Mapping Meaning, the Journal (Issue No. 1)
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2 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Who were <strong>the</strong>se women?<br />
What were <strong>the</strong>ir stories?<br />
Why <strong>the</strong> hearts?<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
3
Content<br />
6<br />
Introduction<br />
14<br />
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
18<br />
Idaho Triptych<br />
Lynn Kilpatrick<br />
22<br />
On This Site<br />
Jeremy Dennis<br />
30<br />
The Breath Camera: a prototype for<br />
anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
40<br />
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald,<br />
and <strong>the</strong> vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless,<br />
postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
50<br />
Survival Series<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
56<br />
Identity, Narrative, and Miseducation<br />
in a More-Than-Human World<br />
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant<br />
4 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
64<br />
<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
74<br />
In Conversation with Consciousness:<br />
A Reflection On My Use of Metalogue<br />
to Make Sense of <strong>the</strong> Ecological<br />
Context of Mental Health<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
86<br />
Marker<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
94<br />
The Energy & Information<br />
Ecosystems of <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau:<br />
An Arts/Sciences Field Study<br />
Richard Lowenberg<br />
108<br />
Field Play<br />
Magdalena S. Donahue<br />
116<br />
Layers Exposed<br />
Brooke Larsen<br />
126<br />
bombus love<br />
Erin Halcomb<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
5
Introduction to<br />
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong><br />
Above, front cover, and back cover Minidoka Project Idaho 1918,<br />
Photo from <strong>the</strong> U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, of <strong>the</strong> U.S. Department of <strong>the</strong> Interior<br />
6 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, The <strong>Journal</strong><br />
Introduction<br />
"824 Min Surveying<br />
party of girls on<br />
<strong>the</strong> Minidoka project."<br />
Original caption,<br />
National Archives<br />
The History<br />
In 1918, an all-female survey crew posed for<br />
a photograph while working on <strong>the</strong> Minidoka<br />
Dam Project in Idaho, U.S.A. Almost a century<br />
later, Krista Caballero, founder of <strong>Mapping</strong><br />
<strong>Meaning</strong>, came across <strong>the</strong> photo while<br />
researching her masters of fine art. The image<br />
was accompanied by little archival information,<br />
but <strong>the</strong> close bounds of <strong>the</strong> composed<br />
frame contrasted sharply with o<strong>the</strong>r survey<br />
photographs of <strong>the</strong> time depicting men within<br />
vast, epic landscapes. The women’s smiles<br />
and <strong>the</strong> painted hearts on <strong>the</strong>ir leveling rods<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>r piqued Caballero’s interest. Who were<br />
<strong>the</strong>se women? What were <strong>the</strong>ir stories? Why<br />
<strong>the</strong> hearts?<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
7
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, The <strong>Journal</strong><br />
Introduction<br />
While poignant, <strong>the</strong> photograph also raises<br />
a number of complex issues. All <strong>the</strong> women<br />
appear to be white and all are participating in<br />
mapping resources for extractive purposes.<br />
These tensions pose critical questions.<br />
Who gets to “map” <strong>the</strong> landscape and why?<br />
If land is <strong>the</strong> “text”, how do we read our<br />
surroundings and create meaning around<br />
a place that is multidimensional? What<br />
histories are erased in <strong>the</strong> mapping of <strong>the</strong><br />
Americas? How can we assert our right to<br />
record <strong>the</strong> diversity of our lives personally<br />
and collectively?<br />
The photograph quickly became a motivating<br />
metaphor that inspired <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, a<br />
multi-generational collective that considers<br />
<strong>the</strong> broad transitions occurring in ecology,<br />
technology and culture. In a deeply<br />
fragmented and discipline-based world,<br />
Caballero urgently felt <strong>the</strong> need to create a<br />
space to encounter divergent approaches<br />
toward “surveying” human, ecological and<br />
technological landscapes.<br />
With <strong>the</strong> support and encouragement of<br />
artist, activist, and mentor S.A. Bachman,<br />
Caballero proceeded with her “uncharted”<br />
idea to convene a free, interdisciplinary, fiveday<br />
workshop for women. To her surprise,<br />
<strong>the</strong> “call,” accompanied by <strong>the</strong> Minidoka<br />
photo, generated an overwhelming number<br />
of applicants.<br />
The first workshop in 2010, brought toge<strong>the</strong>r<br />
sixteen women representing a wide range of<br />
perspectives, ages and disciplines to discuss<br />
diverse knowledge practices. Disciplines<br />
included visual art, American Indian Studies,<br />
entomology, film, ecology, architecture,<br />
American Studies, creative writing,<br />
ethnobotany, business, civil & environmental<br />
engineering, and folklore.<br />
“This intervention was crucial – it brought<br />
women toge<strong>the</strong>r to discuss seemingly<br />
at odds, yet organically knit ideas. Who<br />
knew climate change policies, activist art,<br />
a documentary about Swaziland, lifecycle<br />
assessments, business ethics, violent<br />
social protests and a single image of<br />
four women on top of a mountain with<br />
surveying equipment could have such a<br />
strong <strong>the</strong>me of change and flow running<br />
through <strong>the</strong>m?”<br />
Jennifer Richter (contributor to <strong>the</strong> 2010,<br />
2012, 2014, and 2016 workshops)<br />
After 2010, Caballero invited Sylvia Torti, an<br />
ecologist and creative writer who participated<br />
in <strong>the</strong> 2010 workshop, to join her as codirector<br />
in evolving <strong>the</strong> workshop <strong>the</strong>mes.<br />
Toge<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y developed <strong>the</strong> mission to<br />
support <strong>the</strong> creative work and scholarship<br />
of women working at edges and ecotones,<br />
those pushing against traditional disciplinary<br />
boundaries.<br />
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong> is now a multi-generational<br />
collective rooted in five-day, experimental<br />
workshops that take place biennially at field<br />
stations in <strong>the</strong> US American West. Workshops<br />
integrate ecological and cultural <strong>the</strong>mes,<br />
and ardently resist oversimplification.<br />
Women are supported at all stages of <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
work and <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong> is particularly<br />
committed to mentoring young thinkers and<br />
creators. Women respond by bringing <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
creative energy, critical minds and personal<br />
8 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, The <strong>Journal</strong><br />
Introduction<br />
projects to <strong>the</strong> discussion. <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong><br />
workshops have taken place in 2010, 2012,<br />
2014, 2016 and will be held again in 2018.<br />
“This initiative, <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, provides<br />
ground — productive, deconstructive<br />
ground — to argue for <strong>the</strong> inclusion of<br />
diversity, of liminal spaces, of <strong>the</strong> uncanny,<br />
and for new forms of sense and value. I<br />
think a challenge is to maintain a focus on<br />
impermanence in art, research, science,<br />
and women coming toge<strong>the</strong>r, to maintain<br />
<strong>the</strong> productive friction of disturbance, as a<br />
way to work outside of neoliberal market<br />
economies, outside of colonial inscriptions<br />
of a site.<br />
<strong>Mapping</strong> meaning’s ecotone is not just a<br />
site of transition, but to inhabit an ecotone<br />
is to bring toge<strong>the</strong>r competing forces: The<br />
energy of resistance.”<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
from <strong>the</strong> <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong> symposium<br />
held at Lafayette College, 2014<br />
But <strong>the</strong> workshops proved to be only <strong>the</strong><br />
beginning. Participants began to collaborate<br />
to create additional encounters through<br />
exhibitions, symposia, and educational<br />
exchanges. By <strong>the</strong> time of <strong>the</strong> 2016 workshop<br />
on Santa Cruz Island, California, <strong>the</strong> energy<br />
and interest in <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong> had grown<br />
considerably and participants decided to<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>r broaden <strong>the</strong> scope to include more<br />
voices and venues for discussion beyond<br />
what could be accommodated at <strong>the</strong> biennial<br />
workshops. Hence <strong>the</strong> creation of <strong>Mapping</strong><br />
<strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>.<br />
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>, promotes<br />
conversations that encourage radical<br />
reconsiderations of <strong>the</strong> role that humanity<br />
plays in a more-than-human world. The<br />
<strong>Journal</strong> is a space for unheard voices where<br />
we can explore complexity, creativity, and<br />
connections.<br />
The <strong>Journal</strong> will be published two times per<br />
year. Each issue will be curated and edited<br />
by members of <strong>the</strong> founding editorial board,<br />
at times with outside collaborators, and will<br />
focus on a <strong>the</strong>me or question of interest<br />
to <strong>the</strong> editors. Solicitations are open to<br />
everyone.<br />
We look forward to broadening <strong>the</strong><br />
conversation. Diversity of perspectives<br />
through disciplinary knowledge and lived<br />
experience is part of <strong>the</strong> core values of this<br />
collaborative enterprise/project. We want<br />
to include <strong>the</strong> many people who are deeply<br />
committed to staying present, questioning<br />
and resisting <strong>the</strong> erasure which threatens<br />
us through <strong>the</strong> simplification of our physical,<br />
social and spiritual worlds. We want to resituate<br />
humans in a more-than-human world<br />
governed by ecological processes and finite<br />
limits.<br />
Our journal launch coincides with <strong>the</strong> 100-<br />
year anniversary of <strong>the</strong> 1918 all-female<br />
survey photo. It is sometimes surprising what<br />
one image can inspire.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Krista, Sylvia and <strong>the</strong> editorial board<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
9
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, The <strong>Journal</strong><br />
Introduction<br />
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong><br />
Video Archive<br />
vimeo.com/131539743<br />
10 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, The <strong>Journal</strong><br />
Introduction<br />
Founding<br />
Editorial Board<br />
Melanie Armstrong<br />
Krista Caballero<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
Sarah Kanouse<br />
Vasia Markides<br />
Jennifer Richter<br />
Carmina Sánchez-del-Valle<br />
Karina Aguilera Skvirsky<br />
Sree Sinha<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
Sylvia Torti<br />
Linda Wiener<br />
Toni Wynn<br />
The Honors College at <strong>the</strong><br />
University of Utah serves as<br />
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>’s<br />
partner and initial fiscal sponsor.<br />
Consistent with <strong>Mapping</strong><br />
<strong>Meaning</strong>’s mentorship mission,<br />
<strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong> is committed to<br />
publishing at least one University<br />
of Utah Honors student per issue.<br />
Managing Editor: Sylvia Torti<br />
Artistic Director: Krista Caballero<br />
Visual Designer: Aliza Jensen<br />
<strong>Issue</strong>’s Editors: Krista Caballero and Sylvia Torti<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
11
Introduction to<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
Krista Caballero and Sylvia Torti<br />
Welcome to <strong>the</strong> inaugural issue of <strong>Mapping</strong><br />
<strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>. In this first issue, we have<br />
mirrored <strong>the</strong> first <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong> workshop<br />
(2010), which was wildly experimental, multigenerational,<br />
and free formed.<br />
Similar to <strong>the</strong> pilot workshop, this first issue, is<br />
grounded in <strong>the</strong> conceptual and philosophical<br />
work of Felix Guattari (1930-1992). In The<br />
Three Ecologies, Guattari discussed <strong>the</strong> need<br />
to integrate social and mental ecology into<br />
conversations and conceptions of our physical,<br />
ecological world. He wrote, “What I am arguing<br />
is simply that we should use our expanded<br />
understanding of <strong>the</strong> whole range of<br />
ecological components to set in place new<br />
systems of value.”<br />
Essentially, Guattari was arguing that we<br />
must address all “three ecological registers”<br />
and consider <strong>the</strong>m equal partners in <strong>the</strong><br />
conversation, in order to adequately address<br />
<strong>the</strong> many ecological, social or psychological<br />
issues that face us as individuals and as a<br />
society. At <strong>the</strong> core Guattari was linking <strong>the</strong><br />
crisis of <strong>the</strong> environment with <strong>the</strong> crisis<br />
present in social relationships and what he<br />
saw as a passive, infantile human subjectivity.<br />
12 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
<strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, The <strong>Journal</strong><br />
Introduction<br />
Guattari argues that what is needed is an<br />
ethico-aes<strong>the</strong>tic approach. He writes,<br />
“For its part, mental ecosophy will lead us<br />
to reinvent <strong>the</strong> relation of <strong>the</strong> subject to<br />
<strong>the</strong> body, to phantasm, to <strong>the</strong> passage of<br />
time, to <strong>the</strong> ‘myseteries’ of life and death.<br />
It will lead us to search for antidotes to<br />
mass-media and telematics standardization,<br />
<strong>the</strong> conformism of fashion, <strong>the</strong> manipulation<br />
of opinion by advertising, surveys, etc. Its<br />
ways of operating will be more like those of<br />
an artist.”<br />
In this spirit, our first issue encompasses a<br />
wide-range of perspectives on mental, social<br />
and environmental ecology from <strong>the</strong> arts,<br />
humanities, and sciences. Look closely and<br />
you’ll find tension between <strong>the</strong> gorgeous<br />
renderings of European honey bees by<br />
Rebecca Clark and <strong>the</strong> piece bombus love by<br />
Erin Halcomb. There are historical erasures<br />
made apparent in both Lynn Kilpatrick’s<br />
piece and that of Jeremy Dennis. <strong>No</strong>tice<br />
<strong>the</strong> collaborative piece by mo<strong>the</strong>r and<br />
daughter, Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant,<br />
that discusses <strong>the</strong> complexities of navigating<br />
through environments in terms of identity,<br />
social justice, species-centricity and “sea<br />
change.” And, exciting are <strong>the</strong> pieces written<br />
by young scholars—Brooke Larsen, Weston<br />
Wood and Clark Nielsen on <strong>the</strong> interactions<br />
between <strong>the</strong>ir internal ecological selves and<br />
that of <strong>the</strong> world in which <strong>the</strong>y are becoming<br />
adults. We hope this issue introduces you<br />
to new practitioners and allows you to rethink<br />
<strong>the</strong> values, privileges, and positions<br />
we inhabit while celebrating <strong>the</strong> aes<strong>the</strong>tic<br />
beauty of visual art and lyrical writing.<br />
Future issues of <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong><br />
will be more specific, taking up particular<br />
issues or <strong>the</strong>mes and will be edited by<br />
different teams of women curating each<br />
issue. All issues will include <strong>the</strong> broadest<br />
possible calls for submission; taking<br />
divergent approaches in order to examine<br />
<strong>the</strong> complexities of how we engage our<br />
environments and <strong>the</strong> resulting social,<br />
political and ecological implications of how<br />
one constructs meaning.<br />
Reference<br />
Social<br />
Guattari, F. (2008). The three ecologies (Continuum impacts).<br />
London: Continuum.<br />
Ecology<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 13
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
14 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Left | Rebecca Clark<br />
Bee 20 (The Real Work) Detail<br />
Graphite on paper<br />
30” x 22”, 2011<br />
Rebecca Clark is an American artist who works<br />
primarily in pencil on paper. She received her<br />
BA in Art History from Swarthmore College and<br />
studied painting and drawing at <strong>the</strong> Maryland<br />
Institute College of Art and at <strong>the</strong> Corcoran<br />
College of Art + Design.<br />
She has exhibited in numerous venues,<br />
including: Sam Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA;<br />
Hillyer Art Space, Washington, DC; Arlington Arts<br />
Center, VA; The Arsenal, New York, NY; Academy<br />
Art Museum, Easton, MD; Gertrude Herbert<br />
Institute of Art, Augusta, GA; and The Old Sorting<br />
Office, London, UK.<br />
Her work has been featured in publications<br />
such as: Alterity <strong>Journal</strong> (Centre for Alterity<br />
Studies), Zoomorphic, Elementum <strong>Journal</strong>,<br />
Works and Conversations, Dark Mountain,<br />
EarthLines, Orion Magazine, and The Learned<br />
Pig and was selected for <strong>the</strong> award-winning<br />
INDA 8, Manifest Gallery’s 2014 International<br />
Drawing Annual. Her drawings have also served<br />
as illustrations for poetry chapbooks published<br />
by Corbel Stone Press (Cumbria, UK) and Tavern<br />
Books (Portland, OR).<br />
rebeccaclarkart.com<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
15
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Statement<br />
I make drawings of <strong>the</strong> natural world,<br />
transient moments of grace and beauty<br />
in an age of disappearance. Inspired by<br />
plant and animal studies of <strong>the</strong> <strong>No</strong>r<strong>the</strong>rn<br />
Renaissance, Ne<strong>the</strong>rlandish devotional<br />
panel paintings, and nature mysticism<br />
as expressed through various forms<br />
of art, music, poetry and prose, my art<br />
acknowledges interconnectedness in<br />
nature and our loss of connection with<br />
<strong>the</strong> sacred.<br />
Our planet is broken because we’ve lost<br />
relationship with <strong>the</strong> earth, with our soul.<br />
My drawings serve as more than intimate<br />
portraits; <strong>the</strong>y are testaments to lives<br />
lived. They are memento mori, reminders<br />
in this age of ecocide that humans cannot<br />
live detached from nature. May <strong>the</strong>se<br />
quiet drawings remind us of our place on<br />
this planet and awaken our consciousness<br />
to <strong>the</strong> cosmos of which we are a part.<br />
Rebecca Clark’s work can be seen<br />
throughout this issue.<br />
16 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Rebecca Clark Bee 7 (Sway) Detail, graphite on paper, 30” x 22”<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
17
Idaho Triptych<br />
Lynn Kilpatrick<br />
Lynn Kilpatrick grew up in Iowa and Idaho, <strong>the</strong>n<br />
moved to <strong>the</strong> Pacific <strong>No</strong>rthwest. She earned her<br />
MA in English from Western Washington University<br />
and her PhD in Fiction from <strong>the</strong> University of<br />
Utah. Her collection of stories, In <strong>the</strong> House,<br />
was published by FC2 (U of Alabama Press) in<br />
2010. Her essays have appeared in Creative<br />
<strong>No</strong>nfiction, Ninth Letter, and Brevity. She has lived<br />
in Salt Lake City for almost twenty years, with her<br />
husband. She teaches at Salt Lake Community<br />
College. She has one son, and a dog named Gus.<br />
Mental<br />
Ecology<br />
18 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Idaho Triptych<br />
Lynn Kilpatrick<br />
Fort Hall<br />
“Much confusion arises as to <strong>the</strong> exact<br />
site of Fort Hall...a number of places in<br />
<strong>the</strong> vicinity of <strong>the</strong> original old 1834 Fort<br />
Hall were designated by <strong>the</strong> same name.<br />
There have been at least four spots called<br />
‘Fort Hall’.”<br />
Thomas Payne West, 1924<br />
The nearby town is also known as Fort Hall.<br />
Today, Fort Hall includes a casino and hotel.<br />
The replica of Fort Hall is not in <strong>the</strong> same<br />
location as <strong>the</strong> original Fort Hall. The<br />
location of <strong>the</strong> original Fort Hall is lost to<br />
history, and is believed at this time to be<br />
under water.<br />
Fort Hall was <strong>the</strong> name given to <strong>the</strong> original<br />
trading post built by Nathaniel Wyeth<br />
in 1834. The area in which it is believed<br />
that <strong>the</strong> original Fort Hall was built had<br />
been known as “The Bottoms,” a popular<br />
ga<strong>the</strong>ring place for Native Americans in <strong>the</strong><br />
region. Fort Hall was located in a bend of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Snake River near <strong>the</strong> junctions of <strong>the</strong><br />
Blackfoot and Portneuf Rivers.<br />
Fort Hall was <strong>the</strong> name given to a stage<br />
station built near <strong>the</strong> original site in 1864.<br />
This replica, built in Pocatello, is based on<br />
<strong>the</strong> plan of <strong>the</strong> original trading post.<br />
For a time, <strong>the</strong> Fort Hall replica contained<br />
a multi-paneled illustration explaining <strong>the</strong><br />
Christian elements of <strong>the</strong> Sun Dance.<br />
The dance takes place around a tree meant<br />
to represent <strong>the</strong> Sun or an absent God with<br />
twelve poles radiating out from this center<br />
that have been said to represent <strong>the</strong> Twelve<br />
Apostles.<br />
Fort Hall was <strong>the</strong> name given to a<br />
reservation established in 1867. The<br />
Shoshoni and Bannock tribes were forced<br />
onto this reservation through a series of<br />
massacres, attacks, and treaties.<br />
This exhibit no longer exists.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
19
Idaho Triptych<br />
Lynn Kilpatrick<br />
Invasive Species: Russian Olive<br />
The Russian Olive Tree, Elaeagnus angustifolia,<br />
is native to Western Asia. The exact date of<br />
introduction to Idaho is not known, but is<br />
estimated to be in <strong>the</strong> 1800s. Their bark is<br />
silvery, but can be thorny. Leaves are light<br />
green and oblong. In May and June, yellow<br />
flowers are seen. Russian Olives were planted<br />
by farmers as windbreaks along roads and<br />
streams. This tree is resistant to harsh<br />
conditions. It is able to thrive on little water<br />
and in sandy soil. The seeds, distributed<br />
by birds, are resilient. The Russian Olive<br />
is said to have “escaped cultivation” and<br />
become naturalized. It dominates streamside<br />
ecology and has facilitated <strong>the</strong> rise of<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r non-native species. It is considered a<br />
noxious weed. Many believe <strong>the</strong> dominance<br />
of <strong>the</strong> Russian Olive has contributed to <strong>the</strong><br />
disappearance of native species.<br />
20 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Idaho Triptych<br />
Lynn Kilpatrick<br />
Something about Idaho<br />
Something about driving into <strong>the</strong> brown,<br />
back in, <strong>the</strong> winding blacktop, fields, <strong>the</strong> sky<br />
like a gaping mouth.<br />
Something about driving, driving, driving, <strong>the</strong><br />
road is narrow, and so few cars. Something<br />
about <strong>the</strong> alfalfa fields, <strong>the</strong> green, <strong>the</strong> blue.<br />
The word home isn’t quite right.<br />
You step to <strong>the</strong> right, to <strong>the</strong> left, to <strong>the</strong><br />
center. Turn your back on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs. Yes,<br />
this is familiar. This is where it starts, in a<br />
gym, your back turned to everyone else.<br />
Facing out.<br />
Something about streets, pavement, leading<br />
out, and <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> brown which goes fur<strong>the</strong>r,<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>r than you can walk, your legs are<br />
tired, you have to stop for a drink. The hills<br />
keep going.<br />
He takes your hand and you hop in unison<br />
and this is a dance too, but everyone is<br />
connected, snaking in a line and <strong>the</strong> music<br />
tells you what to do, and you turn in toward<br />
<strong>the</strong> circle, everyone is looking at you, and<br />
<strong>the</strong>y smile.<br />
Something about how <strong>the</strong> landscape<br />
embraces you, tightens your heart like a<br />
sorrow, an idea, constricting, a cloud swept<br />
into view. <strong>No</strong> rain, only <strong>the</strong> idea of rain, only<br />
<strong>the</strong> memories like an outstretched hand, a<br />
song, beckoning, a man’s voice, calling you<br />
from across a great, dark plain.<br />
Something about <strong>the</strong> river and <strong>the</strong> quiet<br />
and <strong>the</strong> echo of a now dead scream and <strong>the</strong><br />
green, <strong>the</strong> green and you can see why, yes.<br />
Something about <strong>the</strong> houses, stacked like<br />
blocks up <strong>the</strong> side of <strong>the</strong> hillside. Ano<strong>the</strong>r<br />
house, ano<strong>the</strong>r house.<br />
Something about <strong>the</strong> way space used to be<br />
open and <strong>the</strong> brown everywhere and now<br />
you cannot see <strong>the</strong> top of <strong>the</strong> hill.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
21
On This Site<br />
Jeremy Dennis<br />
22 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
On This Site<br />
Jeremy Dennis<br />
Left | Manitou Hill, Plainsview NY<br />
Manitou Hill is a sacred hill located<br />
on what is now known as Manetto<br />
Hill in Plainview, New York. An oral<br />
story, recorded by historian Gabriel<br />
Furman in 1874, describes a legend<br />
during a great drought. The Manitou<br />
instructs a sachem through a dream<br />
to stand at <strong>the</strong> top of Manetto Hill<br />
and fire an arrow into <strong>the</strong> air, and<br />
on <strong>the</strong> spot where <strong>the</strong> arrow lands,<br />
people should dig until <strong>the</strong>y find<br />
water. The water spring that was<br />
found, called Mascopas, is now<br />
beneath a local high school athletic<br />
field. Manitou is known in traditional<br />
systems as <strong>the</strong> powerful and unseen<br />
power throughout <strong>the</strong> universe,<br />
being present during moments of<br />
<strong>the</strong> miraculous and mysterious.<br />
On This Site is an art-based research project<br />
by Shinnecock Nation tribe member and<br />
artist Jeremy Dennis intended to preserve<br />
and create awareness of sacred, culturally<br />
significant, and historical Native American<br />
landscapes on Long Island, New York. Native<br />
people existed throughout Long Island for<br />
more than ten thousand years. We are still<br />
present here today, and we will continue to<br />
be here. While historical sites remain, <strong>the</strong>y<br />
have been made invisible by colonial forces.<br />
Photography, as an entry point to history,<br />
invites curiosity. Both indigenous and nonindigenous<br />
viewers will likely be unfamiliar<br />
with both <strong>the</strong> landscapes and histories<br />
associated with each site documented in<br />
On This Site.<br />
Through curiosity about my own origin and<br />
ancestral history, I ga<strong>the</strong>red and combined<br />
archaeological, anthropological, historical,<br />
and oral stories to answer essential culturaldefining<br />
questions: Where did my ancestors<br />
live? Why did <strong>the</strong>y choose <strong>the</strong>se places?<br />
What happened to <strong>the</strong>m over time? Do <strong>the</strong>se<br />
places still exist?<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
23
On This Site<br />
Jeremy Dennis<br />
The work seeks to make <strong>the</strong> invisible, visible.<br />
To provide a way to reconnect memory<br />
and place, creating a new opportunity for<br />
self and communal reflection upon our<br />
assumptions and stereotypes regarding<br />
indigenous and colonial shared history on<br />
Long Island. I hope <strong>the</strong> project promotes<br />
communal awareness and cultural<br />
enlightenment and will lead to cultural<br />
critique, historical inquiry, and educational<br />
development.<br />
Tribe Communities Today<br />
Out of <strong>the</strong> thirteen original tribes on Long<br />
Island that occupied distinct territories, only<br />
two nations now hold reservation land; <strong>the</strong><br />
Unkechaug and <strong>the</strong> Shinnecock. According<br />
to <strong>the</strong> 2010 census, 22% of Native Americans<br />
live on reservation land nationwide.<br />
Besides Unkechaug and Shinnecock,<br />
descendants of o<strong>the</strong>r tribe groups also live<br />
in scattered communities throughout Long<br />
Island. They work locally and around <strong>the</strong><br />
world. For example, in Little Neck, <strong>the</strong>re is a<br />
community of Matinecock; throughout Long<br />
Island are Montaukett descendants. And in<br />
<strong>the</strong> Setauket area, <strong>the</strong>re is a community of<br />
Setalcott tribal descendants.<br />
Descendants of <strong>the</strong>se tribal groups on<br />
Long Island maintain a link to <strong>the</strong> past<br />
through family lineage and <strong>the</strong> practice of<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir traditional culture with unique social<br />
ga<strong>the</strong>rings and historical preservation. In<br />
addition to sharing place-based indigenous<br />
culture and history, <strong>the</strong> protection of <strong>the</strong><br />
sites in this project is an important priority<br />
from a spiritual, environmental, and<br />
archaeological perspective.<br />
24 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
On This Site<br />
Jeremy Dennis<br />
Kitchaminchok Mastic NY<br />
Kitchaminchok is a sacred<br />
place to <strong>the</strong> Unkechaug<br />
people, known for its<br />
drift whaling. Historically,<br />
it is part of a boundary<br />
marker mentioned in a<br />
17th century agreement<br />
between Sachem<br />
Wyandanch and Lion<br />
Gardiner that permitted<br />
Gardiner to pay five<br />
pounds (potentially eight<br />
hundred pounds today)<br />
for every complete whale<br />
carcass that came ashore.<br />
Once a site is destroyed, it is lost forever.<br />
This project shares <strong>the</strong> unfortunate<br />
desecrations of Sugar Loaf Hill,<br />
Wegwagonock, and o<strong>the</strong>rs. These sites are<br />
within and near <strong>the</strong> affluent estates of “The<br />
Hamptons,” and are often overlooked for<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir historical and cultural significance<br />
by <strong>the</strong> weekend home inhabitants and<br />
vacationers who come and go.<br />
Although Long Island’s archaeological sites<br />
are unlike <strong>the</strong> western archaeological sites<br />
widely recognized and seen in popular<br />
culture, <strong>the</strong>y maintain <strong>the</strong> same reverence<br />
and academic value.<br />
Combining <strong>the</strong> fragility and ambiguity<br />
in recognizing Long Island’s indigenous<br />
archaeological landscapes, photography<br />
allows for <strong>the</strong> acknowledgement of <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
histories without putting <strong>the</strong>m in physical<br />
danger.<br />
The ambitious goal of this project is to<br />
document and represent all significant<br />
indigenous sites on Long Island for <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
physical and memorial preservation.<br />
The images chosen for this journal<br />
represent a handful of those that have been<br />
researched and photographed, largely on<br />
<strong>the</strong> Eastern End of Long Island in Suffolk<br />
County. For updates, corrections, and<br />
new photographs, please view <strong>the</strong> project<br />
website, which features an interactive map<br />
of <strong>the</strong> site locations at:<br />
jeremynative.com/onthissite/<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
25
On This Site<br />
Jeremy Dennis<br />
Council Rock, Montauk NY Situated on a bluff just west of Montauk<br />
Manor, <strong>the</strong> 30-acre cemetery overlooks Fort Pond and <strong>the</strong> Atlantic<br />
Ocean. Once a Montauk Indian fortification, it was <strong>the</strong> site of <strong>the</strong> tribe's<br />
crushing defeat by <strong>the</strong> Narragansetts in 1654. It was already <strong>the</strong> burial<br />
ground for hundreds of Montauks when <strong>the</strong> Smithsonian Institution<br />
shipped <strong>the</strong> bones of two Montauks to Fort Hill for burial last year. The<br />
large boulder in <strong>the</strong> center of <strong>the</strong> cemetery's driveway was known as<br />
council rock, where <strong>the</strong> tribe held meetings and ceremonies.<br />
Fowler House, East Hampton NY The Fowler House was moved from Indian Field in Montauk to <strong>the</strong> area <strong>the</strong>n known as<br />
Freetown in East Hampton. During <strong>the</strong> late 19th century, Arthur Benson, who owned and developed much of Montauk, offered<br />
deeds to plots of land in Freetown to Montauketts Indians who still lived in Indian Fields to entice <strong>the</strong>m to vacate <strong>the</strong>ir traditional<br />
tribal lands. The saltbox-style house, now owned by East Hampton Town, once belonged to Montaukett Indian George Lewis<br />
Fowler and his wife, Sarah Melissa Horton. George Fowler worked as a gondolier and gardener for <strong>the</strong> artist Thomas Moran,<br />
whose Main Street, East Hampton house and studio, a national historic landmark, is being restored. Fowler was also a caretaker<br />
at Home, Sweet Home. Freetown received its name as because former slaves of wealthy local families settled it. The Fowler House<br />
is <strong>the</strong> only one that remains. The house was moved to Freetown around 1890 from Indian Fields and “is possibly one of <strong>the</strong> most<br />
historically significant structures in <strong>the</strong> Town of East Hampton,” according to town documents. Freetown is now gone, but <strong>the</strong><br />
Fowler house is undergoing restoration in <strong>the</strong> historic district of East Hampton.<br />
26 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
On This Site<br />
Jeremy Dennis<br />
Fort Massapequa, Massapequa NY The Massapequa tribe had its principal settlement at Fort Neck, in South Oyster Bay, and<br />
extended eastward to <strong>the</strong> bounds of Islip and north to <strong>the</strong> middle of <strong>the</strong> island. Here were two Indian forts, <strong>the</strong> larger of which<br />
was stormed and massacred by Captain John Underhill, in <strong>the</strong> service of <strong>the</strong> Dutch, in 1653. The remains of <strong>the</strong> fort have been<br />
encroached upon and covered by <strong>the</strong> waters of <strong>the</strong> Great South Bay. Tackapousha was sachem of this tribe in 1656; also chief<br />
sachem of <strong>the</strong> western chieftaincies of <strong>the</strong> island, after <strong>the</strong> division between <strong>the</strong> Dutch and <strong>the</strong> English.<br />
See more at jeremynative.com/onthissite<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
27
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
28 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Bee 4 (Look)<br />
Graphite on paper,<br />
6” x 7 1/2”, 2009<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
29
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
30 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
The Breath Camera:<br />
a prototype for<br />
anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
Left | Figure 1<br />
2016 Burned Landscape,<br />
Oregon Desert Trail BLM<br />
Lands, USA (with Krista<br />
Caballero). Photographic<br />
documentation.<br />
I am an artist and anthropologist with an<br />
interdisciplinary PhD from University of<br />
Victoria, Canada. Over <strong>the</strong> past 15 years I have<br />
explored relationships between photography as<br />
object, image and event, through installation,<br />
performance, and in academic research and<br />
writing. My artistic and academic practices<br />
are platforms to address <strong>the</strong> significance<br />
of photography by breaking it down to its<br />
fundamental properties in order to propose new<br />
forms of collectivity. My work considers <strong>the</strong> way<br />
that places like National Parks are maintained<br />
through photography; <strong>the</strong> relationships between<br />
archives and photography; and <strong>the</strong> structure<br />
of artworlds as a complex of people, funding,<br />
studios and materials. My writing and photoessay<br />
work has been published in journals such<br />
as Cultural Anthropology, Visual Anthropology<br />
and Imaginations <strong>Journal</strong>. My artworks have<br />
been installed in place-specific locations across<br />
<strong>No</strong>rth America and in venues such as Open Space<br />
Gallery, The Sou<strong>the</strong>rn Alberta Art Gallery, and<br />
Arts Incubator. I am currently artist-in-residence<br />
in <strong>the</strong> Making Culture Lab at SFU investigating <strong>the</strong><br />
role of <strong>the</strong> anarchival materiality within archives.<br />
trudilynnsmith.com<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
31
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
The Breath Camera mixes <strong>the</strong> fleshy with<br />
<strong>the</strong> fleeting. It is a wearable form made<br />
to expand on capacities for noticing while<br />
immersed in/as camera. Bellows removed<br />
from a 4x5 large-format view camera<br />
were modified and attached to a soft front<br />
standard with simple lenses and a soft back<br />
standard holds a viewing screen. Users<br />
shroud <strong>the</strong>mselves in a long 1 x 4 metre<br />
darkcloth and supports <strong>the</strong> camera in <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
hands. Controlling <strong>the</strong> flexible bellows, air<br />
circulates through <strong>the</strong> camera, and images<br />
slip in and out of focus.<br />
In/As <strong>the</strong> Breath Camera, immersion<br />
under <strong>the</strong> darkcloth and <strong>the</strong> motion of <strong>the</strong><br />
bellows work toge<strong>the</strong>r as a reminder of<br />
ongoing movement of <strong>the</strong> breathing body<br />
and more-than human world. The Breath<br />
Camera cycles: a fluctuating field firms up<br />
(contracting) and drifts (expanding).<br />
Breathing is a process of expansion and of<br />
contraction, breathing provides an important<br />
base for speech, song, laughter, yawning,<br />
coughing, sneezing, and panting. Difficulty<br />
breathing can be an indicator of stress<br />
and disease.<br />
The camera invites embodied<br />
experimentation with <strong>the</strong> foundational<br />
properties of photography: lenses, light,<br />
and images, while immersed in <strong>the</strong> ongoing<br />
movement of embodied experience out of<br />
which still shots are extrapolated as events.<br />
The camera can be experienced individually<br />
Figure 2 2016 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>. Santa Cruz National Preserve, USA. Photographic documentation.<br />
32 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
Figure 3 2016 Breaking Timothy O’Sullivan’s (1868) archive. City of Rocks National Preserve, USA (with Krista Caballero)<br />
Photographic documentation.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
33
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
Working <strong>the</strong> breath<br />
camera, <strong>the</strong> user’s cycle<br />
of breath participates<br />
in <strong>the</strong> unarchivable<br />
experience of <strong>the</strong> world<br />
and provides a setting<br />
for noticing multiple<br />
agencies and timescales.<br />
34 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
Left | Figure 4<br />
2016 Breaking Timothy<br />
O’Sullivan’s (1868)<br />
archive. City of Rocks<br />
National Preserve, USA<br />
(with Krista Caballero)<br />
Photographic<br />
documentation.<br />
Following | Figure 5<br />
2016 Breaking Timothy<br />
O’Sullivan’s (1868)<br />
archive Part 2/<br />
Chrono-intermingling<br />
City of Rocks National<br />
Preserve, USA<br />
(with Krista Caballero)<br />
Photographic<br />
documentation.<br />
and collectively. Working <strong>the</strong> breath camera,<br />
<strong>the</strong> user’s cycle of breath participates in<br />
<strong>the</strong> unarchivable experience of <strong>the</strong> world<br />
and provides a setting for noticing multiple<br />
agencies and timescales.<br />
The misuse of cultural forms such as cameras<br />
and building divergent practices are central<br />
to my work with photography. <strong>No</strong>rmally in<br />
photography, a button is pushed and light<br />
rays are converted to numbers or patterns of<br />
light and dark. Cameras record information<br />
and in doing so, propose to arrest time.<br />
The Breath Camera is an intervention into<br />
<strong>the</strong>se habits, and is rooted in divergent<br />
relations with cameras, in creating forms<br />
that unfix images as a form of noticing. The<br />
breath camera severs relations with <strong>the</strong><br />
fixed image (and object) to address ongoing<br />
violences and injustices that fixed images can<br />
contribute to in <strong>No</strong>rth America.<br />
The Breath Camera is an anticapitalist<br />
camera. Anticapitalist cameras are not<br />
governed by corporate logics, profit,<br />
dominant systems or capitalist worlds. They<br />
oppose <strong>the</strong> hold that corporations have over<br />
photography and cameras, and challenge<br />
<strong>the</strong> idea that relations between humans and<br />
photography began with <strong>the</strong> “invention” of<br />
fixed images 200 years ago.<br />
The Breath Camera is rooted in divergent<br />
relations with cameras designed to encounter<br />
difficult conversations about photography,<br />
such as its relationship to extinction, racism,<br />
colonialism, climate change and catastrophe.<br />
The video documentation and images in this<br />
essay document <strong>the</strong> camera — a monstrous<br />
form — intervening into moments at <strong>Mapping</strong><br />
<strong>Meaning</strong> on Santa Cruz Island, experimental<br />
interventions during <strong>the</strong> centenary of parks<br />
and 50-year anniversary of public funding for<br />
<strong>the</strong> arts in <strong>the</strong> USA (with Krista Caballero) and<br />
pedagogical experimentation at University<br />
of Maryland.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
35
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
36 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
37
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
Figure 6 2017 Respiration. Pedagogical experimentation with students at University of Maryland in <strong>the</strong> Design Cultures &<br />
Creativity Program.<br />
Figure 7 Respiration. Pedagogical experimentation<br />
with students at University of Maryland in <strong>the</strong> Design<br />
Cultures & Creativity Program.<br />
Figure 8 Respiration. Pedagogical experimentation<br />
with students at University of Maryland in <strong>the</strong> Design<br />
Cultures & Creativity Program.<br />
38 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
The Breath Camera: a prototype for anticapitalist photography<br />
Trudi Lynn Smith<br />
Figure 9 2016 Video Documentation, Breaking Timothy O’Sullivan’s (1868)<br />
archive Part 2/Chrono-intermingling. City of Rocks National Preserve, USA<br />
(with Krista Caballero),<br />
https://vimeo.com/251201707<br />
Figure 10 2016 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>. Santa Cruz National Preserve, USA. Photographic documentation by Krista Caballero.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
39
David Foster Wallace,<br />
F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless,<br />
postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
Clark Nielson is a third-year student in <strong>the</strong> Honors<br />
College at <strong>the</strong> University of Utah, majoring in<br />
Materials Science & Engineering. He thanks Dr.<br />
Andy Hoffman for encouragement, intellectual<br />
direction and input on this paper. In 2017, he<br />
participated in <strong>the</strong> Honors Integrated Minor in<br />
Ecology & Legacy, which was “emphatically <strong>the</strong><br />
most impactful experience of my life thus far. I<br />
am not <strong>the</strong> only student who is less afraid to raise<br />
her hand in class now.” Clark loves to ski and<br />
skateboard, and would like you to know he and<br />
his friends have decided smoking is degenerate<br />
and are quitting. Clark wants to earn a creative<br />
writing minor before he graduates, and hopes to<br />
build skis with his materials science degree.<br />
40 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
"Whoever gives you pain reminds<br />
you of <strong>the</strong> homage that o<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
used to pay you. But still, you<br />
sob tragically and call upon your<br />
madness, and you would go so far<br />
as to have it removed—this thing,<br />
your last remaining privilege—as<br />
if it were a stone.”<br />
Alejandra Pizarnik, Extracting<br />
<strong>the</strong> Stone of Madness<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
41
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
1<br />
David Foster Wallace once told a reporter,<br />
“look, man, we’d probably most of us agree<br />
that <strong>the</strong>se are dark times, and stupid ones,<br />
but do we need fiction that does nothing but<br />
dramatize how dark and stupid everything<br />
is?” He stood against postmodern media that,<br />
at its most base, turned mass entertainment<br />
vapid, self-referential, and cynical. Wallace’s<br />
confrontationally au<strong>the</strong>ntic writing style<br />
leaves naked <strong>the</strong> tragedy surrounding his<br />
premature death. He never wrote a word<br />
about his own demons; he didn’t need<br />
to. When Wallace wrote of depression,<br />
he did so embarrassingly and knowingly,<br />
acknowledging it as an ultimately selfish<br />
addiction to self-centeredness. Wallace’s<br />
suicide left an unintentional blackness to his<br />
posthumous readers. However, do not add<br />
nihilism and certainly not cynicism to this<br />
equation. Davis Foster Wallace will not<br />
be misunderstood.<br />
limelight in <strong>the</strong> wake of his first novel, This<br />
Side of Paradise. However, his fame did not<br />
last during his lifetime, and Fitzgerald died a<br />
drunken Hollywood scriptwriter, debatably<br />
successful. Edmund Wilson, who outlived and<br />
was close to Fitzgerald thought it “absurd that<br />
his drunken, often silly college friend could<br />
become a dying-and-reviving god.” In this and<br />
similar cases, dying preceded <strong>the</strong> mythicizing<br />
of <strong>the</strong> prematurely deceased artist as a<br />
painfully simplified victim of his time. Think<br />
Shelley. Think Mozart.<br />
In this essay, I review how <strong>the</strong>se two authors<br />
overlap in a postmodern context. I’m<br />
interested in how <strong>the</strong>ir works deal with <strong>the</strong><br />
consequences of losing self to expectation,<br />
ironic living, and <strong>the</strong> inherent restrictions of<br />
thought as a portal to “happy.” I gesticulate<br />
towards <strong>the</strong> degrading and personal<br />
repercussions of irony and cynicism.<br />
2<br />
Wallace’s gift to explicitly depict <strong>the</strong> inner<br />
turmoil of <strong>the</strong> mind hints towards <strong>the</strong><br />
causation of his suicide. His pen could<br />
not keep up with <strong>the</strong> inspiration. The<br />
contradiction of Wallace, that he understood<br />
and could poignantly articulate <strong>the</strong> most<br />
complex failings of human thought while<br />
drowning in his own powerful truisms,<br />
surfaces in his coldly controlled honesty.<br />
Conversely, F. Scott Fitzgerald more directly<br />
inserted his well-publicized personal issues<br />
into <strong>the</strong> stories he composed; stories that<br />
are a perfect model of how fiction should<br />
be written. F. Scott Fitzgerald arrived in <strong>the</strong><br />
My parents turned me onto David Foster<br />
Wallace. We would listen to his tapes on<br />
road trips through <strong>the</strong> desert, and I would<br />
fall asleep with my face against fogging<br />
glass, hearing his voice, complete with <strong>the</strong><br />
footnotes, tell me about lobsters or tennis<br />
or porn. I woke up once to his voice reading<br />
“The View from Mrs. Thompson’s House,” and<br />
this is <strong>the</strong> essay that was my introduction to<br />
<strong>the</strong> terms “postmodern,” and “cynical.” In <strong>the</strong><br />
essay, he writes about <strong>the</strong> shameful thoughts<br />
and <strong>the</strong> guilt <strong>the</strong>se thoughts caused as he<br />
watched <strong>the</strong> twin towers come down again<br />
and again on September 11th, 2001, from <strong>the</strong><br />
living room of his neighbor’s home:<br />
42 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
There is what would strike many<br />
Americans as a marked, startling lack<br />
of cynicism… nobody’s near hip enough<br />
to lodge <strong>the</strong> sick and obvious po-mo<br />
complaint: We’ve Seen This Before… <strong>the</strong>re<br />
are any number of cynical, detached, and<br />
ironic observations that could be made<br />
about <strong>the</strong> situation unfolding.<br />
These are <strong>the</strong> thoughts that occur to U.S.<br />
Americans at <strong>the</strong> beginning of <strong>the</strong> 21st<br />
century, and <strong>the</strong>y undeniably occur in 2017<br />
as America’s repetitious stream of mass<br />
shootings and terrorism continues. Yes,<br />
we’ve seen it before. At this point in <strong>the</strong><br />
carnage, it would be unfair to say that most<br />
Americans are being hip in <strong>the</strong>ir cynicism.<br />
It seems like cynical justifications are now<br />
required to get through <strong>the</strong> days after a<br />
Sandy Hook or a Vegas.<br />
I remember where I was when I heard<br />
about Vegas. I was checking my phone<br />
when I swiped over and saw <strong>the</strong> news. I<br />
wanted to throw up. The depressing thing<br />
isn’t that I went to school and nobody even<br />
talked about it. Sometimes this is <strong>the</strong> only<br />
response. It’s just that <strong>the</strong> postmodern line<br />
is more resigned now: “Yes, I saw <strong>the</strong> same<br />
news, and it’s going to happen again.”<br />
Wallace ends “The View from Mrs.<br />
Thompson’s House” with an admission<br />
that he has lost his innocence to a worse<br />
god than that of violence or trauma. As<br />
Wallace stands in a prayer circle with <strong>the</strong><br />
type of people most empa<strong>the</strong>tically hurt<br />
by <strong>the</strong> (capital H) Horror, he articulates <strong>the</strong><br />
feeling of shame brought by being a cynic<br />
surrounded by unashamed earnestness: “It’s<br />
good to pray this way. It’s just a bit lonely to<br />
have to. Truly decent, innocent, people can<br />
be taxing to be around.”<br />
3<br />
I skipped all of my commitments for a<br />
few days this past autumn, for a variety of<br />
reasons. Primarily, I was depressed and<br />
didn’t want to go to school with <strong>the</strong> wea<strong>the</strong>r<br />
so romantic. Instead, I pedaled down to <strong>the</strong><br />
graveyard on my street, which overlooks <strong>the</strong><br />
city, and read a bunch of Fitzgerald short<br />
stories in <strong>the</strong> sun while chain-smoking.<br />
Naturally. Fitzgerald fit <strong>the</strong> wea<strong>the</strong>r, and<br />
<strong>the</strong> gloom.<br />
Throughout all of Fitzgerald’s writing <strong>the</strong>re<br />
exists this haunting atmospheric sense of<br />
immediate, looming decay in <strong>the</strong> midst of<br />
relentless beauty. Beauty always fades.<br />
Beauty begs an answer for <strong>the</strong> value of<br />
what cannot be kept. Fitzgerald’s characters<br />
fumble to make sense of <strong>the</strong> ungraspable,<br />
intangible and mockingly transitory<br />
graduations of light into absence. They fail<br />
attempting to preserve <strong>the</strong> now past-tense<br />
present, and in <strong>the</strong>ir grasping, <strong>the</strong>y fall<br />
victim to expectation. Think Gatsby floating<br />
in his pool.<br />
4<br />
In Infinite Jest, Wallace uses <strong>the</strong> only innocent<br />
character in <strong>the</strong> novel, Mario, to present<br />
a contrasting voice among <strong>the</strong> darkly selfaware<br />
students at Enfield Tennis Academy.<br />
Wallace describes Mario as a “cross between<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
43
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
a puppet and one of <strong>the</strong> big-headed<br />
disengages <strong>the</strong> mind from <strong>the</strong> present. Miller<br />
carnivores from Spielberg’s old specialeffects<br />
orgies about reptiles.” Because of or to express earnest emotionality has for<br />
identifies that to admit one’s own neediness<br />
Mario’s literally “reptilian” appearance,<br />
some reason become embarrassing in a<br />
he has no mask to hide behind. Mario’s setting where “humanness” gets laughed<br />
bro<strong>the</strong>r Hal tells us that Mario’s opinion is out of <strong>the</strong> room. Detached heads now<br />
<strong>the</strong> only opinion he is truly afraid of because watch bodies from <strong>the</strong> third person to avoid<br />
Mario’s absolute lack of pretentiousness involvement with <strong>the</strong> often-uncomfortable<br />
gives anything he has to say a painfully<br />
present, and this is irony:<br />
uncomfortable power:<br />
Being ironic, we can point at bodies<br />
The older Mario gets, <strong>the</strong> more confused and laugh without admitting our own<br />
he gets about <strong>the</strong> fact that everyone at<br />
embodiedness. We can treat life itself as<br />
E.T.A. [<strong>the</strong> tennis academy] over <strong>the</strong> age a spectacle staged for our entertainment<br />
of about Kent Blott finds stuff that is<br />
and <strong>the</strong>n roll our eyes when it insists on<br />
really real uncomfortable and <strong>the</strong>y get<br />
being ordinary and user-unfriendly.<br />
embarrassed. It’s like <strong>the</strong>re’s some rule<br />
that real stuff can only get mentioned if This is thinking as an addiction: no longer<br />
everybody rolls <strong>the</strong>ir eyes or laughs in a responding to stimuli but simply analyzing<br />
way that isn’t happy.<br />
from <strong>the</strong> outside. Ironic living results in a<br />
mental state of constantly narrating life<br />
Kent Block is ten years old. Students<br />
in <strong>the</strong> third person. Fictitious. The ironic<br />
become cynical right around <strong>the</strong> age of self lives fully in a state of perception<br />
ten. Mario is apparently unable to detect management. That is, managing and<br />
lies, <strong>the</strong> consequence of his uncorrupted analyzing full-time how <strong>the</strong> self appears to<br />
view of people. But Wallace emphasizes o<strong>the</strong>r bodies.<br />
that nobody thinks Mario is unintelligent.<br />
Mario’s naivety is a suggestion that <strong>the</strong> cold Ironic selves do not actually participate in<br />
intellectualism of postmodernism keeps life and circumstance; <strong>the</strong>y rarely dance.<br />
people from confronting <strong>the</strong> real. A constant Imagine dancing with someone at prom or<br />
need for entertainment facilitates this<br />
some o<strong>the</strong>r equally strange event. They are<br />
distracted avoidance.<br />
far better looking than you, and definitely<br />
and emphatically don’t purposely want to<br />
5<br />
be dancing with you. They roll <strong>the</strong>ir eyes.<br />
They would ra<strong>the</strong>r be anywhere than dancing<br />
In his book, The Gospel According to David with you in this precise moment. This is<br />
Environmental<br />
Foster Wallace, Adam S. Miller argues that dancing with irony: avoiding <strong>the</strong> awkward,<br />
a postmodern need for distraction alters sweaty, real parts of life from beneath an<br />
our very thinking patterns in a way that inhuman mask.<br />
Ecology<br />
44 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
6<br />
In Fitzgerald’s, This Side of Paradise,<br />
Monsignor Darcy explains <strong>the</strong> difference<br />
between a personality and personage to<br />
<strong>the</strong> protagonist Amory. Personalities serve<br />
as facades that “lower <strong>the</strong> people <strong>the</strong>y act<br />
on.” A personality is a pretense that covers<br />
<strong>the</strong> nakedness of a personage, or what a<br />
person actually is. A personage “ga<strong>the</strong>rs” and<br />
is never “thought of apart from what he’s<br />
done.”<br />
The lies <strong>the</strong> mind tells itself about its<br />
personality (or its actual self if you will),<br />
draws <strong>the</strong> caricature person, which <strong>the</strong><br />
ironic self insists on being. This conceptual<br />
definition of body, and self, measures <strong>the</strong><br />
displacement between where <strong>the</strong> body is,<br />
and where <strong>the</strong> mind abstractly exists. As<br />
Don Draper puts it in <strong>the</strong> show Mad Men,<br />
“We make people who we want <strong>the</strong>m to be.”<br />
And, I hear Alejandra Pizarnik call out, dead,<br />
from below <strong>the</strong> ground: “There I am, drunk<br />
on a thousand deaths, telling myself about<br />
me.” We stay stuck in our minds, dead, telling<br />
ourselves about ourselves upon a foundation<br />
of avoidant lies. Irony is that disconnected<br />
mind watching that caricature body have<br />
sex, sweat at a party, stare at a television set.<br />
Never fully participating in <strong>the</strong> event. This is<br />
self-voyeurism in <strong>the</strong> creepiest sense of <strong>the</strong><br />
word. The boring, embarrassingly human<br />
aspects of life that this personality must<br />
avoid, may measure this distance. Ultimately,<br />
this insidious denial of self adds up. A tab<br />
will be paid if one chooses to face down <strong>the</strong><br />
inherent fluorescence of existence. This will<br />
be uncomfortable. But if successful, <strong>the</strong> world<br />
might again take on that tangible, malleable<br />
and manageable quality of childhood.<br />
7<br />
I am being nudged awake. It is 7 a.m. It<br />
is time to go skateboarding. Someone is<br />
putting a cigarette in my mouth. Eight of us<br />
pile in a white tinted van. Nirvana’s “Rape<br />
Me” plays from a legitimate cassette player<br />
up front. Everyone is pretty hung-over. The<br />
van has actual ashtrays at every seat, so,<br />
cigs inside. My older bro<strong>the</strong>r left a bottle of<br />
amphetamines in <strong>the</strong> car <strong>the</strong> day before, and<br />
<strong>the</strong> bottle gets tossed around <strong>the</strong> van too.<br />
We get to <strong>the</strong> skate park early before <strong>the</strong> gate<br />
is open. Skateboards are thrown over <strong>the</strong><br />
fence, followed by some “fucks” as each of us<br />
crashes down onto <strong>the</strong> lawn. It’s a tall fence.<br />
The pavement at <strong>the</strong> skate park has this<br />
ephemeral, almost intangible, viscous quality<br />
when <strong>the</strong> morning light hits <strong>the</strong> perfectly<br />
smooth cement. Stiff shivering bodies roll<br />
lazily out over <strong>the</strong> playing field. Warming up<br />
before o<strong>the</strong>r skaters show up when <strong>the</strong> park<br />
opens. Someone lights up ano<strong>the</strong>r cigarette,<br />
and like a black hole, <strong>the</strong> orbits of each skater<br />
pull closer and closer until collision.<br />
“That 99% of compulsive thinkers’ thinking is<br />
about <strong>the</strong>mselves,” Wallace tells us, and that<br />
this thinking, this unutterable neurosis of<br />
fictionalized self, simply consists of “scaring<br />
<strong>the</strong> ever living shit out of itself.” Large<br />
portions of Infinite Jest deal with thinking<br />
as an addiction, which is <strong>the</strong> first and only<br />
addiction. If, as Don Draper spits in <strong>the</strong><br />
show Mad Men, “happiness is <strong>the</strong> moment<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
45
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
before you need more happiness,” <strong>the</strong>n<br />
real addiction (physical dependence aside)<br />
occurs when that moment between expected<br />
contentment and relief from, “all <strong>the</strong> pain of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Losses your love of that relief caused,”<br />
shortens, and stems fur<strong>the</strong>r thought past this<br />
immediately pounding and, in every case,<br />
knowingly misled faith that <strong>the</strong>se always<br />
carefully performed rituals can brush off<br />
this unendurable moment until that next<br />
moment. Usually when <strong>the</strong> substance wears<br />
off. Chewing on old memories, overanalyzing<br />
<strong>the</strong> stimuli we receive, and perhaps even<br />
worrying about unchangeable things is<br />
just ano<strong>the</strong>r addiction. Thinking promises<br />
happiness, perhaps, but thoughts don’t<br />
change anything. Willing our world to change<br />
never works. And this process makes us feel<br />
empty, every time.<br />
8<br />
In This is Water, Wallace argues that <strong>the</strong><br />
“banal platitudes” of life carry real life-anddeath<br />
implications: “Think of <strong>the</strong> old cliché́<br />
about ‘<strong>the</strong> mind being an excellent servant<br />
but a terrible master. This, like many clichés,<br />
so lame and unexciting on <strong>the</strong> surface,<br />
actually expresses a great and terrible truth.<br />
It is not <strong>the</strong> least bit coincidental that adults<br />
who commit suicide with firearms almost<br />
always shoot <strong>the</strong>mselves in <strong>the</strong> head.”<br />
David Foster Wallace took his own life in<br />
2008. He did not use a firearm. He did not<br />
shoot himself in <strong>the</strong> head.<br />
Fitzgerald died four days before Christmas in<br />
1944. Few people attended his funeral. Years<br />
of affairs, trips to <strong>the</strong> hospital, car crashes,<br />
and general drunkenness ensured this. It<br />
took time for <strong>the</strong> glorifying of <strong>the</strong> saint to<br />
begin. It was <strong>the</strong>n that Zelda wrote:<br />
I feel that Scott’s greatest contribution was<br />
<strong>the</strong> dramatization of a heart-broken +<br />
despairing era, giving it a new raison-d’être<br />
in <strong>the</strong> sense of tragic courage with<br />
which he endowed it.<br />
“Winter Dreams,” published in 1926 while<br />
Fitzgerald was planning Gatsby, follows an<br />
ambitious boy, Dexter, in his idolatry of a<br />
rich aristocratic woman bred well above his<br />
own breed. The love falters, and <strong>the</strong> boy is<br />
gracelessly disposed of shortly before <strong>the</strong>y<br />
are to be engaged. A year later, a successful<br />
Dexter sits in a high-rise in New York City. A<br />
coworker casually mentions <strong>the</strong> name of his<br />
old lover and rumors of her abuse by her<br />
wealthy husband. And also, how much her<br />
beauty has faded. Something registers in<br />
Dexter. <strong>No</strong>t pangs of regret, but <strong>the</strong> absence<br />
of regret:<br />
He had thought that having nothing else<br />
to lose he was invulnerable at last—but<br />
he knew that he had just lost something<br />
more, as sure as he had married Judy<br />
Jones and seen her fade away before his<br />
eye. The dream was gone. Something had<br />
been taken from him…. For <strong>the</strong> first time<br />
in years he felt <strong>the</strong> tears were streaming<br />
down his face…. He wanted to care, but<br />
he could not care, and <strong>the</strong>re was no<br />
beauty but <strong>the</strong> gray beauty of steel that<br />
withstands all time.<br />
46 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
“Long ago, <strong>the</strong>re was something in me,” he<br />
said. “That thing will come back no more.”<br />
Dexter mourns <strong>the</strong> loss of <strong>the</strong> ability to<br />
mourn. The loss of innocence that registers<br />
with Wallace in “The View from Mrs.<br />
Thompson’s House.” The golden pedestal,<br />
so carefully crafted by Dexter, collapses<br />
beneath a fictitious love. This love story<br />
echoes Fitzgerald’s own relationship with his<br />
wife Zelda, a legitimate “Sou<strong>the</strong>rn Bell.” Zelda<br />
originally refused to marry <strong>the</strong> middle-class<br />
Fitzgerald. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald buckled<br />
down and started to win fame and money<br />
with his writing. He won back his girl. Zelda<br />
eventually accepted <strong>the</strong> hand of <strong>the</strong> new and<br />
rising star; queue one of <strong>the</strong> most publicly<br />
distasteful and by all accounts deranged<br />
relationships of <strong>the</strong> 20th century. Fitzgerald<br />
got what he wanted, and was left with <strong>the</strong><br />
glitter:<br />
“Because desire just cheats you. It’s<br />
like a sunbeam skipping here and<br />
<strong>the</strong>re about a room. It stops and gilds<br />
some inconsequential object, and we<br />
poor fools try to grasp it—but when<br />
we do <strong>the</strong> sunbeam moves on to<br />
something else, and you’ve got <strong>the</strong><br />
inconsequential part, but <strong>the</strong> glitter<br />
that made you want it is gone.”<br />
9<br />
My aunt has every edition of <strong>the</strong> Best<br />
American Short Stories, series on a shelf in her<br />
basement. I picked up <strong>the</strong> 1988 edition at<br />
random a few weeks ago. The argumentative<br />
nature of <strong>the</strong> introduction contrasted<br />
<strong>the</strong> often neutral to boring level <strong>the</strong>se<br />
introductions uphold. This introduction,<br />
written by Mark Helprin, startled me in its<br />
relevance three decades later. Helprin attacks<br />
<strong>the</strong> minimalist school of fiction and effectively<br />
paints this enemy as “mice treading through<br />
lion territory” with an “unwillingness to deal<br />
with life o<strong>the</strong>r than obliquely” that is not<br />
subtlety but cowardice. These writers make<br />
an industry of ridicule, he claims, and he asks<br />
of <strong>the</strong>ir characters:<br />
Why do <strong>the</strong>y always live in filthy unkempt<br />
apartments filled with ugly bric-a-brac,<br />
where everyone smokes, drinks, stays up<br />
all night, and is addicted to coffee? Why<br />
do <strong>the</strong>y seem to exist as if <strong>the</strong>re were no<br />
landscape, as if <strong>the</strong>y lived in tunnels? Is<br />
this why <strong>the</strong>y are never sunburned?<br />
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway<br />
traded correspondence throughout <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
careers. Hemingway adhered to <strong>the</strong> stoically<br />
masculine, “if you can cut a word or phrase,<br />
and still have a story, cut it,” policy that<br />
makes his writing easily recognizable. His<br />
writing is <strong>the</strong> definition of minimalism.<br />
Fitzgerald’s writing is a little less taut.<br />
But Helprin is not referring to Hemingway’s<br />
minimalism in his argument. Fitzgerald and<br />
Hemingway didn’t cut or reduce human<br />
conflicts in <strong>the</strong>ir stories <strong>the</strong> way that<br />
Helprin claims minimalist writing does.<br />
They wore <strong>the</strong>ir sufferings unashamed on<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir sleeves, and never danced around<br />
tragedy. Hemingway’s, Farewell to Arms, and<br />
Fitzgerald’s short stories terminate with a<br />
numbing note of loss after teasing beauty.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
47
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
But at least <strong>the</strong>y have something to say<br />
about <strong>the</strong> human experience, and <strong>the</strong>y don’t<br />
treat life “obliquely.” They do not revert<br />
to cheap nihilism, and <strong>the</strong> bleakness <strong>the</strong>y<br />
arrive at stems from <strong>the</strong> Horrors faced by<br />
<strong>the</strong> lost generation.<br />
of depression among bewildered patrons<br />
who need something more uplifting? When<br />
nothing human is challenged in media, <strong>the</strong><br />
point becomes obscure and consumers find<br />
<strong>the</strong>mselves continually asking, “What <strong>the</strong><br />
hell am I missing?”<br />
Fitzgerald <strong>the</strong>orized and explored <strong>the</strong> idea<br />
that each person has a limited emotional<br />
capacity, which once depleted, leaves a<br />
person unable to feel anything at all. In his<br />
fiction, beautiful girls with social status and<br />
every shallow glamor get everything <strong>the</strong>y<br />
ever asked for and find <strong>the</strong>mselves, like<br />
Daisy, sobbing in a cascade of <strong>the</strong> finest<br />
European shirts, or arrive at a deadening<br />
emotional stasis. But <strong>the</strong> point is that<br />
<strong>the</strong>re is a bloody reason and point to <strong>the</strong><br />
deadening. Gatsby dies with his eyes open.<br />
The next post-war generation bred <strong>the</strong><br />
deadbeats. Jack Kerouac, Hunter S.<br />
Thompson, and William S. Burroughs to<br />
name a few. They faced <strong>the</strong> atom bomb.<br />
Their writings don’t exactly advocate<br />
<strong>the</strong>, “getting fucked up because nothing<br />
matters,” mentality even though at times<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir characters definitely adhere to this line<br />
as <strong>the</strong>y drunkenly flee to <strong>the</strong> ends of <strong>the</strong><br />
continent. The reader can still squeeze light<br />
and character out of <strong>the</strong>ir stories.<br />
Contemporary media, on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand,<br />
relies on a caustic mixture of clever selfreferencing<br />
that makes a cold satire of <strong>the</strong><br />
human emotion. When <strong>the</strong>re is no point<br />
in mass entertainment than to present<br />
nihilistic overtures, what else can be<br />
expected o<strong>the</strong>r than high rates<br />
Don’t worry; <strong>the</strong>re is nothing to miss.<br />
10<br />
Fitzgerald and Wallace showed us precisely<br />
how to be human. Wallace unforgettably<br />
dictated consciousness for <strong>the</strong> world and,<br />
finally, articulated <strong>the</strong> limits of introspection.<br />
Fitzgerald built worlds of impossible<br />
beauty, and <strong>the</strong>n stepped aside to paint <strong>the</strong><br />
collapse. Both suffered from <strong>the</strong> mental<br />
turbulence that accompanies a mind with<br />
something pressingly important to say.<br />
Please, forget <strong>the</strong> noose and <strong>the</strong> belt and<br />
<strong>the</strong> alcoholism. Forget <strong>the</strong>se black stains<br />
for now, however enjoyable you might find<br />
delving into that darkness. Lose <strong>the</strong> image<br />
of Fitzgerald hunched drunkenly over his<br />
typewriter, composing his escape. The<br />
funerals are already crowded with this type.<br />
This is too easy. Act like you don’t have <strong>the</strong><br />
natural desire to know what pushed <strong>the</strong>m<br />
over. And, of course, you want to know<br />
exactly how someone did it, I know. Read<br />
<strong>the</strong> transformational lucidity and crystalline<br />
gorgeousness before rushing in with <strong>the</strong> rest<br />
of <strong>the</strong> eager cluster-fucking necrophiliacs.<br />
11<br />
I, like all contemporary Americans, have<br />
48 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and <strong>the</strong><br />
vapidity of <strong>the</strong> bottomless, postmodern machine.<br />
Clark Nielson<br />
seen <strong>the</strong> face of cynicism. Cynicism is sexy.<br />
Cynicism peers out from <strong>the</strong> back seat<br />
of a black Audi, next to <strong>the</strong> hot wife he<br />
probably cheats on. Cynicism convinces<br />
me, sometimes, that since nothing matters,<br />
anything earnest and real can be laughed<br />
at, that I can put on this ironic postmodern<br />
mask and avoid what it means to be a<br />
“fucking human being.” Wallace’s cage<br />
is safe:<br />
“Postmodern irony and cynicism’s<br />
become an end in itself, a measure of<br />
hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few<br />
artists dare to try to talk about ways of<br />
working toward redeeming what’s wrong,<br />
because <strong>the</strong>y’ll look sentimental and naive<br />
to all <strong>the</strong> weary ironists. Irony’s gone from<br />
liberating to enslaving. There’s some great<br />
essay somewhere that has a line about<br />
irony being <strong>the</strong> song of <strong>the</strong> prisoner who’s<br />
come to love his cage.”<br />
Earnestness triggers an undeniable degree<br />
of repulsion to us now. <strong>No</strong>body remains<br />
innocent in this way. We need ano<strong>the</strong>r<br />
Bradbury. I need Dandelion Wine. I need<br />
some starlit imagination.<br />
And what did we trade our innocence for?<br />
Black humor that can paw lightly over <strong>the</strong><br />
Horrors when <strong>the</strong>y occur, as if <strong>the</strong>y too,<br />
don’t mean anything? And when <strong>the</strong> ironic<br />
mask is stripped off and beady eyes are<br />
forced to adjust to disorienting levels of<br />
saturation… this will be an uncomfortable<br />
confession. And when Helprin’s minimalists<br />
find <strong>the</strong>mselves with <strong>the</strong>ir “heads shaved<br />
clean, in a prison camp,” <strong>the</strong> people <strong>the</strong>y love<br />
dead, if anything is left at all to be felt, it will<br />
be <strong>the</strong> shame of being a part of <strong>the</strong> fucking<br />
human race that <strong>the</strong>y originally needed <strong>the</strong><br />
masks for.<br />
12<br />
This will sound cheesy, but—no don’t fucking<br />
justify this. Things have been stupid and<br />
meaningless for god knows how long, and<br />
people need a break. Postmodernism is no<br />
longer edgy, but degrading and tolling. This<br />
lack of earnest human experience has turned<br />
out to be a far more insidious and un-tame<br />
creature than originally thought. Inhuman<br />
intellectualism will be emphatically rejected.<br />
I believe most US Americans are noticing<br />
<strong>the</strong> absence of light, and <strong>the</strong> necessity.<br />
We now stand at a party we did not intend<br />
on attending, surrounded by people talking<br />
shit on not only <strong>the</strong> party, but <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
people at <strong>the</strong> party. Only it’s no longer<br />
funny, it’s kind of sickening. And people are<br />
filing out. Suddenly everyone starts rushing<br />
towards <strong>the</strong> door to avoid being <strong>the</strong> last<br />
person in that room with that handsome<br />
man who arrived in a black Audi and whose<br />
grin is now acutely upsetting.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
49
Survival Series<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
50 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Survival Series<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Left | Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Survival Seven - Binoculars<br />
Screenprint, 14” x 14”<br />
Ms. Schermerhorn is currently <strong>the</strong> Artistic Director<br />
at Pyramid Atlantic, an art center dedicated to <strong>the</strong><br />
creation and preservation of hand printmaking,<br />
papermaking and <strong>the</strong> art of <strong>the</strong> book, in Silver<br />
Spring, Maryland. She received her MFA in<br />
Printmaking from Arizona State University in 2004,<br />
and since <strong>the</strong>n has completed artist residencies at<br />
Women’s Studio Workshop in New York, Columbia<br />
College Center for Book and Paper in Chicago,<br />
Seacourt Print Workshop in <strong>No</strong>r<strong>the</strong>rn Ireland, and<br />
California State University. Her prints, installations<br />
and works on paper works have been exhibited<br />
in New York, Boston and Washington DC, and her<br />
work is in national and international collections.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
51
Survival Series<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Survival One - How to<br />
Make a Pair of Sunglasses<br />
Screenprint, 14” x 14”<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Survival Three - Cashew<br />
Screenprint, 14” x 14”<br />
52 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Survival Series<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Survival Five - How to Make Fishhooks<br />
Screenprint, 14” x 14”<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
53
Survival Series<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
54 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Survival Series<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Gretchen Schermerhorn<br />
Survival Two - Firestarter<br />
Screenprint, 14” x 14”<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
55
Identity, Narrative,<br />
and Miseducation in a<br />
More-Than-Human World<br />
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant<br />
Rae Wynn-Grant, PhD, is a wildlife ecologist at<br />
<strong>the</strong> Center for Biodiversity and Conservation<br />
at <strong>the</strong> American Museum of Natural History.<br />
Unapologetic about her love for studying<br />
charismatic megafauna, she spends a quarter<br />
of <strong>the</strong> year conducting fieldwork to measure <strong>the</strong><br />
impact humans have on <strong>the</strong> ecology and behavior<br />
of wildlife. Rae is a conservation biology educator<br />
at <strong>the</strong> graduate, undergraduate, and high school<br />
levels, as well as a science communicator with<br />
special interest in increasing awareness of and<br />
participation in conservation biology for people<br />
of color. When taking a break from <strong>the</strong> science<br />
world, Rae loves to practice yoga, travel for<br />
pleasure, and catch up with her inspiring friends.<br />
Rae lives in New York City with her husband,<br />
daughter, and mo<strong>the</strong>r.<br />
Arts educator and museum consultant Toni Wynn<br />
writes creative nonfiction, museum exhibitions,<br />
essays, and poetry. Toni can be found where<br />
<strong>the</strong>re’s art, love, and wind.<br />
raewynngrant.com | toniwynn.com<br />
56 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Identity, Narrative, and Miseducation in a More-Than-Human World<br />
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant<br />
We see <strong>the</strong> world and <strong>the</strong> way <strong>the</strong> world<br />
functions as perfect and complete, especially<br />
in <strong>the</strong> absence of humans and human<br />
modification.<br />
Rae Wynn-Grant and Toni Wynn<br />
Daughter and mo<strong>the</strong>r, environmental<br />
scientist and poet, educator and<br />
educator, nature enthusiast and nature<br />
enthusiast, museum worker and<br />
museum worker, write about <strong>the</strong> ways<br />
nature impacts <strong>the</strong>m as <strong>the</strong>y live and<br />
work — as interdisciplinary influencers<br />
and just as humans — in a “more than<br />
human world.”<br />
A through-line of flashpoints — identity,<br />
narrative, and miseducation — are<br />
amplified where <strong>the</strong> two voices intersect.<br />
Excerpts from Toni’s nature poetry<br />
balance and interrogate Rae’s deep dives<br />
into conservation science.<br />
Toni Wynn: Much of my connection to<br />
nature now that I’ve moved to New York<br />
City comes from memory, buffeting winds,<br />
grey skies, and infrequent travel to wilder,<br />
natural spaces.<br />
At home in coastal Virginia I grew vegetables<br />
and herbs in my giant backyard. Five years<br />
of arugula with flavor! Then Rae sent me<br />
video of <strong>the</strong> dire-climate-change address<br />
John Kerry delivered across <strong>the</strong> river at Old<br />
Dominion University when he was Secretary<br />
of State. Next, links to reports from Rae’s<br />
associates at <strong>the</strong> pre-45 EPA. My son Asa<br />
phoned in his entreaties. I visited a friend in<br />
<strong>No</strong>rfolk whose neighbors had raised <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
homes on stilts. I’d lost a Toyota to a flash<br />
flood in 2003, and was regularly bailing or<br />
pumping out water that seeped through <strong>the</strong><br />
floor of my basement during storms that<br />
coincided with high tides. There’s no denying<br />
water when you’re in it — in time, my house<br />
would be under it. I prepared to move.<br />
Rae Wynn-Grant: Nature was first<br />
introduced to me as in-crisis. Fear tactics<br />
exploded around this elementary-schooler<br />
in <strong>the</strong> early 1990s. I was equally terrified<br />
about being arrested for littering as I was<br />
about my Halloween candy being poisoned,<br />
or getting shot for wearing red in a blue<br />
gang zone. I have memories of crying<br />
hysterically over <strong>the</strong> extent of air and water<br />
pollution and not understanding why society<br />
would allow it to continue. The plight of<br />
endangered species was, apparently, too<br />
much to handle, and twenty years later I’ve<br />
found myself in a career dedicated to saving<br />
<strong>the</strong>m from extinction.<br />
jagged top-to-bottom scar of lightning<br />
over <strong>the</strong> river. sheets of rain, but<br />
before, that slate grey sky. pages of<br />
clouds turn from north to east. bright,<br />
cowed sou<strong>the</strong>rn sky helpless in its<br />
advance. severe now, wea<strong>the</strong>r and <strong>the</strong><br />
toppled expectation of yellow gingko or<br />
orange sugar maple leaves. now with<br />
warning labels.<br />
30 September 2011 from “Solo <strong>No</strong>vo<br />
122 days”<br />
Rae Wynn-Grant: Through academia, I<br />
studied nature, <strong>the</strong> natural world, and<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
57
Identity, Narrative, and Miseducation in a More-Than-Human World<br />
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant<br />
<strong>the</strong> science of conserving nature. My love<br />
for nature sprouted organically, but <strong>the</strong><br />
lens through which I operate and study is<br />
grounded in <strong>the</strong>oretical ecology. I’m glad I<br />
went <strong>the</strong> academic route, as it helped me<br />
realize that science is one of my strengths —<br />
and, ultimately, my career passion.<br />
Toni Wynn: There’s a false narrative — sold<br />
with urgency by commerce-driven American<br />
society — around how African American<br />
people aren’t terribly keen on nature. I<br />
bought that line as a new adult exercising<br />
her sudden ability to purchase her own<br />
things. But as I commuted across <strong>the</strong> Golden<br />
Gate Bridge, <strong>the</strong>re was, crucially, nothing<br />
to buy. <strong>No</strong>thing to see but natural beauty.<br />
My kids could watch horses on a hill from<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir bedroom window when <strong>the</strong>y were<br />
small — <strong>the</strong> same years when Rae became<br />
hyperaware of <strong>the</strong> state of <strong>the</strong> environment.<br />
At night <strong>the</strong> horses sleep. Come daybreak,<br />
a collie speeds around <strong>the</strong>m. To get <strong>the</strong>m<br />
running? Because <strong>the</strong>y’re pure that way?<br />
Saying what — my eyes can suffer<br />
more beauty?<br />
At night a telescope rings Saturn in, and<br />
four of Jupiter’s moons. Coyotes run, days<br />
later, at dusk, owning <strong>the</strong> canyon, barking<br />
vapor into air, a passage of fur, feet,<br />
and danger.<br />
from “A Brown Girl’s Nature Poem:<br />
Canyonlands”<br />
Rae Wynn-Grant: There is a critical<br />
intersection of identity, identity politics,<br />
social justice, and inclusivity that is lacking<br />
and yet essential for conservation to be<br />
effective. This was not something always<br />
clear to me.<br />
In summer 2014, I traveled to California<br />
to present my work for <strong>the</strong> first time at a<br />
prestigious ecology conference. I didn’t<br />
enter <strong>the</strong> journey confidently, knowing my<br />
performance needed to be particularly<br />
impressive as I would likely be one of <strong>the</strong><br />
few, if not only, black scientists presenting<br />
work and would thus stand out. As I always<br />
do, I first flew to <strong>the</strong> Bay Area to spend a few<br />
days with my family before embarking on<br />
<strong>the</strong> two-hour drive to Sacramento to finish<br />
last-minute editing of my presentation for<br />
<strong>the</strong> next day. I listened to NPR during my<br />
drive; <strong>the</strong> programming focused entirely on<br />
<strong>the</strong> riots and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri,<br />
following <strong>the</strong> shooting of Mike Brown only<br />
days earlier. I cried as I drove, cursed as I<br />
drove, grew weary as I drove. By <strong>the</strong> time I<br />
arrived in Sacramento, I was in a mentally<br />
difficult place. On one hand, <strong>the</strong> biggest<br />
scientific opportunity of my career thus far<br />
was <strong>the</strong> next morning, and my presentation<br />
needed practice and polishing. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
hand, my soul needed critical care and my<br />
grief was palpable.<br />
I was invited to present a study on <strong>the</strong> spatial<br />
distribution of human-induced mortality<br />
risk for black bears. And yet <strong>the</strong> entirety of<br />
my being was consumed with <strong>the</strong> realities<br />
of racially-motivated mortality risk for<br />
black men. I was pained to know that this<br />
conference of thousands of <strong>the</strong> world’s<br />
most elite ecologists would not, and possibly<br />
58 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Identity, Narrative, and Miseducation in a More-Than-Human World<br />
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant<br />
There is a critical<br />
intersection of identity,<br />
identity politics, social<br />
justice, and inclusivity<br />
that is lacking and yet<br />
essential for conservation<br />
to be effective.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
59
Identity, Narrative, and Miseducation in a More-Than-Human World<br />
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant<br />
will never, hold space for myself and my<br />
community, and acknowledge <strong>the</strong> magnitude<br />
of <strong>the</strong> events in Ferguson.<br />
It was at that moment, hours before my<br />
presentation, as I stared at my computer<br />
screen paralyzed with sadness and<br />
concerned for <strong>the</strong> fate of <strong>the</strong> Ferguson<br />
protestors as well as <strong>the</strong> black men in my life,<br />
that I realized what I needed from my natureloving<br />
peers to do <strong>the</strong> work I intended to do.<br />
I realized that <strong>the</strong>re is often no separating<br />
one’s identity from one’s profession, and<br />
to make an impact on effective black bear<br />
conservation —to do science as well as my<br />
peers — I require a space that acknowledges<br />
and supports me in my entirety.<br />
I have yet to find this space, yet my<br />
black conservationist peers and I are<br />
actively attempting to build one. In many<br />
ways, it is our own act of resistance, and<br />
simultaneously, is a necessary first step<br />
toward being able to tackle <strong>the</strong> challenges<br />
facing <strong>the</strong> natural world. This more-thanhuman<br />
world requires <strong>the</strong> world’s humans<br />
to restore it to balance. A color-blind onesize-fits<br />
all approach to facilitating this<br />
work is what has prevented us from<br />
achieving success.<br />
and am only fleetingly surprised when<br />
Philando Castile rises through <strong>the</strong> poem.<br />
Food shoots up from <strong>the</strong> soil, leaps into<br />
<strong>the</strong> kitchen.<br />
I can’t wait to feed you. Tricksters come<br />
two seasons late,<br />
imploded cauliflower <strong>the</strong> consistency<br />
of <strong>the</strong> molten core of <strong>the</strong> Earth.<br />
Sprout calls to heat: Here I am didja<br />
miss me?<br />
I don’t look for you in <strong>the</strong> scrum. I turn<br />
<strong>the</strong> dirt,<br />
dump handfuls of compost into hasty<br />
spaces I create for you.<br />
I do not clap <strong>the</strong> loose soil off my hands.<br />
I let it cling.<br />
I never finish. Still sleepy, before <strong>the</strong> dew<br />
burns off,<br />
before <strong>the</strong> rabbits disappear, I push<br />
myself outside,<br />
wary of <strong>the</strong> mystery that contains you.<br />
I don’t forget to thank you,<br />
<strong>the</strong> crabgrass, and vines that make my<br />
cuticles bleed<br />
from <strong>the</strong> endless pincer motion of<br />
my hands.<br />
Is this a substitute?<br />
Toni Wynn: This is <strong>the</strong> way it goes. Given<br />
time, <strong>the</strong> greatness, <strong>the</strong> grief, <strong>the</strong> day-to-day<br />
of being black in <strong>the</strong> United States bleeds<br />
through any task undertaken. A culture<br />
based on a pervasive, sinister mythology of<br />
<strong>the</strong> black body extends spiny tentacles, and<br />
no place is “unlikely.” I lean on my kitchen<br />
counter, breathing in <strong>the</strong> bounty of a harvest,<br />
For running an ice cream truck company,<br />
perhaps,<br />
keeping account of what’s selling, how<br />
fast, <strong>the</strong> jingles, what each neighborhood<br />
might yield?<br />
These ride-or-die images:<br />
rainbow pops, blue lips, red “He just shot<br />
his arm off”<br />
60 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Identity, Narrative, and Miseducation in a More-Than-Human World<br />
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant<br />
declarative statements Diamond<br />
Reynolds said<br />
into her phone, narrating her man’s<br />
demise.<br />
Should I write despair on a ledger<br />
and tear it until it disappears?<br />
Text comes in R U OK four emojis three<br />
question marks.<br />
Today <strong>the</strong> tomatillos look like tiny<br />
chartreuse lanterns<br />
And as joy would have it, fireflies light<br />
<strong>the</strong>m as I slumber.<br />
I do not clap <strong>the</strong> soil off my hands.<br />
from “You”<br />
often work against our goals.<br />
Toni Wynn: Humans are good for studying<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r humans. Outside of that — and art —<br />
I’m chronically skeptical of what benefits our<br />
species provides.<br />
TO: Students: Medicine II, Dentistry I,<br />
Occupational Therapy<br />
Grad I, Physical Therapy Grad I<br />
FROM: Xxxxx Xxxxx PhD<br />
Associate Professor<br />
Department of Anatomy and<br />
Neurobiology<br />
Director, Gross Anatomical<br />
Laboratory Facilities<br />
Rae Wynn-Grant: Traditionally, conservation<br />
science is taught using a more-than-human<br />
approach to nature. But at <strong>the</strong> same time, we<br />
have a difficult time escaping conversations<br />
about ourselves and our differences. An early<br />
debate in conservation classes surrounds<br />
<strong>the</strong> question “do we fight for species because<br />
<strong>the</strong>y are inherently valuable (to <strong>the</strong> world), or<br />
because <strong>the</strong>y provide services (to people)?”<br />
Making a business case for <strong>the</strong> conservation<br />
of living things and places is uncomfortable<br />
for every conservationist I know, as we<br />
generally see <strong>the</strong> world and <strong>the</strong> way <strong>the</strong><br />
world functions as perfect and complete,<br />
especially in <strong>the</strong> absence of humans and<br />
human modification. However, <strong>the</strong>re is<br />
a need to incentivize conservation — a<br />
need to sell it for conservation to maintain<br />
relevancy and to continue garnering support.<br />
This is especially true in <strong>the</strong> face of rapid<br />
globalization and capitalist markets that<br />
The annual ceremony for <strong>the</strong> interment of<br />
cadaveric ashes from <strong>the</strong> gross anatomy<br />
teaching laboratory will be held on<br />
Wednesday, <strong>No</strong>vember 9, 2011 at 3:30 PM<br />
at <strong>the</strong> MCV Memorial Garden, Forest Lawn<br />
Cemetery (400 Alma Avenue), Richmond,<br />
Virginia. A map is attached. Everyone is<br />
invited to attend. Xxxxxx Xxxxxx, of <strong>the</strong><br />
Department of Patient Counseling, will<br />
officiate.<br />
Kindly announce this occasion to your<br />
classmates who may not have heard or<br />
checked <strong>the</strong>ir e mail. Your attendance<br />
at <strong>the</strong> moving and inspirational event is<br />
encouraged; students who have attended<br />
this service in <strong>the</strong> past have attested to a<br />
profoundly moving spiritual experience.<br />
We have many possessions in life but only<br />
one- our body- is truly our own. To share<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
61
Identity, Narrative, and Miseducation in a More-Than-Human World<br />
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant<br />
this intimate possession is a tremendous<br />
gift, and <strong>the</strong> interment ceremony honors<br />
those who have given this gift, which<br />
enables students to gain <strong>the</strong> knowledge to<br />
serve o<strong>the</strong>rs in <strong>the</strong>ir chosen profession. If<br />
any student feels moved to speak briefly<br />
at this ceremony, he/she would be most<br />
welcome. If a class representative would<br />
like to make a more formal presentation<br />
as part of <strong>the</strong> ceremony, he or she may<br />
contact Chaplain Xxxxxx directly:<br />
Xxxxx xxxxxx<br />
Patient Counseling<br />
xxx-xxxx or fax xxx-xxxx<br />
xxxxx@vcu.edu<br />
With best wishes to all of you as your<br />
pursue your education here at VCU.<br />
This is a found poem. --TW<br />
Rae Wynn-Grant: A refocusing on <strong>the</strong><br />
identity of scientists who do conservation<br />
science, or people who do conservation work,<br />
and an inherent valuation of <strong>the</strong> protection,<br />
safety, opportunities, and futures of <strong>the</strong>se<br />
individuals and <strong>the</strong>ir communities will<br />
transform <strong>the</strong> effectiveness and relevance<br />
of conservation. It is arguably <strong>the</strong> only way<br />
for this field to move forward. Listening to<br />
and centering <strong>the</strong> perspectives of those<br />
historically underrepresented in this field<br />
is critical for <strong>the</strong> sea change this planet<br />
aches for. Even more importantly, we need<br />
to transform understanding into action,<br />
especially from allies and those with decisionmaking<br />
power. A healthy, functioning, morethan-human<br />
world is achievable if we make<br />
equity and inclusion foundations of our work.<br />
Toni Wynn:<br />
We know little about <strong>the</strong> lives of Africans<br />
In 17th century Virginia, <strong>the</strong> video guide<br />
tells.<br />
And this is how some of <strong>the</strong>m lived<br />
Here on Jamestown Island.<br />
We know more every hour.<br />
Even <strong>the</strong> name of <strong>the</strong> first black boy<br />
Bir<strong>the</strong>d on bloody Virginia soil. This,<br />
Perhaps, is his skull.<br />
Dig.<br />
We surely know <strong>the</strong> boy.<br />
from “William, What He Saw”<br />
Poetry by Toni Wynn from <strong>the</strong> following<br />
publications:<br />
<strong>the</strong> place within where <strong>the</strong> universe resides (chapbook),<br />
Shakespeare Press Museum, 1993.<br />
Color, Voices, Place (with John Sousa and Carla Martinez),<br />
Shakespeare Press Museum and SeaMoon Press, 1997.<br />
Reckoning (with Barry Ebner), Editions BaD, 1997.<br />
Ground, Shakespeare Press Museum, 2007<br />
62 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Rebecca Clark Bee 20 (The Real Work), Graphite on paper, 30” x 22”, 2011<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
63
<strong>No</strong>tes on<br />
an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
Left | Mexico Excavations<br />
Workers from Mexico’s<br />
National Institute of<br />
Anthropology look over a<br />
complete skeleton found<br />
during construction of a<br />
subway line in Mexico City,<br />
June 12, 1995. Finds such<br />
as <strong>the</strong>se are common in<br />
Mexico City, which was<br />
built on a lake bed and was<br />
already one of <strong>the</strong> largest<br />
cities in <strong>the</strong> world when<br />
Hernán de Cortés arrived<br />
in 1519. The archaeologists<br />
are attempting to determine<br />
from what period <strong>the</strong><br />
skeletons date. (AP Photo/<br />
Guillermo Gutierrez)<br />
Nat Castañeda is an interdisciplinary visual<br />
artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Castañeda<br />
works primarily in video and collage, with an<br />
emphasis on tactile intimacy with her materials<br />
remaining an important aspect of all her projects.<br />
Common issues in Castañeda’s work are <strong>the</strong> role<br />
of technology within personal narratives and<br />
exploring unknown and underrepresented stories<br />
within <strong>the</strong> historical record.<br />
She received her MFA from <strong>the</strong> School of Visual<br />
Arts and has shown at venues such as El Museo<br />
del Barrio and Electronic Arts Intermix. In<br />
addition to her art practice, Castañeda works<br />
at The Associated Press where she curates<br />
AP’s photographic archive of historical and<br />
contemporary photojournalism. Castañeda’s<br />
photography has appeared in <strong>the</strong> New York<br />
Times, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
65
<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
It is an extraordinary thing to interact with an<br />
archive, let alone one of <strong>the</strong> most important<br />
news archives in <strong>the</strong> world.<br />
When you spend hours in an archive, you<br />
experience a sort of shift between time and<br />
space. It can be disorienting. Skin tones are<br />
turned inside out and subjects take up an<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rworldly countenance. I discovered black<br />
and white negatives humming with lavender<br />
accents, a remnant of <strong>the</strong> chemical bath that<br />
brought <strong>the</strong>m to life. In 35mm negatives, I<br />
often came across colors so unnatural and<br />
unexpected that <strong>the</strong> images seemed more<br />
suited for a museum wall.<br />
In 2007, I was hired by The Associated Press<br />
to work in <strong>the</strong>ir photo library. My role was to<br />
help with <strong>the</strong> digitization of over five million<br />
negatives and prints housed in <strong>the</strong> archive.<br />
The AP’s archive spans <strong>the</strong> age of film—from<br />
glass plate negatives to 35mm, <strong>the</strong> preferred<br />
medium for photographers before <strong>the</strong><br />
introduction of digital photography.<br />
The negatives are kept in aging beige<br />
envelopes with typewritten summaries that<br />
provide contextual information to be used<br />
in a corresponding news report. With a light<br />
table and a magnifying loupe, my job was to<br />
examine negative after negative for anything<br />
that might be deemed “newsworthy” and<br />
visually strong enough to justify <strong>the</strong> tedious<br />
process of digitization.<br />
My experience as an archivist lasted four<br />
years and I am convinced that I will look back<br />
at that time as one of <strong>the</strong> most formative<br />
experiences in my visual and intellectual life.<br />
The process of editing news photos not<br />
only shaped my understanding of how <strong>the</strong><br />
historical record is maintained but shifted <strong>the</strong><br />
way I understood photographic film. I now<br />
understand that negatives are objects which<br />
contain a liveliness of <strong>the</strong>ir own, independent<br />
of context or worth within <strong>the</strong> news industry.<br />
All negatives are in a state of decomposition,<br />
a reminder of <strong>the</strong> fleshy nature of film, but<br />
we intervene, extending <strong>the</strong>ir life as we scan<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir corporeal self into a digital one.<br />
The following series of images were made<br />
during my time as an archivist and taken<br />
with my iPhone camera. They are from my<br />
own personal archive and aren’t particularly<br />
important as news photos. Instead, because<br />
of <strong>the</strong>ir ambiguity, <strong>the</strong>se images find<br />
<strong>the</strong>mselves in <strong>the</strong> outer boundaries of <strong>the</strong><br />
archive; too odd, too beautiful, too quiet to<br />
fit into <strong>the</strong> established news narrative. Yet,<br />
I’ve discovered <strong>the</strong> outer boundaries of <strong>the</strong><br />
archive to be full of imaginative possibilities.<br />
66 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
Left | Egypt 1 Ten kilometers <strong>No</strong>rth of Cairo, not far from <strong>the</strong> Pyramids, is a small village called Abu Rawash in March 1982.<br />
Located on <strong>the</strong> outskirts of <strong>the</strong> desert <strong>the</strong> villagers share <strong>the</strong>ir environment with snakes, scorpions and o<strong>the</strong>r reptiles. (AP Photo)<br />
Above | Emulsion Neg 1 A damaged negative from <strong>the</strong> Associated Press photo library is shown. (AP Photo)<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
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<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
Map A United States Air Force Soldier looks over map in Libya, <strong>No</strong>v. 24, 1951. (AP Photo)<br />
68 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
When you spend hours in an<br />
archive, you experience a<br />
sort of shift between time<br />
and space.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
69
<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
Egypt 2 Women in Upper Egypt village walk, next to Luxor, Egypt in April 1984. (AP Photo/Paola Crociani)<br />
70 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
71
<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
Civil Rights 2 Civil Rights Meredith March - A black man wearing a handkerchief as a mask against tear gas helps a white man<br />
and woman out schoolyard in Canton, Mississippi, June 10, 1966, after police used <strong>the</strong> tear gas to disperse a crowd of Meredith<br />
Marchers and several hundred townspeople who had set up tents for <strong>the</strong> marchers. O<strong>the</strong>rs sit in <strong>the</strong> choking gas at right. Partially<br />
collapsed tent is in right background. White frame in center background is rear of marchers’ tent truck. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly)<br />
72 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
<strong>No</strong>tes on an archive<br />
Nat Castañeda<br />
Japan Earthquake A building crumbles in <strong>the</strong> aftermath of an earthquake, date unknown. (AP Photo)<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
73
In Conversation with<br />
Consciousness: A Reflection<br />
On My Use of Metalogue to<br />
Make Sense of <strong>the</strong> Ecological<br />
Context of Mental Health<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
Weston Wood graduated from <strong>the</strong> University of<br />
Utah with an Honors B.S. in Communication and<br />
participated in <strong>the</strong> Honors College Integrated<br />
Minor in Ecology & Legacy. He currently lives in<br />
Salt Lake City, working odd jobs in education,<br />
research and advocacy. He spends <strong>the</strong> time he<br />
can spare escaping into Utah’s conifers, canyons<br />
and caring for his elderly cat.<br />
74 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
In Conversation with Consciousness<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
“Rivulets run down this patterned<br />
landscape of ridges and ravines, smelling<br />
sharp of sap and soaked earth. Course,<br />
meandering but inextricably linked. As I<br />
listen to a breeze of various pitches course<br />
through <strong>the</strong> budding oak and stubborn<br />
conifers, I remove my hand from this<br />
bark and notice <strong>the</strong> stark similarities<br />
between it and <strong>the</strong> larger lay of <strong>the</strong> land –<br />
homonymous but far from monotonous.<br />
It required being alone in this space, far<br />
more than spectacle, to realize sensuously<br />
that I am not alone. As humans, we never<br />
have been, and hopefully never will be,<br />
alone in natural spaces. I suspect that I,<br />
among many, have been a poor listener.”<br />
So goes <strong>the</strong> introductory paragraph<br />
of my Honors Thesis for my H.B.S. in<br />
Communication at <strong>the</strong> University of Utah,<br />
Consciousness is a Conversation: Towards<br />
an Eco-Dialogical Theory of Communication<br />
(Wood, 2017, p. 1). My <strong>the</strong>sis meandered<br />
between many <strong>the</strong>mes, topics, problems<br />
and perspectives, but was motivated by<br />
<strong>the</strong> pathos that I located in <strong>the</strong> Wasatch<br />
Mountains as described above. In <strong>the</strong> paper<br />
you now read, I will share <strong>the</strong> metalogue<br />
methodology that I used to explore<br />
my relationship to myself and to larger<br />
ecosystems. I hope to assume <strong>the</strong> role of<br />
storyteller ra<strong>the</strong>r than researcher and convey<br />
<strong>the</strong> significance of this methodological<br />
experiment as I experienced it.<br />
This outward oriented inner-work originated<br />
in a coalescence of various ecological<br />
<strong>the</strong>ories and my work on interpersonal<br />
dialogue with Dr. Leonard Hawes, my<br />
<strong>the</strong>sis supervisor. This resulted in a series<br />
of transcribed and analyzed conversations,<br />
or metalogues, in which I studied both <strong>the</strong><br />
process and text. Of particular importance<br />
to this piece, and indeed myself, is <strong>the</strong><br />
potential for this method to lend awareness<br />
to how larger ecosystems and socio/<br />
economic/political/etc. structures flow<br />
through us, how <strong>the</strong>se lines of contact may<br />
manifest discursively, and <strong>the</strong> implications<br />
for mental health.<br />
Metalogue can reveal <strong>the</strong> relationality which I<br />
argue is intrinsic to <strong>the</strong> self. Whe<strong>the</strong>r spoken,<br />
written, or thought, our conscious existence<br />
is conversational and our relationships with<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rs, systems and structures leave spoken<br />
traces that can be etched and analyzed. I<br />
think metalogue can activate our inherent<br />
agency to improve our collective wellbeing<br />
by acknowledging <strong>the</strong>se voices and “editing”<br />
<strong>the</strong>se conversations that are always already<br />
occurring. I will include selections from <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong>sis that I think are most relevant, and<br />
frame <strong>the</strong>m with paragraphs of reflection.<br />
A Coalescence of Theory and Very<br />
Personal Praxis<br />
My <strong>the</strong>sis was motivated by my desire<br />
to interrogate mental health from an<br />
environmental humanities lens. I took<br />
Dr. Hawes’ class Culture & Dialogue in<br />
which he uses critical <strong>the</strong>ory to construct<br />
a non-hierarchal space where students<br />
are encouraged to examine <strong>the</strong>ir own<br />
communication (as opposed to abstract<br />
analysis of communication). In this space,<br />
students are empowered to speak truth<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
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In Conversation with Consciousness<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
in <strong>the</strong>ir relationships. This class proved<br />
revolutionary for my mental health because<br />
it prompted a radical shift in my relationship<br />
with myself.<br />
For <strong>the</strong> keystone assignment of <strong>the</strong> class,<br />
<strong>the</strong> student transcribes and performs a close<br />
textual analysis of an honest conversation<br />
with someone important about problems<br />
in <strong>the</strong>ir relationship. I realized that my most<br />
problematic relationship was with myself,<br />
that I spoke to and treated myself poorly.<br />
So, I transcribed and analyzed a spoken<br />
conversation with myself to tease out <strong>the</strong><br />
discursive manifestations of my anxiety and<br />
depression. While I initially thought that I<br />
was cheating, Dr. Hawes encouraged me<br />
to continue along this line of questioning.<br />
Using this dialogic method, usually applied to<br />
an interpersonal relationship, I was able to<br />
destabilize monolithic notions of subjectivity<br />
in a profoundly productive manner.<br />
The method was deeply informed by Bakhtin,<br />
as “Any understanding of live speech, a<br />
live utterance, is inherently responsive...<br />
and necessarily elicits it in one form or<br />
ano<strong>the</strong>r: <strong>the</strong> listener becomes <strong>the</strong> speaker”<br />
(1986, p. 68). I elaborated that “The act<br />
of [listening] makes dialogue distinct [as<br />
opposed to dominant adversarial forms<br />
of communication in our culture]… It is a<br />
productive exchange between voices, as a<br />
result of often deliberate turn-taking” (Wood,<br />
2017, pp. 4-5). Through slowing down my<br />
inner monologue (as a spoken dialogue)<br />
and honestly listening to myself, I identified<br />
recurring patterns of anxious thought<br />
and “edited” <strong>the</strong>se abusive conversations.<br />
I overcame crippling anxieties, which in<br />
turn has had a profound effect on my<br />
relationships with o<strong>the</strong>rs.<br />
It soon became clear that this dialogic<br />
method provided an avenue by which to<br />
explore <strong>the</strong> interpersonal dynamics of<br />
larger systems, especially human<br />
relationships with <strong>the</strong> more-than-human<br />
world. I located my studies around <strong>the</strong><br />
systems <strong>the</strong>ory of Gregory Bateson, Mladen<br />
Dolar’s psychoanalysis of <strong>the</strong> voice, and<br />
later, David Abram’s deep ecology. What<br />
follows is an abbreviated syn<strong>the</strong>sis from my<br />
methodology section:<br />
Bateson’s systems perspective articulates<br />
mind as immanent in <strong>the</strong> variety of<br />
systems within which we are embedded,<br />
and blurs commonly held distinctions<br />
between <strong>the</strong> biological organism (including<br />
<strong>the</strong> thinking self) and <strong>the</strong> environment<br />
(1972, pp. 454-71) ‘Mind’ is “immanent” in<br />
all mental activity, which Bateson argues<br />
is a system or “loop” that transforms<br />
information and results in <strong>the</strong> alterations<br />
of variables within <strong>the</strong> system (1972, p.<br />
315-320). Additionally, he argued for <strong>the</strong><br />
“[correction of] <strong>the</strong> Darwinian unit of<br />
survival to include <strong>the</strong> environment and<br />
<strong>the</strong> interaction between organism and<br />
environment…<strong>the</strong> unit of evolutionary<br />
survival turns out to be identical with <strong>the</strong> unit<br />
of mind” (1972, p. 491). That <strong>the</strong> legacy of<br />
Cartesian dualism holds <strong>the</strong> “self” to be<br />
both transcendent and operating through<br />
<strong>the</strong> human body is a grave error that<br />
results in malady.<br />
76 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
In Conversation with Consciousness<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
Within this framework voice can <strong>the</strong>refore<br />
be understood as our relationality in<br />
action. Mladen Dolar’s psychoanalytical<br />
<strong>the</strong>ory of <strong>the</strong> voice in A Voice and <strong>No</strong>thing<br />
More demonstrates voice as essential to<br />
<strong>the</strong> thinking self. He argues that voice<br />
“can perhaps also be seen as <strong>the</strong> lever<br />
of thought” instead of <strong>the</strong> “vehicle of<br />
meaning” or “fetish object” (2006, pp.<br />
4-11)...and that voice can be better<br />
understood as an enabler of thought,<br />
bound with thought, or even being<br />
thought itself (Dolar, 2006, pp. 1-11). Dolar<br />
also discusses <strong>the</strong> voice as inherently a call<br />
to <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r at length throughout his book<br />
(2006). Therefore, “voice” or vocalization<br />
is information at points of interaction and<br />
transformation between various human<br />
and more-than-human “systems,” whe<strong>the</strong>r<br />
<strong>the</strong>y be orcas or old-growth stands of oak<br />
(Wood, 2017, 8).<br />
David Abram’s deep ecology lends insight<br />
into what conversations are always<br />
occurring and what voices may be better<br />
heard. The phenomenology Abrams<br />
grounds in ecology reveals that we are<br />
beings perpetually perceiving <strong>the</strong> larger<br />
world around us in an active, dynamic<br />
process that shapes both perceiver and<br />
perceived. (Abram, 1996, p. 31-72). This<br />
occurs within “fields of flesh” from which<br />
we can never truly remove ourselves to<br />
an impartial objectivity – we are always<br />
already interacting with our environments<br />
(Abram, 1996, p. 66). One crucial insight<br />
is that language itself is material, of <strong>the</strong><br />
“flesh,” arising out of “living speech” that<br />
originated spontaneously in conversation<br />
with <strong>the</strong> living field. (73-92). Reciprocal<br />
perception occurs through vocalizations,<br />
both narrowly and broadly defined.<br />
Additionally, many in <strong>the</strong> industrialized<br />
world have lost <strong>the</strong> ability to “speak to”<br />
<strong>the</strong> larger biosphere and instead speak<br />
merely “about” it (Abram, 1996, p. 22). Like<br />
Bateson, Abram points out that very real<br />
maladies of health have been a function<br />
of imbalance with <strong>the</strong> more-than-human<br />
world in a multitude of cultures, and<br />
<strong>the</strong>y have been cured by restoring this<br />
balance (Abram, 1996, p. 22). This idea<br />
invites exploration as to how our modern<br />
voices remain ecological processes and<br />
what nonhuman voices are waiting to be<br />
engaged in a very material, “real” sensory<br />
experience, and how <strong>the</strong>se relationships<br />
might play into our mental health.<br />
This background framed <strong>the</strong> metalogues<br />
I conducted in which I attempted to<br />
trace <strong>the</strong> voices that function as points<br />
of conversational contact between self,<br />
human and more-than-human o<strong>the</strong>rs and<br />
demonstrate how we exist systemically. I<br />
hoped it would prove useful for folks who<br />
live under dominant assumptions about <strong>the</strong><br />
self as primarily individual and <strong>the</strong> merit<br />
of personal gain over community, when<br />
our own evolutionary history and ecology<br />
suggests <strong>the</strong> opposite to be far healthier.<br />
Bateson defines metalogue as “a<br />
conversation about some problematic<br />
subject…[in which] not only do <strong>the</strong><br />
participants discuss <strong>the</strong> problem but <strong>the</strong><br />
structure of <strong>the</strong> conversation as a whole<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
77
In Conversation with Consciousness<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
I realized that my most<br />
problematic relationship was<br />
with myself, that I spoke to<br />
and treated myself poorly.<br />
So, I transcribed and analyzed<br />
a spoken conversation with<br />
myself to tease out <strong>the</strong><br />
discursive manifestations of<br />
my anxiety and depression.<br />
78 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
In Conversation with Consciousness<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
is also relevant to <strong>the</strong> same subject”<br />
(Bateson, 1972, p. 1). Metalogue was <strong>the</strong><br />
keystone of <strong>the</strong> dialogic transcription analysis<br />
used in my <strong>the</strong>sis as it “allows analysis not<br />
only of discussion of <strong>the</strong> topic of interest,<br />
say, our relationship with <strong>the</strong> natural world,<br />
but <strong>the</strong> relationship itself as we live it. The<br />
phenomena that is <strong>the</strong> topic of discussion<br />
is also intended to be occurring in <strong>the</strong><br />
discussion.” (Wood, 2017, pp. 7-8). Thus, I<br />
enacted metalogues with myself and o<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
and conducted dialogic transcription analysis<br />
of <strong>the</strong>m as an experimental method.<br />
I will now share a few selections of metalogue<br />
that demonstrate its potential significance<br />
for exploring our relationality outwards<br />
and interrogating systemic dynamics of<br />
mental health. What follows first is from my<br />
conversation with myself that demonstrates<br />
how this method allows me to slow down<br />
and unpack problematic self-discourse. The<br />
numbers in paren<strong>the</strong>sis signify <strong>the</strong> duration<br />
of pauses in seconds:<br />
Utterance: 33. even now (3) you were<br />
being a dick to me, you were saying <strong>the</strong>se<br />
two days off were really bad for me, and<br />
this is always what you do (2) 34. and I’m<br />
like fair, to an extent, but that’s partially<br />
because of <strong>the</strong> way you treat me (4)and,<br />
we’re trying to work on that, but we’ve<br />
really regressed and we have a lot of ways<br />
to go, and it comes down to more than<br />
just (1) a ok you not being as much of a<br />
dick and acknowledging, but you no more<br />
cop outs 12:46<br />
35. and ano<strong>the</strong>r part of me real is being<br />
honest, eye we’ve done some good but we<br />
also (2) I also xhhhh<br />
36. I also haven’t worked as hard as I<br />
(1) should<br />
37. I say should, but that’s a bit (unin)<br />
38. I haven’t worked as hard as I would like<br />
myself to, Hence ((circles with hand)) <strong>the</strong><br />
start of me being an asshole to you<br />
39. It’s on me, and this perpetual<br />
disagreement we’re having (4) doesn’t<br />
help (3) what I have done, I acknowledge,<br />
and that’s awesome good job you ((clicks<br />
mouth)) good job.<br />
40. I also (2) acknowledge that I had<br />
expectations that have not been met<br />
(2)13:41<br />
41. That’s ok, I have been through a lot<br />
42. You’ve been through a lot (2)<br />
43. You’ve been through a lot, and that’s<br />
ok 13:49<br />
(5)<br />
44.That’s (.5) totally fine<br />
xhhhhh<br />
45. You’ll get <strong>the</strong>re (3) you’re doing well (3)<br />
Metalogue: An example of <strong>the</strong> value of<br />
dialogic turn-taking for me. I often set<br />
expectations for myself that I do not<br />
meet, and am very harsh with myself<br />
in response. This is what ano<strong>the</strong>r voice,<br />
less heard in my day-to-day inner<br />
conversations, is referring to as “what<br />
you always do.” These expectations are<br />
imposed by a domineering voice that<br />
feels external pressures to perform. I<br />
have internalized <strong>the</strong> value of perpetually<br />
increasing my productivity in order to<br />
prove my dominance over <strong>the</strong> work I am<br />
doing, re-enacting patriarchy. Through this<br />
reflexivity, I am able to reveal patriarchy<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
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In Conversation with Consciousness<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
as it lives in me, and reject my problematic<br />
performances of masculinity and replace<br />
<strong>the</strong>m with radical self-care.<br />
Through slowing down my thought as<br />
spoken discourse, I was able to work out<br />
my problems with myself in a manner<br />
akin to how I would with ano<strong>the</strong>r person.<br />
Additionally, I was able to uncover what I’ve<br />
now interpreted to be learned practices of<br />
patriarchal capitalism. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, how<br />
patricarchial capitalism is implicated in my<br />
problems and challenge this system “as it<br />
lives in me” via my voice. It is difficult for me<br />
to describe how this felt, but after completing<br />
this conversation I felt focus and peace unlike<br />
anything since my original self-dialogue.<br />
Next, I will sample metalogues with human<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rs, Basil and Aldo, on nonhuman voices<br />
and mental health. They reveal ourselves<br />
as innately interwoven with <strong>the</strong> more-thanhuman<br />
and a direct connection between<br />
our experiences of mental health issues and<br />
sensory contact with said voices.<br />
Conversation with Basil about being outside<br />
of human constructed spaces:<br />
Utterance: W: yeah, but -<br />
37:21 B: Cause I definitely feel like a<br />
different energy when I’m in those<br />
spaces, and=<br />
W: oh god me too<br />
B:=clarity<br />
W: it’s so, I keep coming back to <strong>the</strong> word<br />
nourishing for <strong>the</strong>se things, cause whe<strong>the</strong>r<br />
it’s (2) a real diverse community, human<br />
or non, even if I’m like - an imposter, and<br />
predatory, even - I still feel better<br />
37:50 B: mhmmm<br />
W: cause it’s still so much richer than <strong>the</strong><br />
world I live in day to day<br />
B: day to day<br />
W: which is a fucking, I don’t want to say<br />
desert, because <strong>the</strong> desert’s much better<br />
38:12 B: I mean I think (2) I don’t know, like<br />
in those spaces I feel a level of connection<br />
and I guess that’s like <strong>the</strong> root of <strong>the</strong><br />
collective is you need connection of people<br />
and whatever <strong>the</strong> issue or cause is and (2)<br />
38:37 B: I don’t know, I have issue with<br />
people that are like we just need to get<br />
kids out in nature and <strong>the</strong>n we’ll solve <strong>the</strong><br />
issue and it’s like well (1) people can’t like<br />
brea<strong>the</strong> in <strong>the</strong>ir homes so let’s like, how<br />
bout we clean up <strong>the</strong> air <strong>the</strong>re first<br />
38:51 W: right yeah yeah totally<br />
B: but I guess like <strong>the</strong> one thing that I think<br />
can be well <strong>the</strong>re’s various things but I do<br />
think like (.5) at <strong>the</strong> root of like what I’ve<br />
learned being in more wild places is what<br />
connection means=<br />
W:mhmmm<br />
39:16 B: which is like ironic because<br />
sometimes you equate wildness with<br />
solitude=<br />
W: right<br />
B: but I think that’s extremely problematic<br />
W: extremely<br />
B: ummm<br />
W: it’s solitude after you kill everyone that<br />
lived <strong>the</strong>re<br />
B: ((laughs)) (2) yeah and likee I think<br />
community in places like <strong>the</strong> west is pretty<br />
wild in itself, and (2)<br />
Metalogue: B <strong>the</strong>n provides a remarkably<br />
80 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
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Weston G. W. Wood<br />
insightful response to <strong>the</strong> tendency to<br />
locate one’s emotional relationship with<br />
nonhuman nature as exclusively within <strong>the</strong><br />
boundaries of <strong>the</strong> individual body, which<br />
resonates for me. “The human mind is not<br />
some o<strong>the</strong>rworldly essence that comes to<br />
house itself inside our physiology. Ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />
it is instilled and provoked by <strong>the</strong><br />
sensorial field itself, induced by <strong>the</strong><br />
tensions and participations between <strong>the</strong><br />
human body and <strong>the</strong> animate earth…<br />
Each place its own mind, its own psyche!”<br />
(Abram, 1996, p. 262).<br />
Basil and I have both had profound<br />
emotional experiences in wilder, less<br />
urbanized spaces with which we have<br />
developed relationships. The nuances<br />
of <strong>the</strong>se experience often escape our<br />
ability to describe <strong>the</strong>m in individualistic<br />
language, but our embodied presence<br />
permits both B and myself to be immersed<br />
and take an active part in <strong>the</strong>se places.<br />
This “different energy,” “clarity,” and “root<br />
of <strong>the</strong> collective” is clear textual support<br />
to Abram’s claim to our conviviality<br />
with <strong>the</strong> more than human world that<br />
is due to our senses (1996), including<br />
what we hear while out <strong>the</strong>re, and that<br />
community of human and nonhuman is<br />
deeply interrelated. I am struck by <strong>the</strong><br />
profundity of <strong>the</strong>ir articulation “what I’ve<br />
learned being in more wild places is what<br />
connection means.” Exposure, and <strong>the</strong><br />
ability to be open to hearing <strong>the</strong> many<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rs that compose <strong>the</strong>se environments,<br />
in turn nourish and teach <strong>the</strong> human self<br />
as a moment of dialogue.<br />
Basil and I shared common experiences<br />
of emotive relationships with more than<br />
human spaces, which had a material effect<br />
on our wellbeing. Community is a common<br />
<strong>the</strong>me applying to all forms of life, our<br />
shared existence sustained by sensory<br />
entanglement. Additionally, we enacted<br />
<strong>the</strong>se <strong>the</strong>mes in our conversation as we<br />
discussed <strong>the</strong>m. The following selection of<br />
my conversation with Aldo speaks to<br />
similar experiences:<br />
Utterance: 12:22 W: it’s interesting-its (.5)<br />
it’s quieter in regard to human noises, all<br />
<strong>the</strong> bullshit that’s, ya know gonna make<br />
this a pain to transcribe cause I’ll have to<br />
hear us over it<br />
A: mhmmm<br />
W:((laughs))<br />
A: exactly<br />
W: But uh (1) yeah, and uh I mean you can<br />
use this storm or just being in pine trees<br />
in general as an example but what do you<br />
like, what to you hear when it’s quieter and<br />
what does that mean to ya?<br />
12:47 A: (4) wind going through trees,<br />
even just like a gentle breeze, and you can<br />
hear it rustling everything and it’s just so<br />
much more clear than (2) when <strong>the</strong>re’s a<br />
lot going on you tune out so many things<br />
because<br />
W: yeah<br />
13:08 A: I mean, you just that would be<br />
input overload if you heard every fucking<br />
sound which sometimes I do ADD comes<br />
out but uh when it’s that quiet those<br />
simple beautiful noises are <strong>the</strong> one<br />
things that you can you-you can focus on<br />
everything around you (1) without it being<br />
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overwhelming and you can, I feel like I<br />
can take it all in ra<strong>the</strong>r than ya know like<br />
cancelling out that shitty music in that car<br />
over <strong>the</strong>re<br />
((Music plays in car outside house))<br />
13:32 W: yeah yeah yeah<br />
A: I don’t need to like block anything, I can<br />
take it all in, and it’s-it’s fucking enjoyable<br />
((whistles to dog)) Blue come here (1)<br />
come here<br />
W: So it’s like, yeah it’s like (1) even though<br />
that’s a song that I love, Run <strong>the</strong> Jewells<br />
13:50A: I didn’t even hear it ((laughs))<br />
13:50 W: But right now it’s like, yeah<br />
putting effort into blocking it so I can<br />
focus on you and this conversation, it’s<br />
interesting how (1) ya know<br />
((car races down 700 east))<br />
Metalogue: A describes in sensory detail<br />
<strong>the</strong> more-than-human voices that he<br />
characterizes as soul-nourishing, and once<br />
more compares <strong>the</strong>m to those heard in<br />
built spaces where similar nonhuman<br />
sounds have been silenced. The choice to<br />
listen to and acknowledge every sound<br />
he is in contact with in <strong>the</strong> latter would<br />
serve as a trigger for his diagnosed and<br />
pathologized Attention Deficit Disorder;<br />
yet granting that same attention to his<br />
perceptions of <strong>the</strong> former is <strong>the</strong> opposite.<br />
He has to “block out” <strong>the</strong> various urban<br />
voices, while he thrives on <strong>the</strong> speech<br />
of winds racing through trees. Also<br />
interesting is both are present in this<br />
particular conversational moment, both<br />
Social<br />
<strong>the</strong> blaring music on <strong>the</strong> street near our<br />
conversation and his interaction with<br />
his dog.<br />
Like Basil and myself, Aldo has a qualitatively<br />
different experience with his mental health<br />
in ecologically rich spaces as compared<br />
to built environments where <strong>the</strong>se voices<br />
have been silenced. For us, <strong>the</strong>se morethan-human<br />
voices have had a role in<br />
our growth, sustained our wellbeing and<br />
informed our interactions with o<strong>the</strong>rs in<br />
turn. Understandably, <strong>the</strong>ir loss is implicated<br />
explicitly in our own issues of mental health.<br />
The awareness lent by this process has<br />
indeed revealed <strong>the</strong> conversation role of<br />
<strong>the</strong> nonhuman o<strong>the</strong>r in <strong>the</strong> development of<br />
<strong>the</strong> self and <strong>the</strong> benefits of listening to and<br />
engaging <strong>the</strong>se voices.<br />
Fur<strong>the</strong>r Questions<br />
This work has certainly problematized<br />
traditional notions of what an individual<br />
subject is and how <strong>the</strong>se ideas about <strong>the</strong> self<br />
live within me. I think that hearing <strong>the</strong> voices<br />
of human and nonhuman o<strong>the</strong>rs as we grow<br />
plays an a priori role in our development,<br />
and conversation can indeed be productively<br />
understood as a conversation (Wood, 2017,<br />
p. 94). While I have intuitively agreed with<br />
<strong>the</strong> notions of relational ontology for some<br />
time, I think <strong>the</strong> eco-dialogic method has<br />
successfully revealed that our relationality<br />
can be understood discursively. That<br />
I was able to achieve a more nuanced<br />
understanding of my own relationality, in<br />
conviviality with my human and nonhuman<br />
communities alike, was deeply rewarding and<br />
helpful in negotiating <strong>the</strong>se relationships.<br />
This process provoked childhood memories<br />
of growing up with a maple tree who was<br />
Ecology<br />
82 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
In Conversation with Consciousness<br />
Weston G. W. Wood<br />
“mine,” one with whom I had a profound<br />
sensory and emotional relationship. Through<br />
this project, I unpacked <strong>the</strong> significance of<br />
this connection and was able to connect<br />
with o<strong>the</strong>r participants through similar<br />
experiences. Given <strong>the</strong> opportunity to grow<br />
with nonhuman o<strong>the</strong>rs as a child, I was<br />
quite seriously formed by <strong>the</strong>m, and in turn,<br />
remained open to emotional bonds with<br />
beings both similar and radically different<br />
than myself. This experience has rippled<br />
through and remade my spoken, felt<br />
relationships with many o<strong>the</strong>rs. I am excited<br />
by <strong>the</strong> possibility to explore relationality<br />
outwards from <strong>the</strong> self in greater depth and<br />
for more people.<br />
I am convinced that self-dialogue can be<br />
a productive avenue to resolve anxieties<br />
that riddle our relationships with ourselves<br />
and o<strong>the</strong>rs. By changing <strong>the</strong> discursive<br />
form to spoken conversation, one is able<br />
to recognize multiple voices and come to<br />
understand multiple truths as <strong>the</strong>y exist<br />
within one traditionally-bounded human<br />
subject. Recognition and understanding<br />
can help resolve <strong>the</strong>se differences through<br />
a deliberate choice to listen to all. To what<br />
extent can mental health be examined, how<br />
meaningfully can more people heal ourselves<br />
through this method?<br />
The true power of this method to heal<br />
seems to lie in its ecologically-grounded<br />
understanding of voice, relationships and<br />
mental health. These metalogues recognize<br />
our utterances as true and legitimate, and<br />
couple <strong>the</strong>m with an understanding of<br />
human voice as a material process that<br />
has co-evolved with a multitude of human<br />
and nonhuman communities. Through our<br />
voices, my conversational partners and I<br />
were able to uncover and reflect upon <strong>the</strong>se<br />
relationships and locate ourselves in larger<br />
systems. For example, I lost <strong>the</strong> maple tree<br />
because of market forces, and Basil and<br />
Aldo had experienced similar pains. This<br />
project successfully teased out <strong>the</strong> intimate<br />
connection between <strong>the</strong> loss of nonhuman<br />
voices and pervasive maladies which seem<br />
to emanate from those individual and<br />
collective losses.<br />
I am grateful that most of my struggles have<br />
been personal, given my current privilege and<br />
comfortable petite bourgeoisie background.<br />
I hope that this dialogic method can help us<br />
be better to o<strong>the</strong>rs and ourselves, and learn<br />
to live healthier lives within <strong>the</strong> imperialist<br />
white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy<br />
(hooks, 2013, p. 1) that teaches us <strong>the</strong><br />
only worthwhile way to live is to dominate,<br />
commodify and isolate ourselves from our<br />
communities. Oppression is systemic and<br />
must be diagnosed and treated as such, and<br />
change is <strong>the</strong> realm of organizing, direct<br />
action, and policy that improves material<br />
conditions for those struggling and (I hope)<br />
transforms our society before cascading<br />
ecological collapse makes our Earth<br />
unlivable. However, at <strong>the</strong> risk of falling into<br />
<strong>the</strong> neoliberal trap of thinking exclusively<br />
in terms of individual actions, I insist that<br />
exploring our relationality outwards from<br />
<strong>the</strong> individuated self to <strong>the</strong> more-thanhuman<br />
should play a valuable role in doing<br />
so. I invite criticism as to how to do this<br />
work better.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
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This intimate view of discourse, grounded<br />
in ecology, invites us to think of ourselves<br />
as <strong>the</strong> conversational components and<br />
composers of larger systems. Dependent<br />
on each o<strong>the</strong>r as we are, we may use<br />
<strong>the</strong>se transcribed texts to transform<br />
how we live our relationships touched by<br />
systemic exploitation. Gradually we might<br />
shift our notions of self, from those of <strong>the</strong><br />
domineering individual who understands<br />
most o<strong>the</strong>r life as inferior and exploitable,<br />
towards one that coevolved conversationally<br />
with a multitude of voices, one that is part<br />
of a nurturing community. For <strong>the</strong> inherently<br />
more powerful, I believe listening grounded<br />
in this method can continue to prove to be<br />
a provocative political and ecological act.<br />
References<br />
Abram, D. (1996). The spell of <strong>the</strong> sensuous: Perception and<br />
language in <strong>the</strong> more-than-human world. New York:<br />
Pan<strong>the</strong>on Books.<br />
Abram, D. (2005). Between <strong>the</strong> body and <strong>the</strong> breathing earth:<br />
A reply to Ted Toadvine. Environmental Ethics, 27 (2), 171-<br />
190.<br />
Bakhtin, M., McGee, V. (trans). (1986). Speech Genres and O<strong>the</strong>r<br />
Late Essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.<br />
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicago:<br />
University of Chicago Press.<br />
Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and nature: A necessary unity. London:<br />
Wildwood House.<br />
Dolar, M. (2006). A Voice and <strong>No</strong>thing More. Cambridge, MA: The<br />
MIT Press.<br />
Foucault, M., & Pearson, J. (2001). Fearless speech (p. 12). Los<br />
Angeles: Semiotext (e).<br />
hooks, b. (2013). Understanding patriarchy. Louisville Anarchist<br />
Federation. Louisville Lending Library.<br />
Springer, S., & Gahman, L. (2016). Fuck Neoliberalism… And Then<br />
Some!.<br />
Sytaffel. (2008). Bateson – Steps to An Ecology of Mind. Media<br />
ecologies and digital activism: Thoughts about change for a<br />
changing world. Retrieved from https://mediaecologies.<br />
wordpress.com/2008/05/21/bateson-steps-to-an-ecologyof-mind/<br />
on April 6th, 2017.<br />
Wildman, W. J. (2010). An introduction to relational ontology.<br />
The Trinity and an entangled world: Relationality in physical<br />
science and <strong>the</strong>ology, 55-73.<br />
Wood, W. (2017). CONSCIOUSNESS IS A CONVERSATION:<br />
TOWARDS AN ECO-DIALOGIC THEORY OF<br />
COMMUNICATION. Undergraduate Research <strong>Journal</strong>.<br />
Retrieved from http://epubs.utah.edu/index.php/URJ/<br />
article/view/3874<br />
Wood, W. (2016). The Ecology of Empowerment: A<br />
Particular Politics for an Astounding (Anxiety Inducing)<br />
Anthropocene. Impact: Ecology and legacy integrated minor.<br />
Salt Lake City, UT: The University of Utah Honors College.<br />
84 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Rebecca Clark Bee 7 (Sway), Graphite on paper, 30 x 22 in., 2009<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
85
Markers<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
86 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Marker<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
Left | Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
Marker #4<br />
silverpoint and acrylic<br />
on prepared paper<br />
29.5” x 31”, 2012<br />
Arizona-born and Baltimore-based artist<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans has a practice<br />
founded in drawing, painting, sculpture, and<br />
performance. Her work aims to complicate<br />
<strong>the</strong> idea of nature and explores <strong>the</strong> division<br />
between <strong>the</strong> human and natural world. Evans<br />
received a BFA in painting from Arizona State<br />
University, and MFA from <strong>the</strong> School of <strong>the</strong><br />
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Tufts University.<br />
She is a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural<br />
Council Artist Fellowship in Drawing, St.<br />
Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist<br />
Award, and Blanche E. Colman Award. Select<br />
exhibitions include Onloaded: Andrea<br />
Sherrill Evans, phICA (Phoenix, AZ), Where<br />
Nature Ends, The Cluster Gallery (Brooklyn,<br />
NY), Passing, Left, The Dorado Project at<br />
<strong>the</strong> Buggy Factory (Brooklyn, NY), Clear-Cut,<br />
Emmanuel College (Boston, MA), and Mean<br />
Girls at SPACE Gallery (Pittsburgh, PA). Evans<br />
currently teaches in <strong>the</strong> Drawing Department<br />
at <strong>the</strong> Maryland Institute College of Art.<br />
andreasherrillevans.com<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
87
Markers<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
Woven throughout my art practice is <strong>the</strong><br />
aim to complicate <strong>the</strong> idea of nature and<br />
<strong>the</strong> often didactic division between <strong>the</strong><br />
human and <strong>the</strong> natural world. The use of<br />
drawing to investigate <strong>the</strong> subject of nature<br />
recalls <strong>the</strong> picturesque landscape sketches<br />
of <strong>the</strong> Romantic painters, but <strong>the</strong>ir focus on<br />
sublime scenery with mythic proportions is<br />
transposed onto new forms of nature that<br />
reveal <strong>the</strong> active, and irreversible, impact of<br />
<strong>the</strong> human hand.<br />
The human mark on <strong>the</strong> landscape is<br />
present both literally and figuratively<br />
throughout <strong>the</strong> Marker series. This group<br />
of drawings explores <strong>the</strong> human impact on<br />
<strong>the</strong> land alongside <strong>the</strong> human desire for<br />
a connection with nature. These brightly<br />
colored trail blazes rupture an o<strong>the</strong>rwise<br />
seemingly untouched wilderness, clearly<br />
marking <strong>the</strong> points where <strong>the</strong> human and<br />
natural world collide.<br />
In <strong>the</strong>ir use in natural spaces, trail<br />
blazes designate a particular path. They<br />
must intentionally stand out from <strong>the</strong><br />
surrounding environment, and require<br />
repetition and specific placement in order<br />
to guide one through an unknown space.<br />
While <strong>the</strong>se markers may disrupt <strong>the</strong><br />
notion of a true wilderness, <strong>the</strong>y provide<br />
an access point to a direct experience with<br />
<strong>the</strong> natural world. As <strong>the</strong>y lead human<br />
movement through <strong>the</strong> landscape, keeping<br />
one on <strong>the</strong> trail, <strong>the</strong>y simultaneously protect<br />
<strong>the</strong> surrounding ecosystems from fur<strong>the</strong>r<br />
destructive human impact.<br />
As <strong>the</strong> images of <strong>the</strong>se trail markers<br />
are translated through <strong>the</strong> process of<br />
drawing, <strong>the</strong>y are removed from <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
specific context. These signs are thus<br />
decentered and disconnected from serving<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir particular purpose. With <strong>the</strong> lack of<br />
geographical specificity, <strong>the</strong>se markers no<br />
longer point us toward <strong>the</strong> trail ahead, but<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r, toward larger questions about our<br />
role in shaping <strong>the</strong> future of a more-thanhuman<br />
world. While <strong>the</strong>se markers may be<br />
a reminder of <strong>the</strong> crushing and irreversible<br />
human impact on <strong>the</strong> natural world, <strong>the</strong>y<br />
may also provide a glimpse of <strong>the</strong> potential<br />
for <strong>the</strong> touch of human hand to be one of<br />
preservation and conservation of <strong>the</strong> forms<br />
of nature that still remain.<br />
88 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Markers<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans Marker #3, silverpoint and walnut ink on prepared paper, 29.5” x 23”, 2012<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
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Markers<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
90 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Markers<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
Marker #2<br />
silverpoint and acrylic<br />
on prepared paper<br />
29.5” x 33”, 2012<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
91
Markers<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
Marker #5<br />
silverpoint and acrylic<br />
on prepared paper<br />
29.5” x 36”, 2013<br />
92 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Markers<br />
Andrea Sherrill Evans<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
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94 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
The Energy & Information<br />
Ecosystems of <strong>the</strong> Colorado<br />
Plateau: An Arts/Sciences<br />
Field Study<br />
Richard Lowenberg<br />
Richard Lowenberg, 1st-Mile Institute founding<br />
director, has spent nearly 50 years creatively<br />
integrating critical understandings and grounded<br />
involvements in non-profit organizational<br />
development, architecture, ecosystems design,<br />
rural community tele-network planning, <strong>the</strong>ater,<br />
new media arts, photography, writing, teaching<br />
and grounded eco-social arts/sciences practices.<br />
1st-mile.org/contact<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1<br />
95
The Energy & Information Ecosystems of <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau<br />
Richard Lowenberg<br />
Residencies + Research Collaborations +<br />
Exhibitions + Performances + Workshops +<br />
Education + Book + Web<br />
Field Study”, being initiated as a project of<br />
1st-Mile Institute’s SARC Program, proposes<br />
to complement o<strong>the</strong>r regional research,<br />
resource studies, decision-support processes<br />
and cultural actions. Framed by creation of<br />
field-fur<strong>the</strong>ring, interdisciplinary, innovative<br />
arts/sciences collaborations, this multi-year<br />
project proposes to establish research thinkand-do<br />
residencies, while cooperating with<br />
national parks, wilderness areas, tribal and<br />
rural communities, government agencies,<br />
educational and cultural institutions and<br />
many creative individuals, to inventory, map,<br />
assess, story-tell, exhibit, publish and most<br />
creatively present enhanced understandings<br />
of <strong>the</strong> complex human and non-human<br />
‘energy and information ecosystems’ of <strong>the</strong><br />
Four-Corner States Colorado Plateau.<br />
“The Energy & Information Ecosystems of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau: An Arts/Sciences Field<br />
Study” is a grounded environmental arts/<br />
sciences initiative, now being designed to<br />
complement o<strong>the</strong>r regional eco-research,<br />
cultural works and community decisionsupport<br />
processes, with collaborative<br />
residencies to inventory, map, assess<br />
and most creatively present enhanced<br />
understandings of <strong>the</strong> complex human<br />
and non-human ‘energy and information<br />
ecosystems’ of this four states region. This<br />
initiative emerges from a deep love of this<br />
most special place.<br />
Introduction<br />
“The Energy & Information Ecosystems of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau: An Arts/Sciences<br />
At <strong>the</strong> creative, intellectual, educational<br />
and public communications heart of this<br />
project is <strong>the</strong> precept that while many of<br />
us espouse a need for improved ecological<br />
understandings and dedicated actions, few<br />
of us understand ecology as a dynamic,<br />
integrated whole systems science. Given<br />
<strong>the</strong> daunting complexity of our real-world<br />
condition, researchers, policy-makers,<br />
activists and <strong>the</strong> rest of us, usually think and<br />
work along narrow, single-issue paths (water,<br />
population, air, climate, land use, tech.),<br />
largely ignoring <strong>the</strong> intangible, immaterial<br />
nature and processes that physics generally<br />
refers to as ‘energy and information’. The<br />
nodes and flows that bind and direct all<br />
matter, have no less significance than our<br />
more widely studied material ecosystems.<br />
We are now learning that understanding<br />
<strong>the</strong>se mostly invisible forces makes all <strong>the</strong><br />
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difference, if we are to act humanely and with<br />
nurturing care for our local-global selves<br />
and surrounds.<br />
The arts and <strong>the</strong> sciences are each o<strong>the</strong>r’s<br />
best friends; two sides of <strong>the</strong> same coin;<br />
a primary currency in <strong>the</strong> 21st century.<br />
They offer a convergent path to an ecounderstanding<br />
of our world and our place<br />
<strong>the</strong>rein. SARC is an onramp to that path<br />
forward, here to spark our imaginations, and<br />
to challenge our creative spirit and resolve.<br />
In this four state region, <strong>the</strong> convergent arts<br />
and sciences can be cornerstones of our<br />
economic and cultural future.<br />
“We are at a transition point where we<br />
are questioning our disciplinary habits<br />
and looking for ways to integrate findings<br />
from numerous fields of knowledge. One<br />
possible solution is to encourage <strong>the</strong> fusion<br />
of <strong>the</strong> scientific and artistic imagination<br />
in education, civil society, and scientific<br />
institutions. By encouraging significant<br />
collaborations between scientists and<br />
artists, science becomes rooted in and<br />
more responsive to <strong>the</strong> new and emerging<br />
cultures that are actively developing new<br />
ways to reach out to <strong>the</strong> public. This will<br />
ultimately help insure that our institutions<br />
reflect our interdependence.”<br />
The Colorado Plateau<br />
The Colorado Plateau is a roughly 130,000<br />
square mile geo-physically described ecoregion,<br />
within <strong>the</strong> Four-Corner states: Arizona,<br />
Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Most of<br />
<strong>the</strong> area is drained by <strong>the</strong> Colorado River<br />
and its main tributaries: <strong>the</strong> Green, San<br />
Juan, and Little Colorado Rivers, plus <strong>the</strong> Rio<br />
Grande and its tributaries. This magical yet<br />
fragile place is one of <strong>the</strong> most extensively<br />
researched eco-regions in <strong>the</strong> world.<br />
Longtime home to many indigenous peoples,<br />
<strong>the</strong> region has <strong>the</strong> greatest concentration of<br />
National Parks, monuments + public lands in<br />
<strong>the</strong> U.S.<br />
Andrea Polli, Ph.D, Mesa Del Sol Chair,<br />
Assoc. Prof., Fine Arts and Engineering,<br />
UNM<br />
Its richness in energy resources is <strong>the</strong><br />
basis for economic vitality plus contentious<br />
exploitation.<br />
The Colorado Plateau has many stories to tell,<br />
some of which this initiative hopes to explore.<br />
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and of our need to think differently, by<br />
taking “steps toward an ecology of mind”.<br />
Grand Challenges<br />
Our greatest local-global ‘Grand Challenge’<br />
is to develop ‘a unified ecological field<br />
<strong>the</strong>ory’, integrating physical, biological,<br />
environmental, information, social<br />
and economic processes, to move our<br />
understandings, intents and actions towards<br />
<strong>the</strong> most challenging, yet ultimately most<br />
important humane goals of our networked<br />
contemporary society: ‘demosophia’<br />
(people wisdom).<br />
The Earth and all upon it, is ba<strong>the</strong>d in,<br />
permeated by and all-involved in a universal<br />
flow and flux of electromagnetic radiated<br />
energy and information. We cannot address<br />
<strong>the</strong> critical issues of changing climate, water,<br />
energy, food, health, population, economics,<br />
politics or security, without a better<br />
understanding of our dynamically integrated<br />
matter-energy-information environment,<br />
“The Energy & Information Ecosystems of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau: An Arts/Sciences Field<br />
Study” is a proposed multi-year project,<br />
intending to develop more creatively<br />
informed processes as basis for applied<br />
regional ecological understanding and<br />
decision-making. Information, like water, <strong>the</strong><br />
air we brea<strong>the</strong> and community health,<br />
is considered an ‘intangible and externality’<br />
by our dominant political-economic systems.<br />
Yet we should know that such immaterial<br />
‘common pool resources’ are <strong>the</strong> true<br />
determinants of quality of life. The interdynamic<br />
states of matter, energy and of<br />
information are fundamental constituents of<br />
our evolutionary ecological existence.<br />
This cross-disciplinary “Arts/Sciences Field<br />
Study” will take a scaled look at select<br />
energy and information ecosystems, from<br />
human social-scale telecommunications<br />
infrastructure and services (broadcast and<br />
broadband), to mapping and documenting<br />
<strong>the</strong> many coal, gas, oil, uranium, hydro,<br />
solar and wind energy sites, systems<br />
and distribution networks in <strong>the</strong> region.<br />
It will study and present <strong>the</strong> infrared<br />
signatures of diverse regional plants and<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r organisms, will record and analyze<br />
insect communications, will document<br />
atmospheric electro-phenomena, will sonify<br />
<strong>the</strong> quakings of <strong>the</strong> Earth, will compose new<br />
bird songs and will shine a creative light on<br />
<strong>the</strong> region’s wealth of eco-cultural stories,<br />
languages, imaginations, dreams and<br />
world-views.<br />
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“The Energy & Information Ecosystems of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau: An Arts/Sciences<br />
Field Study” is intended to augment o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
Four Corners regional ecosystem research,<br />
assessments, mappings, learning and<br />
decision-support initiatives, integrating<br />
emergent patterns for ‘whole systems’<br />
interactions and interventions, with<br />
collaborative, highly creative processes<br />
and outcomes.<br />
Arts/Sciences Residencies Proposal<br />
outreach programs, museum exhibitions, a<br />
beautiful book and interactive web site.<br />
An initial two-year period (2018 –2020)<br />
will be used to institutionally structure <strong>the</strong><br />
program, apply for start-up and long-term<br />
program funding, nurture existing and<br />
establish new regional partnerships, create<br />
educational materials and best-practices and<br />
extend applied ecosystems understandings<br />
to improve regional economic, cultural and<br />
social processes and outcomes.<br />
1st-Mile Institute and its SARC (Scientists/<br />
Artists Research Collaborations) Initiative<br />
proposes <strong>the</strong> creation of an Arts/Sciences<br />
Residency and Research Program.<br />
This project is intended to make a small<br />
difference; to propagate greater<br />
‘eco-mindedness’ and an ecological worldview,<br />
with <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau as <strong>the</strong> richly<br />
inspiring eco-physical setting.<br />
“For too long we’ve been looking at each<br />
of <strong>the</strong>se problems in isolation, or at most,<br />
trying to understand how two systems<br />
interact with one ano<strong>the</strong>r. The historical<br />
structure of research reflects a belief in<br />
restricted, ‘disciplinary solutions.’ But<br />
times, <strong>the</strong>y are a-changing. What we<br />
need to investigate now is how multiple<br />
By its very nature, this ambitious project<br />
must attempt to be inclusive of <strong>the</strong> many<br />
communities, institutions, people and deeply<br />
motivated work and ways of <strong>the</strong> Colorado<br />
Plateau and surrounds. Partnerships and<br />
working relationships are being explored,<br />
joined and established.<br />
The proposed Arts/Sciences Residency and<br />
Research Program will result in selected<br />
artists and scientists collaborations,<br />
interdisciplinary research studies, scientific<br />
papers/writings, geospatial mapping and<br />
modeling, site-specific performances, digital<br />
media stories and artworks, educational<br />
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systems evolve and adapt in response to<br />
one ano<strong>the</strong>r, and explore <strong>the</strong> common<br />
properties of <strong>the</strong>se systems.”<br />
“It all sounds highly improbable until you<br />
realize that it is not that large problems<br />
are intractable, but that <strong>the</strong>y require<br />
audacious imagination, a willingness to<br />
take risks, convening <strong>the</strong> right groups of<br />
collaborators, and asking very challenging<br />
and seemingly far-out questions. After<br />
all, who would have suspected that <strong>the</strong>re<br />
could be such things as space-time,<br />
quantum entanglement, Turing machines,<br />
and natural selection? These are wonders<br />
of <strong>the</strong> imagination that also facilitate<br />
interactions with our environments.”<br />
David Krakauer, President, Santa Fe<br />
Institute, 2015<br />
Information, be it embodied in organisms,<br />
<strong>the</strong> mind, or <strong>the</strong> culture, is part of a larger<br />
selective system that determines through<br />
successful competition or cooperation<br />
what information survives. Information<br />
can be encoded in genes, nerve nets,<br />
or institutions, but <strong>the</strong> selective system<br />
that promotes survival remains similar.<br />
A selective system is a pattern producing<br />
and recognizing system, be it <strong>the</strong> pattern<br />
of life on earth, <strong>the</strong> symbolic order of <strong>the</strong><br />
mind, or <strong>the</strong> pattern of culture. A selective<br />
system manages complexity. ...<br />
Heinz Pagels, The Dreams of Reason<br />
Potential Four-State Artist Invitees<br />
The Colorado Plateau has long attracted<br />
creative individuals, and this four-state region<br />
is home to many artists of all disciplines,<br />
including some remarkable creators already<br />
deeply involved in interdisciplinary, ecominded<br />
art/science practices, as writers,<br />
poets, performers, musicians, new media<br />
makers, land artists, photographers,<br />
conceptualists and more. An extensive pool<br />
of such artists from <strong>the</strong> four states will be<br />
developed for arts/sciences residencies,<br />
collaborations and presentations, as<br />
programs become formalized.<br />
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“Just as <strong>the</strong> physical environment<br />
determines what <strong>the</strong> source of food<br />
and exertions of labor shall be, <strong>the</strong><br />
information environment gives specific<br />
direction to <strong>the</strong> kinds of ideas, social<br />
attitudes, definitions of knowledge and<br />
intellectual capacities that will emerge....<br />
When <strong>the</strong>re occurs a radical shift in<br />
<strong>the</strong> structure of that environment, this<br />
must be followed by changes in social<br />
organization, intellectual predispositions<br />
and a sense of what is real and valuable....<br />
Towards an Ecological Understanding of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Energy-Information Environment<br />
When speaking of ‘<strong>the</strong> environment’, most<br />
people still think only of <strong>the</strong> tangible,<br />
physical environment of air, earth, fire,<br />
water and life. But <strong>the</strong>se material systems<br />
We might say that <strong>the</strong> most potent<br />
revolutionaries are those people who<br />
invent new media of communication,<br />
although typically <strong>the</strong>y are not aware<br />
of what <strong>the</strong>y are doing.”<br />
Neil Postman<br />
The Nature of Information<br />
“Complex systems in nature and<br />
society make use of information for <strong>the</strong><br />
development of <strong>the</strong>ir internal organization<br />
and <strong>the</strong> control of <strong>the</strong>ir functional<br />
mechanisms. Alongside technical aspects<br />
of storing, transmitting and processing<br />
information, <strong>the</strong> various semantic aspects<br />
of information, such as meaning, sense,<br />
reference and function, play a decisive<br />
part in <strong>the</strong> analysis of such systems.”<br />
Bernd-Olaf Küppers, Professor Emeritus<br />
of Natural Philosophy, University of Jena,<br />
Germany, author, Information and <strong>the</strong><br />
Origins of Life, MIT Press, 1990<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 101
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Information Ecology<br />
The Nature of Information<br />
Information, like matter and energy, is a<br />
primary ecological constituent.<br />
Information requires life, and it endows life.<br />
Information is universal, with qualities and<br />
properties varying according to scale.<br />
Information is <strong>the</strong> difference in a state of<br />
being resulting from any interaction, macro<br />
to micro, between two or more systems.<br />
Information at human-earth scale may<br />
be thought of as constituting a complex<br />
dynamic environment, with which all of<br />
life interacts.<br />
The dynamic flow of information tends<br />
to reorganize all living systems and<br />
social constructs.<br />
The human brain and nervous system have<br />
evolved through cumulative genetically<br />
coded experience, unique self-referencing<br />
processes, and a seeming tendency to be<br />
all knowing.<br />
Human senses evolved to sense narrow<br />
visible and auditory ranges of spectral<br />
information, though we invisibly and<br />
intangibly continually interact with<br />
all information.<br />
Human technological developments, as<br />
sensory aids, allow us to tune in to, ride<br />
upon and manipulate large parts of <strong>the</strong><br />
information environment.<br />
Information has value. It may be free, cheap<br />
or expensive, based on its availability and<br />
demand, processing requirements, and<br />
ability to make a difference.<br />
In human terms, pollution and waste in <strong>the</strong><br />
information environment are qualitative:<br />
ignorance, confusion, deception; as well<br />
as quantitative: sensory overload and high<br />
noise to signal ratio.<br />
Information is a verb, not a noun.<br />
are bound toge<strong>the</strong>r in an emergent flow<br />
of sustaining energy and information; <strong>the</strong><br />
Earth-Sun-Universe connection. It is this<br />
<strong>the</strong>rmodynamic life force, this radiant<br />
electromagnetic environment, and its<br />
impacts on <strong>the</strong> human body and mind, and<br />
on all life, to which a sense of ecology must<br />
be acknowledged.<br />
We have long known that <strong>the</strong> environment<br />
is much more, with contemporary physics<br />
and ecosystems sciences showing that<br />
‘<strong>the</strong> environment’ exists in <strong>the</strong> elementary,<br />
complex, inter-dynamic and co-evolutionary<br />
states of matter, energy and information.<br />
While we understand a great deal about<br />
material ecosystems, and are now including<br />
entropy and energy flows in our equations,<br />
we have barely applied understandings of<br />
ecology to information, and <strong>the</strong>refore to an<br />
integrated, whole-systems understanding<br />
of ecology. This will have evermore<br />
troubling consequences as local-global<br />
societies increasingly tune into, develop,<br />
pollute, manipulate and live in <strong>the</strong><br />
information environment.<br />
Human use and manipulation of<br />
<strong>the</strong> electromagnetic spectrum for<br />
communications, and <strong>the</strong> production<br />
and evermore saturating flow of energy<br />
for power, are having direct effect upon<br />
all living organisms, in ways barely<br />
understood. This energy-information<br />
environment; <strong>the</strong> flows and concentrations<br />
of cause and effect in this invisible, dynamic<br />
ecosystem; and <strong>the</strong> symbiotic relationship<br />
between <strong>the</strong> production of communications<br />
technology, with <strong>the</strong> co-evolution of<br />
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<strong>the</strong> human psycho-sensory system, is<br />
considered too esoteric and unfathomable<br />
a subject for most people to involve<br />
<strong>the</strong>mselves in. <strong>No</strong>ne<strong>the</strong>less, it is<br />
becoming clear that energy-information<br />
processes determine <strong>the</strong> dynamic course<br />
of social evolution.<br />
Colorado Plateau <strong>Mapping</strong><br />
An historically major element and mode<br />
of arts/sciences integration, now rich with<br />
relational digital data, is mapping and<br />
modeling. How do we map intangible and<br />
invisible dynamics over time?<br />
The overpowering chaos of <strong>the</strong> universe<br />
is miraculously awesome. The continuous,<br />
delicate balancing act between order and<br />
disorder involves us entirely, from molecule<br />
to mind. High entropy (chaos) matter-energy<br />
displays resistance and inflexibility. It is <strong>the</strong><br />
quality of low entropy (order) that makes<br />
matter-energy receptive to <strong>the</strong> imprint of<br />
human knowledge and purpose. We can<br />
nei<strong>the</strong>r create nor destroy matter, energy<br />
or information. We live on <strong>the</strong> qualitative<br />
difference between <strong>the</strong>se natural resources<br />
and waste; <strong>the</strong> increase in entropy.<br />
High entropy; noise in <strong>the</strong> information<br />
environment, is constituted by ignorance,<br />
confusion, deception and obfuscation. To<br />
ignore <strong>the</strong> simple and elemental truths of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Entropy Law, is undoubtedly to promote<br />
more undesired disorder over time.<br />
Life’s delicate balance requires greater<br />
sensitivity and perception. An ecology<br />
of <strong>the</strong> information environment; ‘an<br />
ecology of mind’; would foster intelligence,<br />
creativity and inspiration as our most<br />
valued resources. Within this conceptual<br />
framework, <strong>the</strong> arts, sciences and lifelong<br />
learning in pursuit of truth and beauty,<br />
ought to be <strong>the</strong> ultimate exemplars of a<br />
culturally rich, sustainable society. This<br />
would be a real Information Revolution.<br />
At <strong>the</strong> short end are <strong>the</strong> gamma waves, so tightly packed<br />
that a billion strung toge<strong>the</strong>r would barely cover a fingernail.<br />
At <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r end of <strong>the</strong> electromagnetic spectrum are<br />
enormously long waves. Most waves are measured in cycles<br />
per second, but <strong>the</strong>se are so huge that <strong>the</strong>y take more than<br />
a second to pass by, which makes <strong>the</strong>m more than 186,000<br />
miles long, or more than twenty times <strong>the</strong> diameter of <strong>the</strong><br />
Earth. There are indications of some waves as much as forty<br />
seconds, or seven million miles in length. At <strong>the</strong> moment we<br />
cannot begin to guess at <strong>the</strong> significance of <strong>the</strong>se signals.<br />
All we can do is record that <strong>the</strong>y exist, that <strong>the</strong>y traverse<br />
galaxies, that despite <strong>the</strong>ir very low field strength, life is<br />
sensitive to <strong>the</strong>m.<br />
See more at 1st-mile.org<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 103
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Resources & References<br />
The International Map Year: 2015-2016, International<br />
Cartographic Assoc. + UN Initiative for Global<br />
Geospatial Information Management ((UN-GGIM) http://<br />
internationalmapyear.org www.icaci.org<br />
A World that Counts: Mobilising <strong>the</strong> Data Revolution for<br />
Sustainable Development, Report prepared at <strong>the</strong><br />
request of <strong>the</strong> United Nations Secretary-General, by<br />
<strong>the</strong> Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data<br />
Revolution for Sustainable Development, <strong>No</strong>vember<br />
2014.<br />
SAFEGUARDING THE UNIQUENESS OF THE COLORADO<br />
PLATEAU: An Ecoregional Assessment of Biocultural<br />
Diversity, 2002, Center for Sustainable Environments,<br />
<strong>No</strong>r<strong>the</strong>rn Arizona U.; Grand Canyon Wildlands Council<br />
and Terralingua: Partnerships for Linguistic and<br />
Biological Diversity.<br />
The “Clean Power Plan” and <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau, Taylor<br />
McKinnon, August 7, 2014<br />
http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/news/2014/08/cleanpower-plan-colorado-plateau-part-1/<br />
Sojourns Magazine, Sedona, AZ www.sojournsmagazine.org<br />
Land Arts of <strong>the</strong> American West, UNM, http://landarts.unm.<br />
edu/index.html<br />
ARID: A <strong>Journal</strong> of Desert Art, Design and Ecology, http://<br />
aridjournal.org/<br />
Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), www.clui.org<br />
“Cybercartography – <strong>Mapping</strong> out <strong>the</strong> Mystery”, By: Fraser<br />
Taylor, June 8, 2014<br />
http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/cybercartography/5<br />
Archaeoacoustics https://sites.google.com/site/<br />
rockartacoustics/<br />
Perceptual Worlds and Sensory Ecology, Stephen Burnett,<br />
PhD (Dept. of Natural Sciences, Clayton State University)<br />
© 2012 Nature Education<br />
www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/perceptualworlds-and-sensory-ecology-22141730<br />
Towards Understanding Plant Bioacoustics, Monica Gagliano,<br />
Stefano Mancuso + Daniel Robert, Cell Press.<br />
Impacts of Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Field (RF-<br />
EMF) from Cell Phone Towers and Wireless Devices<br />
on Biosystems and Ecosystems – A Review, S Sivani, D<br />
Sudarsanam, Department of Advanced Zoology and<br />
Biotechnology, Loyola College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu,<br />
India, Biology and Medicine, 4 (4): 202–216, 2012.<br />
Immersed in a New Media Environment: Visualizing <strong>the</strong><br />
Electromagnetic Space, Susana Jorgina,<br />
April 20, 2010 https://susanajorgina.wordpress.<br />
com/2010/04/20/visualizing-<strong>the</strong>-electromagnetic-space/<br />
Information Ecology (section for <strong>the</strong> Recommendations<br />
for Actions and Commitments at Earth Summit II: NGO<br />
background paper), 1997, www.infohabitat.org/csd-97<br />
Information and <strong>the</strong> Origins of Life, Bernd-Olaf Küppers<br />
(Professor Emeritus of Natural Philosophy, University of<br />
Jena, Germany), MIT Press, 1990.<br />
Energy and Information, Myron Tribus & Edward C. McIrvine,<br />
Scientific American, Sept. 1971.<br />
Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language and Life,<br />
J. Campbell, Simon & Schuster, 1982.<br />
The Poetry of Thermodynamics: Energy, entropy/exergy and<br />
quality, Silvio 0. Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz, 1997,<br />
Elsevier.<br />
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The Passage from Entropy to Thermodynamic Indeterminacy:<br />
Long-term Principles for Sustainability, Silvio Funtowicz,<br />
EC-JRC, ISIS + Martin O’Connor, C3ED, UVSQ, Bioeconomics<br />
and Sustainability: Essays in honour of Nicholas<br />
Georgescu-Roegen, Kozo Mayumi + John Gowdy (editors)<br />
The Entropy Law and <strong>the</strong> Economic Process, Nicholas<br />
Georgescu-Roegen, Harvard U. Press, 1971.<br />
The Economy as an Evolving Complex System II, Santa Fe<br />
Institute, W. Brian Arthur, Steven N. Durlauf, David A.<br />
Lane, Eds., Addison-Wesley, 1997.<br />
1st-Mile Institute<br />
1st-Mile Institute, founded<br />
in Santa Fe in 2006, is<br />
a think-and-do-tank<br />
currently stewarding<br />
two programs: The New<br />
Mexico “Broadband for<br />
All” Initiative, and SARC<br />
(Scientists/Artists Research<br />
Collaborations).<br />
The Value of <strong>the</strong> World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural<br />
Capital, Robert Costanza, et. al., Nature, Vol. 387, May<br />
15, 1997; + Changes in <strong>the</strong> Global Value of Ecosystem<br />
Services, 2014, Elsevier Ltd.<br />
Toward a Sustainable World Economy, William E. Rees,<br />
Institute for New Economic Thinking, 2011 annual<br />
conference, Crisis and Renewal: International Political<br />
Economy at <strong>the</strong> Crossroads.<br />
The Way: An Ecological World View (Appendix 2: What<br />
is Information?), Edward Goldsmith, U. of GA Press,<br />
1992/1998.<br />
From Energy to Information: Representation in Science<br />
and Technology, Art, and Literature, edited by Bruce<br />
Clarke and Linda Dalrymple Henderson, 2002, Stanford<br />
University Press.<br />
Perspectives: Examining Complex Ecological Dynamics<br />
through Arts, Humanities and Science Integration, Nevada<br />
Museum of Art Center for Art + Environment (CA+E), Reno,<br />
Nev., June 2015.<br />
Ecosystem Informatics, Oregon State U., Ecoinformatics<br />
Education + Ecoinformatics Collaboratory<br />
Steps to an Ecology of Networked Knowledge and Innovation:<br />
Enabling New Forms of Collaboration among Sciences,<br />
Engineering, Arts, and Design, Roger F. Malina, Carol<br />
Strohecker, and Carol LaFayette on behalf of SEAD<br />
network contributors, Leonardo MIT Press Ebook, 2015.<br />
(see: SARC, pg. 53) http://www.mitpressjournals.org/<br />
page/NSF_SEAD<br />
National Parks Arts Foundation, Tanya Ortega, http://www.<br />
nationalparksartsfoundation.org<br />
SARC (Scientists/Artists Research<br />
Collaborations)<br />
SARC (Scientists/Artists Research Collaborations), was<br />
successfully piloted as a featured program of ISEA2012,<br />
and is now structuring long-term eco-cultural initiatives.<br />
Initial education, science research, cultural institutions and<br />
supporters have included <strong>the</strong> New Mexico Consortium, Los<br />
Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, University of New<br />
Mexico, Santa Fe Institute, Institute of American Indian Arts,<br />
Santa Fe Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe Art Institute,<br />
and City of Santa Fe. SARC has produced ‘Arts/Sciences’<br />
programs for <strong>the</strong> CURRENTS: International New Media<br />
Festival, annually since 2012.<br />
While developing its regional cultural and educational<br />
initiatives, SARC is also participating in networked national<br />
and global interactions. SARC is co-producer, with Cabine<br />
Voltaire (NL), of an online Google Hangout series on Astro-<br />
Arts/Sciences. Invited SARC presentations were given at <strong>the</strong><br />
XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology, ‘Facing an Unequal<br />
World: Challenges for Global Society’, July 2014, Yokohama,<br />
Japan, and at Balance/Unbalance, at ASU, Tempe, AZ, March<br />
2015. SARC collaborated on and is featured in “Steps to an<br />
Ecology of Networked Knowledge and Innovation: Enabling<br />
New Forms of Collaboration among Sciences, Engineering,<br />
Arts, and Design”, a 2015 Leonardo MIT Press Ebook.<br />
“ECOS”<br />
The SARC “ECOS” initiative is being structured upon<br />
intent to address local-global “Grand Challenge” issues of<br />
climate, communications, energy, information, ecology and<br />
economics, with greater eco-minded intelligence, creativity,<br />
multi-sector cooperation and sustaining outcomes. “ECOS”<br />
seeks eco-cultural co-conspirators.<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 105
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
106 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Bee 19 (Hum),<br />
graphite on paper,<br />
13 3/4” x 13 1/2”, 2011<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 107
Field Play<br />
Magdalena S. Donahue<br />
Dr. Magdalena Sandoval Donahue is interested in<br />
increasing science accessibility and applicability.<br />
She combines her background in geoscience, mobile<br />
technology, and art to create data visualization<br />
tools and science outreach and education<br />
efforts. She co-founded Think Ubiquitous, LLC, an<br />
environmental reporting software development<br />
company. Her work specializes in report<br />
automation, interactive data visualizations, and<br />
(geo)science education. Dr. Donahue also utilizes<br />
her art background to create visualizations from<br />
actual Earth datasets which she prints on fabric and<br />
<strong>the</strong>n creates apparel. Dr. Donahue is a consulting<br />
geologist, part-time lecturer at <strong>the</strong> University<br />
of New Mexico, and is authoring books on <strong>the</strong><br />
geology of Colorado and New Mexico. She is also<br />
a 2-time Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier and<br />
personal running coach. A native of nor<strong>the</strong>rn New<br />
Mexico, Dr. Donahue spent her youth in Truchas<br />
and Los Alamos, NM. Growing up in <strong>the</strong>se rugged<br />
landscapes was <strong>the</strong> basis for much of her curiosity<br />
about and appreciation of Earth processes; her<br />
family ties also ground her interest in increasing<br />
science usability for rural and diverse populations.<br />
think-ubiquitous.com<br />
108 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
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Magdalena S. Donahue<br />
Introduction<br />
The original idea for Field Play – or a digitally<br />
immersive field trip – grew out of <strong>the</strong> desire<br />
to avoid carsickness I often experienced on<br />
geologic field trips. When perusing an array<br />
of materials, often driving on small or dirt<br />
roads, it is difficult to integrate information<br />
from a variety of sources and in different<br />
mediums to grow a comprehensive view<br />
of a location. My original thought was to<br />
assimilate maps, data, and photos/sketches<br />
into a digital booklet; <strong>the</strong> idea grew to be<br />
much more complex and interesting.<br />
I have always been interested in <strong>the</strong><br />
integration of technology into field sciences.<br />
Geoscientists must think in a complex,<br />
4-dimensional space-time framework,<br />
working with timescales ranging to billions<br />
of years – much beyond <strong>the</strong> human<br />
timescale, and spaces and environments<br />
that are no longer in existence, or took place<br />
on different parts of <strong>the</strong> globe. Much of this<br />
complexity can be teased out and displayed<br />
using interactive digital tools, allowing for a<br />
personal, curiosity-driven exploration of a<br />
topic, location, or time period.<br />
explore a way to allow users, regardless of<br />
background, drive <strong>the</strong>ir own educational<br />
experiences because I believed that by<br />
placing education in a personal context,<br />
a user would <strong>the</strong>n be more likely to learn<br />
relevant material.<br />
I feel that it is critical to place education –<br />
particularly science education – in a context<br />
that is familiar to <strong>the</strong> learner, thus reducing<br />
potential points for alienation or intimidation,<br />
and increasing <strong>the</strong> relevance and application<br />
of science. I grew up in rural nor<strong>the</strong>rn New<br />
Mexico, a place of enormous inherited and<br />
cultural knowledge, but one that is also<br />
poor and traditionally skeptical of science<br />
education. The people of <strong>the</strong>se educationally<br />
underserved regions are excellent learners,<br />
teachers, and scientists – but are rarely given<br />
any choice or control over <strong>the</strong> direction or<br />
application of <strong>the</strong>ir educations. I believe that<br />
by allowing users to drive <strong>the</strong>ir educational<br />
experiences (formal and informal), <strong>the</strong>y<br />
are more likely to learn relevant material,<br />
expand upon that base, and create a selfdriven,<br />
efficient education that allows for <strong>the</strong><br />
powerful application of relevant knowledge<br />
to real-life problems.<br />
Field Play began in <strong>the</strong> year following <strong>the</strong><br />
birth of my elder daughter. I took leave<br />
from graduate study as I had a newborn<br />
and was working through postpartum<br />
depression. This was a time of great creative<br />
energy, as I permitted myself to fully take<br />
leave from graduate work and focus on <strong>the</strong><br />
parts of geoscience that really drew me:<br />
education, data visualization, and technology<br />
integration. During this year, I wanted to<br />
Background<br />
Digital technologies – web-based, mobile<br />
and wearable – are becoming increasingly<br />
used in geoscience education. Increased<br />
access to technology and computing power<br />
are paired with a growing recognition of<br />
<strong>the</strong> need to diversify methods of teaching,<br />
research, data collection and management,<br />
and scientific communication both within<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 109
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Magdalena S. Donahue<br />
geoscience communities and world<br />
populations. As digital tools and student<br />
populations evolve and diversify, traditional<br />
educational methods need to be updated.<br />
Digital technology is making inroads into<br />
<strong>the</strong> geosciences. As topics such as climate<br />
change, natural resources exploration, and<br />
funding cuts to research and educational<br />
institutions become increasingly part<br />
of our national discourse, <strong>the</strong> need to<br />
communicate with and educate <strong>the</strong><br />
communities that support geoscience and<br />
environmental research is increasingly<br />
critical.<br />
The ongoing Field Play mobile device<br />
application seeks to create a data-rich,<br />
location-sensitive educational tool<br />
suitable for use by an audience that ranges<br />
widely in skill. Such a tool requires <strong>the</strong><br />
collection and streamlining of data from<br />
many sources and in many formats including<br />
maps, data tables, annotated photographs,<br />
etc. Field Play works to streamline <strong>the</strong> access<br />
to this range of tools using location, topic,<br />
and keyword search functions to direct a<br />
user through <strong>the</strong>ir educational experience.<br />
Field Play enhances <strong>the</strong> traditional field<br />
experience by enfolding tools such as<br />
location-triggered audio content, augmented<br />
reality-enhanced landscapes, multiple types<br />
of layered basemaps and location-specific<br />
data and references.<br />
Field Play was originally deployed in <strong>the</strong><br />
Albuquerque, NM, area. The application<br />
Mental<br />
was also featured in <strong>the</strong> 2014 New Mexico<br />
Geological Society Fall Field Conference<br />
(NMGS FFC), located in <strong>the</strong> Sacramento<br />
Mountains of sou<strong>the</strong>rn New Mexico.<br />
Demonstration trips have been created<br />
throughout <strong>the</strong> western US and Canada.<br />
Role of Technology in Field Education<br />
Advances<br />
Technology is often seen as a virtual<br />
world completely separate from our own<br />
human world, an environment in which we<br />
engage once we have removed ourselves<br />
from <strong>the</strong> “real” physical world. This bias<br />
presents a unique challenge when it comes<br />
to introducing technology into education<br />
in <strong>the</strong> geosciences. Students believe <strong>the</strong>y<br />
must make <strong>the</strong> decision to engage <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
technological device – where information<br />
lives and is accessible - or else <strong>the</strong>y choose<br />
to engage <strong>the</strong> world around <strong>the</strong>m – <strong>the</strong><br />
world that has inspired <strong>the</strong> collected digital<br />
knowledge. This daunting divide turns out<br />
to be a solvable user interface (UI) problem<br />
that works to minimize <strong>the</strong> gap between<br />
integration with <strong>the</strong> real world and digital<br />
content. Mark Rolston, chief creative officer<br />
at Frog, talks of taking <strong>the</strong> computers out<br />
of computing so that we users do not have<br />
to stop our lives to operate a computer<br />
terminal (Rolston, 2011). Field Play brings<br />
powerful content into <strong>the</strong> field without<br />
sacrificing <strong>the</strong> attention of <strong>the</strong> participants,<br />
by embedding knowledge and device use<br />
into <strong>the</strong> environment.<br />
Many attempts to bring digital data into<br />
<strong>the</strong> field have relied on <strong>the</strong> user to discern,<br />
navigate, and relate pertinent content into<br />
<strong>the</strong> context of <strong>the</strong> field experience. This<br />
requires <strong>the</strong> user to maintain a mental map<br />
Ecology<br />
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of both <strong>the</strong> physical environment as well as<br />
<strong>the</strong> content layout.<br />
For example, if students are standing<br />
at a scenic viewpoint with typical digital<br />
information access, <strong>the</strong>y first have to know<br />
where <strong>the</strong>y are standing; next <strong>the</strong>y must<br />
pull up <strong>the</strong> appropriate map or diagram to<br />
relate <strong>the</strong>ir vantage point to <strong>the</strong> available<br />
data <strong>the</strong>y wish to retrieve. Throughout this<br />
entire experience, students expend needless<br />
mental energy and time simply trying to<br />
access information. Many beginning geology<br />
students are intimated and feel unqualified<br />
to pursue fur<strong>the</strong>r study because <strong>the</strong>y do not<br />
understand how <strong>the</strong> content is arranged.<br />
Because <strong>the</strong>y do not comprehend this<br />
organizational data structure, <strong>the</strong>y become<br />
frustrated and feel <strong>the</strong>y cannot understand<br />
geology. It is key to realize that in <strong>the</strong>se<br />
situations, <strong>the</strong> stumbling point lies not<br />
with <strong>the</strong> student, but ra<strong>the</strong>r in faults of <strong>the</strong><br />
technology and its human interface. Donald<br />
<strong>No</strong>rman, author of Design of Everyday Things<br />
(<strong>No</strong>rman, 1988), puts it this way: When you<br />
have trouble with things, whe<strong>the</strong>r it’s figuring<br />
out whe<strong>the</strong>r to push or pull a door or <strong>the</strong><br />
arbitrary vagaries of <strong>the</strong> modern computer<br />
and electronics industries, it’s not your fault.<br />
Don’t blame yourself: blame <strong>the</strong> designer.”<br />
The Field Play experience differs dramatically<br />
from <strong>the</strong> laborious process of data<br />
navigation. By pulling location and device<br />
orientation from a myriad of sensors, Field<br />
Play can deliver <strong>the</strong> necessary content when<br />
and where it is needed. As a user approaches<br />
a location, an audio file is played back that<br />
recites some of <strong>the</strong> more relevant feature(s)<br />
without user intervention. If <strong>the</strong> student<br />
wishes to view a map, <strong>the</strong>y simply open<br />
<strong>the</strong> application where a map, automatically<br />
centered on <strong>the</strong>ir current location, is<br />
displayed. When <strong>the</strong> student spots a physical<br />
feature that <strong>the</strong>y wish to know more about,<br />
<strong>the</strong> student points <strong>the</strong>ir phone camper<br />
at <strong>the</strong> feature in question and labels are<br />
superimposed on <strong>the</strong> moving camera feed.<br />
In Field Play, <strong>the</strong> variable data sources a<br />
geologist uses, which may have previously<br />
distracted from <strong>the</strong> new students’ field<br />
experience, are now smoothly embedded<br />
into <strong>the</strong> environment, making content<br />
available as <strong>the</strong> students’ needs change.<br />
Ra<strong>the</strong>r than a virtual experience separate<br />
from reality, <strong>the</strong> student now experiences<br />
what is known as augmented reality.<br />
While augmented reality (AR) is not new,<br />
<strong>the</strong> solutions are often difficult to use and<br />
content generation is typically geared<br />
toward a more computer science oriented<br />
audience. In order for AR to be utilized for<br />
educational purposes, both <strong>the</strong> end user<br />
experience and <strong>the</strong> content generation must<br />
be simple and straight-forward. The goal of<br />
Field Play is to employ <strong>the</strong> AR experience to<br />
enhance field geology, ra<strong>the</strong>r than to distract<br />
from <strong>the</strong> environment, <strong>the</strong> questions at hand,<br />
or <strong>the</strong> discussions that may be occurring<br />
between colleagues.<br />
Field Deployment<br />
The end goal of Field Play is to create a<br />
personally-scalable educational experience.<br />
In practice, <strong>the</strong> embedded GPS within mobile<br />
devices triggers location-aware interactive<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 111
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Magdalena S. Donahue<br />
content to become available when <strong>the</strong><br />
user is within a set proximity of <strong>the</strong> feature<br />
(e.g., audio alert when approaching a fault<br />
zone). Additionally, users are given <strong>the</strong><br />
option to interactively explore topical and<br />
location-based sub-modules that include<br />
AR binoculars, informational text, audio,<br />
topographic and geologic maps, and short<br />
YouTube lessons while in <strong>the</strong> field.<br />
Field Play content is both trip-specific and<br />
stand-alone. Content exists within <strong>the</strong><br />
Field Play ecosystem at two levels: curated,<br />
scientific content created by Field Play, and<br />
crowd sourced data originated by users. Both<br />
of <strong>the</strong>se data types are fully “mashable,” and<br />
can be combined by users to create personal<br />
topical or location-based trips using our trip<br />
creation tool.<br />
Field Play content can be accessed online as<br />
well as via mobile device. We are working<br />
to expand our curated and crowd-sourced<br />
content to provide an up-to-date, easily<br />
accessible resource of reliable geologic<br />
and scientific information for recreational,<br />
educational or professional use.<br />
Conclusions<br />
Field Play is an augmented reality educational<br />
and experiential tool that integrates<br />
geoscience educational content with <strong>the</strong><br />
physical world. Built to run on Android<br />
mobile devices, <strong>the</strong> Field Play system is based<br />
around <strong>the</strong> creation of a data-rich landscape<br />
through which users engage in locationaware<br />
content to explore <strong>the</strong>ir environment<br />
through geologic field trips. Field Play has<br />
two goals: 1) Improving access to abundant<br />
scientific information while in <strong>the</strong> field, and<br />
2) Promoting scientific education on a large<br />
scale, in a way that is personal, relevant, and<br />
interest-driven.<br />
Field Play was incorporated into <strong>the</strong><br />
New Mexico Geological Society Fall Field<br />
Conference (Donahue and Donahue, 2014).<br />
This three-day trip in sou<strong>the</strong>rn New Mexico<br />
included AR stops, annotated photographs,<br />
audio content of critical features, and<br />
links to guidebook and o<strong>the</strong>r pertinent<br />
scientific publications. For this trip, Field Play<br />
created predetermined routes based on<br />
conference road logs, as well as free-standing<br />
supplementary content.<br />
As formal geoscience education grapples with<br />
<strong>the</strong> relevance and feasibility of field methods<br />
courses, and as communication within and<br />
across progressively specific geoscience<br />
branches becomes increasingly critical in <strong>the</strong><br />
world of large data sets and interdisciplinary<br />
science experiments, tools such as Field<br />
Play that facilitate exploration, learning, and<br />
communication are of vital importance. Field<br />
Play is one attempt to bring evolving digital<br />
tools into a field-based science, and to do so<br />
in a way that benefits a range of audiences.<br />
Field Play is currently (Fall 2017) offline,<br />
undergoing major revision and update.<br />
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<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 113
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Magdalena S. Donahue<br />
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References<br />
Donahue, M.S. and Donahue, J.P., 2014. Field Play and <strong>the</strong><br />
2014 New Mexico Geological Society Fall Field Conference:<br />
Incorporating augmented reality and location sensitive<br />
content to create an interactive, data-rich landscape:<br />
Geological Society of America Abstracts with programs,<br />
v. 46, no. 6, p.739.<br />
Chen, X., Choi, J., 2010. Designing Online Collaborative<br />
Location-aware Platform for History Learning: <strong>Journal</strong> of<br />
Educational Technology Development and Exchange, 3(1),<br />
13-26.<br />
Rolston, Mark, 2011. http://www.zdnet.com/article/frogcreative-chief-think-outside-<strong>the</strong>-computer-box<br />
<strong>No</strong>rman, D. 1988. The Design of Everyday Things. London,<br />
MIT Press<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 115
Layers Exposed<br />
Brooke Larsen<br />
Brooke Larsen is a writer and climate organizer<br />
from Salt Lake City. As a current student in <strong>the</strong><br />
University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities<br />
Graduate Program, she explores <strong>the</strong> role of story<br />
in <strong>the</strong> climate justice movement. She is a Rio Mesa<br />
Young Scholar and spent <strong>the</strong> summer of 2017<br />
cycling across <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau listening to<br />
stories from people on <strong>the</strong> frontlines of climate<br />
change and environmental injustice. She works<br />
for Torrey House Press and organizes with<br />
groups such as Wasatch Rising Tide, Uplift, and<br />
SustainUS. She recently won <strong>the</strong> High Country<br />
News Bell Prize for her essay “What are We<br />
Fighting For?” and was published in <strong>the</strong> anthology<br />
Red Rock Stories. Brooke graduated from<br />
Colorado College with a degree in environmental<br />
policy and researched land and water issues in<br />
<strong>the</strong> American West with <strong>the</strong> college’s State of <strong>the</strong><br />
Rockies Project.<br />
116 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Layers Exposed<br />
Brooke Larsen<br />
Few can draw <strong>the</strong> boundaries of <strong>the</strong> Colorado<br />
Plateau on a map, but <strong>the</strong> senses provide<br />
direction. You know you’re in this bioregion<br />
by <strong>the</strong> feeling of rust-colored sandstone<br />
sticking to your feet. When people first<br />
walk on <strong>the</strong> iconic red rock of <strong>the</strong> Colorado<br />
Plateau, <strong>the</strong>y often don’t trust <strong>the</strong>ir footing,<br />
not knowing that <strong>the</strong> sticky solidified sand<br />
will grip <strong>the</strong>ir soles. The layers of uplifted<br />
sandstone reveal <strong>the</strong> earth’s deep time<br />
in hues of salmon and burnt orange.<br />
Sandy washes, which only see water when<br />
thunderstorms bring flash floods, contrast<br />
<strong>the</strong> appearing certainty of <strong>the</strong> surrounding<br />
cliffs. Whiffs of sage picked up by howling<br />
wind remind visitors that life abounds in this<br />
high desert.<br />
Visitors flock to red rock country from across<br />
<strong>the</strong> world to see some of <strong>the</strong> United States’<br />
most loved national parks—from Arches<br />
in sou<strong>the</strong>rn Utah to <strong>the</strong> Grand Canyon in<br />
nor<strong>the</strong>rn Arizona. Over 60% of <strong>the</strong> region<br />
is federally-owned public land and 25% is<br />
sovereign Native land. The patchwork of land<br />
ownership between <strong>the</strong> federal government,<br />
tribes, <strong>the</strong> state, and private land owners<br />
rarely follows ecosystems or geology, but<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r politics. Straight lines marking <strong>the</strong><br />
boundaries of reservations and national<br />
parks juxtapose winding topography. State<br />
trust lands allocated during statehood leave<br />
perfect squares in a checkerboard fashion.<br />
Private land is scarce and urban areas are<br />
small. Flagstaff, <strong>the</strong> region’s largest city, is<br />
home to just over 71,000 people.<br />
My ancestors were <strong>the</strong> Mormon pioneers<br />
who colonized what is now <strong>the</strong> state of<br />
Utah six generations ago. Identifying as a<br />
sixth-generation Utahn gets one far in rural<br />
Utah, but I feel no pride in my ancestors’<br />
genocidal acts and brutal attempts at cultural<br />
erasure. Ra<strong>the</strong>r, I identify my ancestry to<br />
say <strong>the</strong> politics written on <strong>the</strong> land also<br />
run in my blood. To uncover <strong>the</strong> Colorado<br />
Plateau’s layered stories, stories not in my<br />
family history, I biked 1,500 miles across<br />
<strong>the</strong> region for eight weeks in <strong>the</strong> summer<br />
of 2017, listening to stories from those<br />
on <strong>the</strong> frontlines of climate change and<br />
environmental injustice.<br />
The political boundaries on <strong>the</strong> land create<br />
narratives of contradiction that layer on<br />
top of one ano<strong>the</strong>r, burying uncomfortable<br />
histories and perpetuating myths to appease<br />
special interests and political agendas.<br />
On <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau <strong>the</strong> dominant story<br />
is wild—whe<strong>the</strong>r that’s wilderness or <strong>the</strong><br />
Wild West. The region’s vastness and stark<br />
beauty easily invites protectors, but <strong>the</strong><br />
myth of pristine and romanticized cowboys<br />
also erase Native histories and ignore <strong>the</strong><br />
horrors of settler colonialism. The forced<br />
removal of Havasupai People to protect <strong>the</strong><br />
Grand Canyon is no more innocent than my<br />
ancestors’ attempt to squash Native culture<br />
and supplant it with <strong>the</strong>ir own.<br />
Beyond <strong>the</strong> wild, <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau faces<br />
a hidden struggle of sacrifice. I didn’t bike to<br />
protected places but ra<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong> forgotten<br />
ones. I didn’t map my route around national<br />
parks or wilderness areas but ra<strong>the</strong>r hubs<br />
of resistance and sacrifice zones. Under <strong>the</strong><br />
iconic red rock, prospectors find tar sands,<br />
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oil shale, uranium, coal, oil, natural gas and<br />
a sweep of o<strong>the</strong>r minerals. The region’s<br />
geology and low population density lead to<br />
silenced injustices in remote corners most<br />
often nearest to <strong>the</strong> poor and people of color,<br />
especially Native people. In Washington, D.C.<br />
and regional Bureau of Land Management<br />
offices, sacrifice is technical; on <strong>the</strong> ground,<br />
sacrifice is personal.<br />
P.R. Spring is one of many sacrifice zones.<br />
The Environmental Impact Statement for <strong>the</strong><br />
mine says, “Visual resources are generally of<br />
low quality.”<br />
In early June, I met a small group of climate<br />
activist friends near <strong>the</strong> mine. My friend,<br />
Kailey, joined me for <strong>the</strong> bike ride from<br />
Vernal, Utah to PR Spring across <strong>the</strong> heart<br />
of <strong>the</strong> Uintah Basin. A few miles into our<br />
ride, Kailey asked me how many oil rigs I’d<br />
counted. Thirteen, I said. Counting started<br />
as a game, a distraction from our burning<br />
thighs, but eventually, counting turned<br />
into hysteria. The machinery showed up as<br />
pawns on <strong>the</strong> checkerboard of Ute land, state<br />
land, and private land most likely owned<br />
by descendants of Mormon settlers. The<br />
rigs blended into <strong>the</strong> politics but stand out<br />
against <strong>the</strong> snowcapped Uinta Mountains<br />
rising behind us to <strong>the</strong> north. I stopped<br />
thinking about <strong>the</strong> disturbance on <strong>the</strong> land<br />
today, and instead <strong>the</strong> climate projections<br />
for this region ran through my head on<br />
repeat. 99% chance of megadrought. As early<br />
as 2050. 20% of <strong>the</strong> Colorado River will dry<br />
up. 3.2- million-acre shortfall of water. 99%<br />
chance of megadrought. Unless we keep all<br />
remaining fossil fuels in <strong>the</strong> ground.<br />
We pedaled uphill all day. We were in a<br />
desert of double desecration. The earth was<br />
barren from historic overgrazing. We biked<br />
past frack pad on frack pad on frack pad.<br />
Some well sites contained massive crane<br />
machinery that moved up and down as it<br />
pulled oil from <strong>the</strong> earth. O<strong>the</strong>r spots were<br />
less obvious with just a small tank and a<br />
few pressure gauges connected to pipelines<br />
that discreetly ran along <strong>the</strong> side of <strong>the</strong> road<br />
beneath sage and rabbit brush. The tailing<br />
ponds and mix of chemicals flared with<br />
odorless methane making <strong>the</strong> air smell putrid<br />
and sour, like rotten eggs mixed with that<br />
gas station scent. While biking through <strong>the</strong><br />
Uintah and Ouray Ute Reservation, a herd of<br />
wild horses blocked <strong>the</strong> road, forcing us to<br />
stop and wait while <strong>the</strong> fifty horses decide to<br />
trot past.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> early evening, we summited <strong>the</strong><br />
last hill. The pavement ended, and we<br />
approached <strong>the</strong> biggest monstrosity yet—<br />
<strong>the</strong> PR Spring tar sands mine. Situated on<br />
<strong>the</strong> Tavaputs Plateau in <strong>the</strong> Book Cliffs, <strong>the</strong><br />
P.R. Spring tar sands mine threatens <strong>the</strong><br />
surrounding watershed. The mine occupies<br />
<strong>the</strong> dividing line between Uintah and Grand<br />
County. The Uinta Mountains that rise in <strong>the</strong><br />
north near Vernal and <strong>the</strong> La Sals that jut in<br />
<strong>the</strong> south outside of Moab emphasize <strong>the</strong><br />
scale of <strong>the</strong> surrounding watershed.<br />
The White and Green Rivers run nearby,<br />
both tributaries to <strong>the</strong> hardest working<br />
river, <strong>the</strong> Colorado.<br />
Fences decorated in no trespassing signs<br />
lined <strong>the</strong> side of <strong>the</strong> road, shining in <strong>the</strong><br />
fading sunlight. Giant black piles of land torn<br />
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to pieces rose beside <strong>the</strong> scraped earth. So<br />
far, U.S. Oil Sands has failed to prove <strong>the</strong><br />
economic viability of <strong>the</strong> mine. As I biked<br />
past, I raised my middle finger, a pa<strong>the</strong>tic<br />
expression of my rage.<br />
For eight years, resisters, agitators, land and<br />
water protectors have engaged in direct<br />
action and camp outs, protesting <strong>the</strong> mine<br />
and raising awareness. Last year organizers<br />
held an action camp at <strong>the</strong> mine, reclaiming<br />
land with seed bombs and large banners.<br />
Twenty people were arrested. This year<br />
friends ga<strong>the</strong>red to reconnect with <strong>the</strong> place<br />
and one ano<strong>the</strong>r, not engaging in direct<br />
action but ra<strong>the</strong>r writing, singing, and sharing<br />
meals toge<strong>the</strong>r.<br />
Kate Savage, my friend and co-organizer<br />
of Wasatch Rising Tide in Salt Lake City,<br />
disagrees with <strong>the</strong> State’s claim that P.R.<br />
Spring is of low scenic value. Kate helped<br />
organize <strong>the</strong> action camp at <strong>the</strong> mine last<br />
year, but has known about <strong>the</strong> Book Cliffs<br />
since she was five-years-old. Her conservative<br />
fa<strong>the</strong>r had a “Save <strong>the</strong> Book Cliffs” sticker on<br />
his Mormon Bishop’s binder. He was not an<br />
environmentalist, but a hunter who loved<br />
<strong>the</strong> place.<br />
During our recent visit to <strong>the</strong> Tavaputs<br />
Plateau, Kate and I rode in <strong>the</strong> back of an<br />
old pick-up truck to see nearby petroglyphs.<br />
After negotiating with cows who wouldn’t<br />
leave <strong>the</strong> small unpaved road, I asked Kate<br />
what <strong>the</strong> area meant to her. She responded,<br />
“This isn’t Arches or <strong>the</strong> Uinta Mountains.<br />
But just look how special it is—<strong>the</strong>se aspen<br />
groves, and Douglas fir trees, and <strong>the</strong> cliff<br />
structures. The wildlife is off <strong>the</strong> charts. We<br />
saw forty elk yesterday.”<br />
In <strong>the</strong> high desert, only <strong>the</strong> most aes<strong>the</strong>tic<br />
earns protection, and often not even that if<br />
profitable minerals lay in <strong>the</strong> ground. The<br />
standard of aes<strong>the</strong>tics is not only employed<br />
by industry or land agencies, but also<br />
conservationists. The federal government<br />
traded <strong>the</strong> land that <strong>the</strong> tar sands mine rests<br />
on, and much of <strong>the</strong> fracking fields in <strong>the</strong><br />
Uintah Basin that I biked through, after <strong>the</strong><br />
designation of Grand Staircase-Escalante<br />
National Monument. The protection of Grand<br />
Staircase kept millions of tons of coal in <strong>the</strong><br />
ground in one of <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau’s most<br />
scenic areas, but at <strong>the</strong> expense of more<br />
emissions elsewhere. Land protection rarely<br />
factors parts per million, and for too long <strong>the</strong><br />
conservation movement advocated for <strong>the</strong><br />
protection of certain areas at <strong>the</strong> expense of<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rs, including our climate. Land exchanges<br />
don’t include <strong>the</strong> cost of climate chaos. How<br />
do we price our future?<br />
Kate came to <strong>the</strong> climate movement<br />
reluctantly. “I was into protecting land and<br />
living differently,” she said. “Climate seemed<br />
so abstract to me. I was like, ‘how can you<br />
care about parts per million, you can only<br />
care about land, right?’ I had to go through<br />
social justice movements to get to climate.<br />
It came full circle with <strong>the</strong> Keep it in <strong>the</strong><br />
Ground movement, because it was about<br />
land defense, which is originally where my<br />
heart was.”<br />
The vastness and stark beauty of <strong>the</strong><br />
Colorado Plateau easily invites protectors.<br />
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Climate change makes <strong>the</strong> importance<br />
of protecting <strong>the</strong> region’s land and water<br />
twofold. The oil rigs and tar sands mine<br />
pollute <strong>the</strong> land and water today, but <strong>the</strong>y<br />
also contribute to climate chaos, which on<br />
<strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau means potentially<br />
unlivable drought. The previous Secretary of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Interior Sally Jewell once called <strong>the</strong> Keep<br />
it in <strong>the</strong> Ground movement naïve. Is it naïve<br />
to demand a livable future?<br />
During our last evening camping near <strong>the</strong><br />
mine, Kailey and I organized our gear to<br />
get ready for our bike ride early <strong>the</strong> next<br />
morning. As we stuffed our panniers, we<br />
overheard our friends singing, “Daddy won’t<br />
you take me back to Muhlenberg County,<br />
down by <strong>the</strong> Green River where Paradise<br />
lay?” They sat a couple hundred yards away<br />
under <strong>the</strong> shelter of aspen, cushioned by<br />
tall grasses. Kailey and I leaned our bikes<br />
against a car, set aside our gear, and ran<br />
over to <strong>the</strong>m. We often sing “Paradise” by<br />
John Prine, sometimes changing <strong>the</strong> lyrics<br />
from Muhlenberg County to Uintah County,<br />
making our own ode to <strong>the</strong> Green River that<br />
flows through our home region. I laid down<br />
in <strong>the</strong> grass and quietly sang <strong>the</strong> chorus with<br />
my friends, resting in my paradise.<br />
Throughout <strong>the</strong> summer as I biked across<br />
<strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau, I consistently found<br />
land converted to energy extraction<br />
zones and early signs of climate change.<br />
The resistance at P.R. Spring connects to<br />
communities across <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau<br />
through a shared watershed, but also a<br />
shared experience of sacrifice.<br />
Eighty miles south of Moab sits <strong>the</strong> last active<br />
uranium mill in <strong>the</strong> country, just three miles<br />
north of <strong>the</strong> Ute Mountain Ute town of White<br />
Mesa. The mill processes uranium mined<br />
across <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau and radioactive<br />
waste from all corners of <strong>the</strong> country. I met<br />
with Thelma Whiskers, an elder in White<br />
Mesa who has resisted <strong>the</strong> mill since <strong>the</strong><br />
‘90s. When I biked up to her house, I found<br />
puppies huddled under <strong>the</strong> shade of <strong>the</strong><br />
front porch. She joked that she wanted to<br />
get rid of <strong>the</strong> puppies, but her grandchildren<br />
loved <strong>the</strong>m. She invited me inside her home<br />
and <strong>the</strong>n sat down on a couch under a wall<br />
covered in family photos.<br />
Thelma quietly told me about <strong>the</strong> injustices<br />
her community faces. “This place is<br />
dangerous for us,” she said. “The young ones<br />
have allergies, diabetes, and asthma. The<br />
water doesn’t taste good. We don’t drink it.”<br />
The herbs that Thelma’s mom collected<br />
no longer grow near <strong>the</strong> mill, and <strong>the</strong> mill<br />
has been in violation of <strong>the</strong> Clean Air Act<br />
for radon emissions, a radioactive, cancercausing<br />
gas.<br />
For decades, White Mesa has been ignored,<br />
but in May, 2017 <strong>the</strong> community led a<br />
spiritual walk to <strong>the</strong> mill and over one<br />
hundred people joined <strong>the</strong>m in solidarity.<br />
Those that showed up ranged from o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
Ute Mountain Ute tribal members from<br />
Towaoc, Colorado and Diné people who have<br />
suffered from uranium mining on <strong>the</strong> Navajo<br />
Nation, to activists from Moab and Salt Lake<br />
City. I asked Thelma how she felt that day.<br />
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Injustice births from<br />
silenced stories. Hope<br />
lives in deep listening<br />
that sparks action.<br />
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A smile overcame her face and she said,<br />
“We were strong.”<br />
Injustice births from silenced stories. Hope<br />
lives in deep listening that sparks action.<br />
From White Mesa I biked south to Bluff<br />
and met up with my friend Montana, who<br />
would bike with me over <strong>the</strong> steep hills in<br />
southwest Colorado. Friends made <strong>the</strong><br />
biking easier, not necessarily distracting<br />
me from <strong>the</strong> heat and steep climbs, but<br />
at least giving me companionship in <strong>the</strong><br />
somewhat absurd journey. From Bluff, we<br />
followed <strong>the</strong> San Juan River east to <strong>the</strong> town<br />
of Cortez, Colorado. It was unbearably hot.<br />
The sun beat down so strongly and <strong>the</strong> air<br />
was so dry that sweat instantly evaporated,<br />
leaving a layer of salt on my burnt arms.<br />
Everything around us appeared rusted red.<br />
The red rock inspires passion and awe, but<br />
in temperatures abnormally hot for mid-<br />
June, <strong>the</strong> fiery appearance of <strong>the</strong> earth<br />
matched <strong>the</strong> stark heat that challenged my<br />
sanity. Continuing on required focus. Often<br />
I just thought about getting over each hill,<br />
but <strong>the</strong> human impact on <strong>the</strong> landscape also<br />
consumed my mind. While biking along <strong>the</strong><br />
San Juan River, I passed oil and gas wells on<br />
<strong>the</strong> river’s edge. I thought of those signs in<br />
national forests telling visitors to not camp<br />
within a few hundred feet of water. How do<br />
we define harm?<br />
As <strong>the</strong> temperatures began to cool with<br />
<strong>the</strong> setting sun, we reached Cortez and <strong>the</strong><br />
home where Bill Anderegg, a young climate<br />
scientist at <strong>the</strong> University of Utah, grew up.<br />
He spends his summers at his parents’ home<br />
to study <strong>the</strong> aspen die-off in <strong>the</strong> nearby San<br />
Juan National Forest where he adventured<br />
as a child. Bill has scruffy blonde hair and<br />
a casual demeanor, and it quickly became<br />
clear that he chose his research not just<br />
because of an interest in climate science, but<br />
also a love for <strong>the</strong> outdoors. Shortly after we<br />
arrived, Bill took his two-year-old twin girls to<br />
bed and <strong>the</strong>n we ate a home-cooked meal of<br />
bison burgers and green chilies grown from<br />
his parents’ garden.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> morning, we drove into higher<br />
elevations and thankfully cooler<br />
temperatures. Every few miles we’d pull<br />
over on <strong>the</strong> forest service road and walk into<br />
one of Bill’s many research plots, looking<br />
for <strong>the</strong> metal numbered tags nailed into his<br />
research subjects. Bill told us that aspen<br />
support more biodiversity than any forest<br />
type in <strong>the</strong> Mountain West. Each tree in a<br />
stand of aspens is connected, sprouting from<br />
<strong>the</strong> same lateral roots. They’re also dying<br />
and stand no chance of adapting to climate<br />
change. Bill’s plots ranged from healthy,<br />
dense stands shading a diversity of colorful<br />
wildflowers to a sea of dead stumps. To <strong>the</strong><br />
dead plots Bill responded, “I guess I don’t<br />
have to come back here.” As we walked<br />
away, each step felt heavier.<br />
A drought in <strong>the</strong> early 2000s caused <strong>the</strong><br />
aspen die-off still unfolding. The drought<br />
was significant not because of precipitation<br />
levels but temperature; it was two to three<br />
degrees centigrade hotter than previous<br />
droughts. This year was a wet year, but <strong>the</strong><br />
aspen are still dying. Bill said, “Aspen death<br />
is somewhat fascinating because it’s sort of<br />
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a slow motion crash and it tends to play out<br />
over a decade or so.”<br />
Climate change also feels like a slow motion<br />
crash, including <strong>the</strong> continual attempts to<br />
turn rock into money. When talking about<br />
<strong>the</strong> P.R. Spring tar sands mine, my friend<br />
Easton Smith said, “It’s a particularly strange<br />
example because this mine actually never<br />
starts. It starts and stops and starts and<br />
stops. Which feels like a broader, microcosm<br />
of <strong>the</strong> whole issue of climate change. It’s<br />
always looming, and it’s always approaching,<br />
and it’s always here, but I don’t always feel it.<br />
It just kind of feels like a myth, but clearly, it’s<br />
so real. And I wonder if that’s how crisis feels<br />
until it’s upon you in a more visceral way.”<br />
The aspen-die off makes climate change<br />
personal for Bill. During his first summer of<br />
graduate school, he returned to <strong>the</strong> forest<br />
where he grew up and found a lot of dead<br />
aspen trees. “Even some of <strong>the</strong> campsites<br />
where we took family pictures were just<br />
completely dead,” Bill said. “That was one<br />
of <strong>the</strong> biggest triggering points—realizing,<br />
wow, <strong>the</strong>re’s something big going on here,<br />
it’s visible and it’s visceral and it’s during<br />
my lifetime.”<br />
When I asked Bill how he copes with<br />
measuring <strong>the</strong> death of his childhood forest,<br />
he shared a term used among climate<br />
scientists: Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder.<br />
“It feels a bit like <strong>the</strong> plot in a Hollywood<br />
movie where <strong>the</strong>re’s a scientist that sees<br />
something coming towards earth or<br />
knows that something is going to happen<br />
and is trying <strong>the</strong>ir best to scream it to <strong>the</strong><br />
government officials and nobody is listening.<br />
The climate change story feels like that, but<br />
<strong>the</strong>re’s tens of thousands of scientists trying<br />
to make <strong>the</strong> case.”<br />
He copes by focusing on what he can do,<br />
taking measurements, throwing himself<br />
into his work, and trying to avoid thinking<br />
about how depressing <strong>the</strong> big picture is. He<br />
has dedicated himself to a place and tries to<br />
know it as well as he can, not too unlike my<br />
friends camping near <strong>the</strong> tar sands mine.<br />
Bill also holds onto hope. He said, “I think<br />
of climate change as an opportunity story.<br />
There’s a lot of bad things happening but<br />
that means we have a huge agency on <strong>the</strong><br />
world and we have a responsibility and<br />
opportunity to fix this. Having that hope<br />
and that inspiration is probably much more<br />
important than feeling concerned or worried<br />
or depressed. We can certainly fuck it up, but<br />
we can also try our hardest and end up with<br />
a lot better world at <strong>the</strong> end of it.”<br />
As I biked away from Cortez <strong>the</strong> next day, <strong>the</strong><br />
image of <strong>the</strong> dead aspen stumps consumed<br />
my thoughts. The oil rigs seemed to rise<br />
up exponentially with each sacrifice zone I<br />
entered, and I kept seeing aspen fall. From<br />
southwest Colorado, I went fur<strong>the</strong>r south<br />
to northwest New Mexico. Shortly after<br />
crossing <strong>the</strong> state line, I went into a grocery<br />
store to use <strong>the</strong> bathroom and splash cold<br />
water on my face. Outside <strong>the</strong> bathroom<br />
door, I found a sign that read, “Attention<br />
Customers: We are sorry but <strong>the</strong>re is no<br />
cold water going to <strong>the</strong> sinks so if you wash<br />
your hands be very careful it is very hot<br />
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water. Thank you, Safeway Management.”<br />
Everything is very hot.<br />
The Bureau of Land Management has<br />
leased 91% of public lands in <strong>the</strong> Greater<br />
Chaco region of northwest New Mexico,<br />
and <strong>the</strong>y continue to try to lease away <strong>the</strong><br />
remaining 9%. Much like <strong>the</strong> land I biked<br />
through in <strong>the</strong> Uintah Basin, Greater Chaco<br />
is also a checkerboard of tribal, state, and<br />
federal land. Satellite images of <strong>the</strong> region<br />
show a bright red methane hot spot. On <strong>the</strong><br />
ground, land managers try to blend in <strong>the</strong><br />
wells with <strong>the</strong> surrounding environment by<br />
painting <strong>the</strong>m a color officially called “juniper<br />
green.” <strong>No</strong> matter how hard <strong>the</strong>y try to<br />
hide <strong>the</strong>ir impact on <strong>the</strong> land, though, <strong>the</strong><br />
environmental injustices are still apparent.<br />
One well I biked past was right across <strong>the</strong><br />
street from an elementary school for <strong>the</strong><br />
local Navajo children.<br />
From <strong>the</strong> Greater Chaco area, I made my<br />
way west. I biked through Navajo and Hopi<br />
land, at times feeling like I was in ano<strong>the</strong>r<br />
country as I passed gas stations specific<br />
to <strong>the</strong> reservations and signs in languages<br />
I didn’t understand. And legally, I was in<br />
ano<strong>the</strong>r nation, a sovereign nation. However,<br />
as I biked through <strong>the</strong> Black Mesa area, a<br />
stunning plateau of pale orange and desert<br />
shrubs, I was reminded of <strong>the</strong> ways <strong>the</strong> same<br />
forces desecrating <strong>the</strong> Tavaputs Plateau<br />
are also threatening indigenous livelihoods.<br />
Peabody has mined <strong>the</strong> coal in <strong>the</strong> Black<br />
Mesa area and depleted <strong>the</strong> groundwater,<br />
threatening sheep herding families in <strong>the</strong><br />
region. As I biked across <strong>the</strong> land, I couldn’t<br />
necessarily see <strong>the</strong> depleted ground water,<br />
but I felt <strong>the</strong> concern as I passed “Water is<br />
Life” signs and listened to stories of loss and<br />
contamination from <strong>the</strong> elder who sold me a<br />
lime popsicle to cool me down in <strong>the</strong> middle<br />
of a ninety-mile day.<br />
After reaching Flagstaff, a border town to<br />
many southwest reservations and <strong>the</strong> largest<br />
city on <strong>the</strong> Colorado Plateau, I headed north,<br />
back towards home. My family would meet<br />
me when I reached Utah, biking and driving a<br />
support vehicle for <strong>the</strong> last week of my ride.<br />
For most of my journey, friends biking or<br />
driving provided me company and support.<br />
When I departed Flagstaff, though, I was<br />
alone. 106 degrees. 80 miles. Zero shade.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> middle of my ride, I reached <strong>the</strong> sole<br />
gas station and filled one water bottle with<br />
ice, mistakenly not filling all four. I bought a<br />
piece of pizza that probably would normally<br />
have tasted half as good. After eating under<br />
<strong>the</strong> shade of <strong>the</strong> gas station, I hopped back<br />
on my bike and a few miles later took a drink<br />
from my once icy water bottle. It already<br />
tasted hot. I poured <strong>the</strong> water on my hand. It<br />
felt like I scooped it out of a hot tub. I wanted<br />
to sit down, but <strong>the</strong> ground burnt. I took a<br />
deep breath. Just ten more miles and I can<br />
pour ice all over me, I told myself. Five miles<br />
later I barely inch up <strong>the</strong> hill. A man driving in<br />
<strong>the</strong> opposite direction yelled across, “Are you<br />
OK?” I waved and said yeah, even though I<br />
felt like I might fall over any second. A couple<br />
minutes later <strong>the</strong> same man drove next to<br />
me and was more direct this time, “Do you<br />
want a ride?” Yes, yes I do. I threw my bike in<br />
<strong>the</strong> back of his truck. I opened <strong>the</strong> passenger<br />
door and was greeted by three huskies laying<br />
across <strong>the</strong> backseat. He was a musician and<br />
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he gave me his card. I thought he was some<br />
kind of miracle.<br />
In Hope in <strong>the</strong> Dark, Rebecca Solnit says,<br />
“Power comes from <strong>the</strong> shadows and <strong>the</strong><br />
margins, our hope is in <strong>the</strong> dark around <strong>the</strong><br />
edges, not <strong>the</strong> limelight of center stage. Our<br />
hope and often our power.”<br />
The actions with <strong>the</strong> power to generate new<br />
ways of living will rise from <strong>the</strong> communities<br />
who most clearly understand <strong>the</strong> failures<br />
of our current systems. The politics that<br />
divide up <strong>the</strong> land will shift when stories<br />
from sacrifice zones project louder than<br />
narratives claiming unsacred places exist. As<br />
Wendell Berry says, “There are no unsacred<br />
places; <strong>the</strong>re are only sacred places and<br />
desecrated places.”<br />
A few days after <strong>the</strong> end of my bike tour I<br />
reunited with my friends with whom I’d sung<br />
with on <strong>the</strong> Tavaputs Plateau eight weeks<br />
prior. We sat in a circle under moonlight<br />
in <strong>the</strong> backyard of <strong>the</strong> Beaver Bottom<br />
Bungalow, a home more commonly referred<br />
to as <strong>the</strong> BBB where organizers of Wasatch<br />
Rising Tide live and host poetry readings,<br />
convene organizing meetings, and make<br />
music. We started singing “Paradise” and<br />
my body teleported back to P.R. Spring. In<br />
<strong>the</strong> second line of <strong>the</strong> chorus <strong>the</strong> fa<strong>the</strong>r<br />
responds, “I’m sorry my son but you’re too<br />
late in asking, Mr. Peabody’s coal train has<br />
hauled it away.” I hear <strong>the</strong> lyrics as a call<br />
to action.<br />
The politics inscribed in <strong>the</strong> land and<br />
flowing in our veins evoke grief and rage.<br />
But Rebecca Solnit has ano<strong>the</strong>r lesson for<br />
us in Hope in <strong>the</strong> Dark: “Joy doesn’t betray<br />
but sustains activism. And when you face<br />
a politics that aspires to make you fearful,<br />
alienated, and isolated, joy is a fine initial act<br />
of insurrection.”<br />
My friends and I sing not because we believe<br />
U.S. Oil Sands will stop mining when <strong>the</strong>y<br />
hear our harmonies. We sing to imagine<br />
ano<strong>the</strong>r story. We sing for <strong>the</strong> joy of it.<br />
Environmental<br />
Ecology<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 125
ombus love<br />
Erin Halcomb<br />
Erin Halcomb loves everything nature. She has<br />
experience staffing a U.S. Forest Service fire<br />
lookout and working in fire suppression. She<br />
has also surveyed for wildlife, namely fishers<br />
and flying squirrels. She currently works in<br />
environmental education but enjoys freelance<br />
writing. She likes days spent walking.<br />
126 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
ombus love<br />
Erin Halcomb<br />
This past spring, I fell in love with bees.<br />
There was some nuance to it; it wasn’t like I<br />
fell for every single thing that had four wings.<br />
I fell for <strong>the</strong> biggest, Bombus, those within<br />
<strong>the</strong> bumble bee genus. Their morphology<br />
resembles gnocchi. They have gold and black<br />
shag across <strong>the</strong>ir backsides, fringe all down<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir legs, and fur on <strong>the</strong>ir cheeks.<br />
Perhaps it was because <strong>the</strong>y weren’t<br />
whizzing past, or half-deep in an<strong>the</strong>rs, that<br />
my attention gained such traction. And<br />
nei<strong>the</strong>r was I, so to speak. I was on a foray<br />
for mushrooms but at best I was browsing.<br />
The woods were gilded in pollen. They<br />
echoed with thrush song. I bent down to<br />
pick up a castaway can and caught sight of a<br />
bumble on <strong>the</strong> ground. First, I was taken by<br />
her heft and her hair, and <strong>the</strong>n by <strong>the</strong> way<br />
she carried herself. She was velveteen and<br />
bulbous. She crawled – marched, flounced<br />
– across <strong>the</strong> forest floor. Nearby, I heard<br />
ano<strong>the</strong>r. I found her hovering low, also intent<br />
with survey.<br />
These were <strong>the</strong> Spring Queens, <strong>the</strong> lone<br />
survivors of last year’s colony. They, too,<br />
were hunting not for quarry but for home.<br />
They were searching for a bunker, for<br />
some abandoned burrow, to finish in<br />
waxen chambers.<br />
I began watching, I mean really seeing things,<br />
years ago. I’d been hired to do so, to sit on<br />
a mountaintop and look-out. I worked for<br />
<strong>the</strong> Forest Service. I watched for fires. I soon<br />
took notice of smaller beings. I began to hear<br />
<strong>the</strong> quiet types, humming. In <strong>the</strong> subalpine<br />
meadows surrounding <strong>the</strong> lookout, I<br />
remember watching a bee land and latchon<br />
to a bloomed obelisk. Its added weight<br />
had caused a sway and I’d smiled in simple<br />
pleasure. I knew little else about <strong>the</strong> bee’s<br />
labor than its byproduct, a name, pollination.<br />
Oh, but now I know. Only bits and bobs,<br />
but still: Bees are wasps that went vegan.<br />
Bumbles specialized fur<strong>the</strong>r by becoming<br />
fleeced and all that fuzz enables <strong>the</strong>m to fly<br />
in cold wea<strong>the</strong>r and on cloudy days. They<br />
summit peaks of 10,000 feet.<br />
They have stinky feet. They dig and spit<br />
and whirr; hitch toge<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>ir film-thin<br />
wings; and heave <strong>the</strong>ir not-so-svelte selves<br />
to and fro swatches of color. For most of<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir lives, Bombus mine flowers. They pack<br />
loaves of protein into paneers on <strong>the</strong>ir hind<br />
thighs and, vamoose, <strong>the</strong>y take to <strong>the</strong> aerial<br />
interstate. Flight speeds can reach 10 miles<br />
per hour.<br />
We arrange bumbles according to stripes,<br />
and by <strong>the</strong> length of <strong>the</strong>ir tongues. We study<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir flower fidelity. One scientist tied tinsel<br />
to <strong>the</strong> leg of a queen and chased after her in<br />
a quest to discover her lair.* Hives are hard<br />
to find.<br />
The largest bumbles in <strong>the</strong> world -- ginger<br />
ping-pong balls in Patagonia – are on <strong>the</strong><br />
cusp of extinction. Parasites, habitat loss,<br />
and poison: we have not done right by <strong>the</strong>m.<br />
Bombus franklini used to fly <strong>the</strong> meadows<br />
that I once strolled but none have been<br />
found for a decade. That’s about <strong>the</strong> same<br />
amount of time that has elapsed since I<br />
worked on <strong>the</strong> lookout, and it’s passed<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 127
ombus love<br />
Erin Halcomb<br />
by as easy as a bag of flour being sieved.<br />
I’d be spooked by that if those mountains<br />
hadn’t held me so tight.<br />
Over <strong>the</strong> years I’ve fancied a number of<br />
things: bog orchids, sugar pines, porcupines<br />
and bison. There’s a litany of birds. And,<br />
sure, <strong>the</strong>re’s been people too. I’ve swooned<br />
for poets and sculptors, but in those<br />
relationships, I can’t seem to canoodle<br />
without complication. We live by choice.<br />
I prefer mountain time and clean forms<br />
of adulation.<br />
I’ve come to consider Bombus as bison<br />
of <strong>the</strong> sky. Their cousins, <strong>the</strong> honeybees,<br />
are like cattle. We brought <strong>the</strong>m here. We<br />
shuttle <strong>the</strong>m in tens of thousands, in trailers,<br />
and set <strong>the</strong>m out in pastures. European<br />
honeybees are commodities. In <strong>the</strong> fall,<br />
when flowers dwindle, <strong>the</strong>y compete with<br />
native bees for food.**<br />
Honeybees have perennial societies.<br />
Whereas, every bumble dies at <strong>the</strong> end of<br />
<strong>the</strong> season except <strong>the</strong> newborn queens.<br />
The queens overwinter solo, in <strong>the</strong><br />
subterranean, surviving on <strong>the</strong>ir reserves.<br />
We measure Bombus lifespans in weeks.<br />
But in <strong>the</strong> darkness of winter, I find myself<br />
wanting to know something more relevant,<br />
like ‘total wingbeats,’ something that tells<br />
more about <strong>the</strong>ir will, and <strong>the</strong> effort it takes<br />
to stay warm.<br />
*Dave Goulson reports doing this in his charming book: A<br />
Sting in <strong>the</strong> Tale.<br />
** Cane, James H., and Vincent J. Tepedino. “Gauging<br />
<strong>the</strong> Effect of Honey Bee Pollen Collection on Native Bee<br />
Communites.” Conservation Letters, vol. 10, no. 2, 2016, pp<br />
205-210.<br />
128 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Bee 33 (Evening)<br />
Graphite on paper<br />
21 1/4” x 10 3/4”, 2012<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 129
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
130 <strong>Mapping</strong> <strong>Meaning</strong>, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>
Pollinate<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Rebecca Clark<br />
Bee 27 (Drone Comb)<br />
Graphite and<br />
watercolor on paper,<br />
18” x 15”, 2011<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> N o 1 131