RITUAL OF RETURN

Journal by Leslie, Teacher Assistant
Thursday, 11/10
There’s something that is so meditative about
filming in nature. The process is deeply embodied. I
can feel the weight of my camera, the soreness in my
shoulders from carrying it, the focus in my fingertips
as I work to keep a panning shot smooth while I also
squint, making sure the flowers I’m filming stay in
focus. Every part of me is engaged as I hear the sounds
of the creek running behind me and the smell of wet
dirt, leaves, and bark.
Thursday, 11/18
Something I appreciate the most about
being in the midst of collaborative work–in a healthy
environment–is the feeling of safety and even warmth.
You look around at the people creating with you and
despite the challenges you face and the problems for
which you still have no solutions and realize that you
get to figure this out together, that you’re not alone in
your explorations and creation.
I hope that’s the experience people are having in this
course. I’ve loved seeing ideas emerge, mutate, shift
through conversation, healthy debate, and exploration.
It feels appropriate that the space of creation,
especially in the context of this class, feels fluid while
still functioning within a set of parameters, reflecting a
similar dynamic within nature.
Journal by Erin, Instructor
Thursday, 11/10
We are deep in our creative process. So much
is going on during class, it’s really exciting! I am loving
what each team is producing. The chrysalis sculptures
are dramatic and imposing, and I adore how students
are making them their own through how they go
about assembling them. Ogechi is doing something
very interesting by using rope. Rope is one of our
most ancient and vital technologies. It is woven from
fibers, which are braided or twisted together to form a
material that can bind and tie materials together. But
Ogechi is deconstructing the rope she brought to class,
unraveling it string by string, fiber by fiber, and then
knitting it into a web-like pattern to cover her chrysalis
sculpture. Not only is it ingenious and beautiful, but
conceptually, it is intriguing. For the deconstruction
speaks to the unlearning many of us need to undertake
if we are to learn new sustainable practices. We need
to unlearn faulty ideas, including the notion that
the earth’s resources are somehow infinite and will
never run out, or that our mark on the land could
never impact whole ecosystems and wipe out species.
Ultimately, we need to unlearn the faulty notion that
the human is separate from nature, and in its place,
we need to re-weave the notion that we are embedded
in the very ecologies we inhabit. That’s what Ogechi’s
unraveled rope from which she weaves new networks
of connections speaks to. It was unexpected, but
so fabulous!