How do we build a forest?
We would like to se PearlDamour’s How to Build a Forest as an organizing principal to
start a conversation about arts and the environment on Duke’s campus. While we might make connections to additional performances like a Wild and Scenic Film Festival or Meredith Monk’s adaptation of “On Behalf of Nature,” we will strive to focus on Forest while simultaneously engaging broader conversations about, for example, effectively communicating science through artistic expression and vice versa.
Meeting notes
In our meeting on Sept. 29, we did some brainstorming about how we might interact with the Forest residency. Ideas that were shared included:
- Create a fieldguide associated with the Duke show (similar to how tours during the installation at the Kitchen in NYC went through Forest and out to the High Line (http://www.thehighline.org/)
- Connecting with courses
- Make a list of courses A start: writing (freshman writing and other writing courses, likely WIDs related topically to the performance), sustainability, ecology, forestry, history, photography, video/documentary studies
- Contact faculty about our plans for Forest to allow them to integrate Forest
into syllabi - Develop prompts/project ideas that can be used by coursework trying to connect to Forest (and allowing Duke to create/provide materials that can be used by future Forest audiences)
- Connecting with student environmental journal (a special issue?)
- Group master’s project (Nicholas School)
- Develop linkages across Duke’s schools and colleges with a focus on arts and the
environment - Investigate how to make it a carbon neutral project in conjunction with the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative (http://sustainability.duke.edu/carbon_offsets/index.php)
- Gain inspiration for future collaborative projects at Duke
In terms of the broader conversations that we might have in future meetings, suggestions included:
- Issues of art as advocacy versus it being an purely educational medium (i.e., sharing science)
- Art for education and communication
- Representation of science by artists
Other ideas that were shared included:
- Linking arts/environment symposia more broadly across campus
- Linking up with environmental photographer Marjorie Pierson (http://www.marjoriepierson.com/) for a discussion about art and the environment. Possibly at her galleryat Golden Belt?
- Connecting with the LEAF award (http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/leaf/about)
- Connecting with Duke Arts Festival (http://arts.duke.edu/festival)
- Thinking about how to connect (for funding) with the Humanities
Writ Large program (http://humanitieswritlarge.duke.edu/) or
Southern Arts Federation (http://www.southarts.org/site/c.guIYLaMRJxE/b.7584107/k.9D32/Apply_for_a_Grant.htm) - Getting feedback on group member projects that bring together arts and the environment
- Having a themed meeting (e.g., “water”)
- Attending an open house at the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment (http://vis.pratt.duke.edu/dive)