than its space, but its resources and its way of life. By acknowledging your own territory, you will realize people’s dependency for similar spaces. This is how we think larger and have the capacity for international impact. Since small spaces are so important, so must larger spaces. Most of these larger spaces are our most natural resources which without them we would have no preservation of territory.

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Activate Project Summary

This project allowed me to use my time to share the skill of construction with someone who may not either have the time, equipment, or knowledge to make what they might need. This project allowed me to become a part of a community by attributing beneficial efforts to it. Since we all have the ability to help in our way, it was nice to prepare something for a greater good. This cause is important to everyone, and can be easily overlooked. Although my part was small, through conversation and physical demonstration the importance of bees has been spread in some way through me, and further through the people I effected.

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Activate Proposal

Project Proposal: Natalie and I are planning on bringing light to Bee’s and their threat to biodiversity and species threat. We were planning on focusing on Urban groups which meet to discuss the issue and the benefit of having bee hives and a supported bee population in an urban area. We planned to make a bee hive out of wood and donate them to specific areas which we will plan with local groups.

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Activate Research

Art, Environment Action by Radhika Subramaniam

     Since the what me make is only the applied combination of the resources in which we find, who says things are meant to be used once. Re-purposed materials allows multiple possible outcomes for an object not just a material. This allows for combination to connect to combination, reworking materials until they are nothing more than a means to be consumed by nature in a healthy and progressive way. We must have the mentality that things can be fixed and renewed. Urban renewal projects are a good example of this. By getting residents involved they are giving a chance for nature to live in a place which is usually sustainable for man and his conveniences. This is territory, we dictate what is control. We need to balance things. The “Map Knitting” project helps visualize this idea. This shared territory is a more than its space, but its resources and its way of life. By acknowledging your own territory, you will realize people’s dependency for similar spaces. This is how we think larger and have the capacity for international impact. Since small spaces are so important, so must larger spaces. Most of these larger spaces are our most natural resources which without them we would have no preservation of territory.

Section 2: Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies by Sue Spaid

    I agree with the strength of including performance art in activism; it  can help engage the viewers in a straightforward phycology and humanism way. The goals of the activism’s take on a such a real form outside of the gallery world, that it can be intuitively understood and easily communicated by word of mouth throughout society. Normally in art the conversation is personal and individualistic between the viewer and the artwork, but with activism it becomes something that everyone is already a part of, participation in life and betterment of the world. So this is the basics. But then we can apply combining experts in different visions; an artist, a writer, a journalist, and a business man, all of these and more are welcomed and understand the directed message in an activist role. But the link is still the same, human need to survive and protect the basics of human rights. The largest part of this is our resources. How can we survey the weather and the deepest parts of the ocean without scientists and professionals to get them there, and someone to record the findings through visual and audio? So this is the connection through man, just as the Earth’s resources and environment unite us with it.

 S.P.I.L.L. 

    Since this project requires participation to activate the space, it becomes a place of social understanding. By meditating the viewer’s mind can be free in trying to understand what harm we cause without the worry about other daily stresses. The material choice is important to making the space a place of reflection on the environment.  The CO2 project is important because the process of obtaining imagery and evoking meaning is all done by eliminating the negative effects by participating in the alternative. One person can show that alternatives are available and should not be ignored because an “easier” solution might already exist, because this eliminates the less expansion on the eco-friendlier alternative methods.

 The Old River Lifeboat Project

    By creating a space that is truly engages in the environment it makes the conversation about it very close to home. It’s the natural presentation to start a conversation about it. Each story told now is a part of the surroundings. I think it’s important that they have included so many eco-friendly instruments on their ship because it is actively presenting the better choice. Being on a boat creates an idea of how we are reliant on the environment for more than just survival resources, we use them for entertainment and relaxation. Sites near water are very popular place to have vacations, because of their beauty. We need to protect this beauty so that we too will be healthy physically and mentally.

 The Beehive Design Collective

    This is an amazing group of activists. The designs create a lot of visual interest that can only make their messages stronger and more interesting. The density of the use of space engages the reader’s eyes into the material. It’s important in design that the messages come through the artwork without explanation, but with the collaboration activists who are prepared for verbal communication the designs only make the conversations more interesting and important. It is truly a conversation starter. Their messages about protecting local communities is a something that everyone needs to try and work towards, and the option to build alternative economies is something I will be continuing to research and try and work with other activists.

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Project Summary

    This project deals with consumerism and the effect it has on the environment. My displaying more/new information on a common and recognizable meat packaging label, the work becomes a conversation piece between products, their manufacturers, and the common consumer. The is highlighted in the pricing section of the label. While the external price is the average price consumers pay, the internal prices are left to be paid for from a different process, usually taxes. This creates an unequal shift in the market; plainly the larger corporations are in control. It also creates a larger negative impact on the environment by both over gathering resources and polluting/damaging the resources around them.

    The art collaboration aspect was really important in creating a strong and precise body of work. By playing to our strengths and being able to better ideas was important in developing something that could stand by itself in a sometimes confusing place in the art world. The blend between graphic design and economics is really effective because the separation between the two is united in art and the power of art’s voice. This is only the first collaboration for this project and can only expand by continuing to work with others outside of art.