Some references:
“The Power of Community,” film
“Teaching Whitney to Cook,” Julia Corbett (attached)Teaching Whitney to cook – High Country News
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jolie
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jolie
motivations
I am motivated to work with “food” because examining “food” invites ecological thinking. To think ecologically is to consider the complex web of relationships among physical, biological, and social systems, and to understand, that indeed everything is linked and also in flux. Ultimately, the practice of landscape architecture necessitates ecological thinking. Accordingly, “food” becomes an appropriate concept for landscape architecture students to study.I am also motivated to work with “food” because I live and teach in a region characterized by rich soil and rolling hills draped with wheat. Investigating “food” in the context of “region” becomes a way to deeply explore place and human relationships to place.
Lastly, I am motivated to work with “food” because food connects us (or disconnects us) to where we are.
expectations
When working with landscape architecture students, my expectations are that students will use”food” as a way to reflect upon their everyday lives as a designers and global citizens and eventually understand their roles as designers and global citizens more broadly. With this broader vision, I expect that students will be able to better grasp the complex web of relationships among physical, biological, and social systems and consider how the concepts of “interdependence,” “reciprocity,” and “change” can inform their work and values.Regarding my scholarly pursuits, my expectation (and hope) is that I will effectively and evocatively convey stories about how people cultivate connections with their local landscapes.
engagement
In the courses that I teach, modes of engagement vary. In studio contexts, students interact with clients and/or stakeholders, conduct informal interviews, and research the multiple perspectives on the given ” food” issue/question. Final design work is publicly presented. In the lecture courses “theory in landscape architecture” and “ecology and design,” “food” makes cameo appearances throughout the semester and may take center stage for one or two lectures.In my creative/scholarly work, my mode of engagement has been immersion. I visit households that produce a majority of their own food or that practice permaculture, and I am an observer and an agent. I witness and I initiate, immersed in and responding to domestic activities: harvesting fruits and vegetables, feeding animals, constructing garden beds, digging ditches, building soil, processing food, maintaining composting toilets, etc.
unforseen implications
“food” = yielding.
On a country road you come to a yield sign at the intersection. To yield here, you must wait and assay traffic conditions before joining the community of moving vehicles. Yielding requires that you give way to others.Obtaining a yield from a garden or a homestead or a city plot similarly requires ongoing assessment of shifting conditions, giving way, or making space, for other life to thrive and evolve.
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