A relaxing spring
After two very intense and stressful quarters, I was happy to finish off my year with a more relaxing and carefree quarter. While I still put a lot of energy into my design classes and my work, I was also able to hang out with my friends a lot (without multitasking on design projects) and enjoy the abundant extra-curricular opportunities available in the spring for those in outdoorsy careers like landscape design. Toward the end of the quarter, I was talking to my mom on the phone in the kitchen and said that when I'd fill out the course evaluations I'd note that my roommates actually saw me come back to the apartment happy (rather than tired, stressed out, etc.). My roommate overheard me and corrected me: he actually saw me this quarter. While I spent some of the quarter recuperating and wasn't as focused on school projects sometimes as I wanted to, I made a lot of great connections and laid the groundwork for what should be an exciting summer. I also took more time for myself - for doing things that filled up my energy, helped me relax, and strengthened my connections, which was valuable in itself.
L ARCH 403 – Ecological systems studio
L ARCH 403, the Ecological Systems studio, was a relatively carefree studio course, especially compared to the breakneck pace of L ARCH 401 and 402. Assignments were due about every week with a lot of group projects, and I never felt particularly rushed to do any of it. Unfortunately, although this course was the least stressful, it was also in some ways the least engaging of the series for me. One would think that since ecological systems are my passion in design this class would be very engaging; perhaps the opposite is true since I was already well-versed in the topic. A lot of the readings on ecology in the class seemed redundant to me given my existing knowledge in the subject.
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However, the class was still fairly engaging for me. We went on several field trips throughout the course and got to see the work of various designers and managers involved in stewardship of landscapes throughout Seattle. This was exciting as I was able to talk to people who dealt with some of the questions around design and management I'm often thinking about, especially in regards to native plants in landscapes. I also got to continue working on my digital representation skills, although I determined not to push myself too hard this quarter, so some assignments were not quite as polished as I'd like them to be (although that is almost always the case). Some assignments didn't really catch my interest, while I dove into others with enthusiasm and found a topic or method of representation I really wanted to pursue in them. This ebb and flow of effort felt a lot more peaceful than the constant go pace of prior quarters.
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Note: Poster sources can be found here
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The most valuable piece of L ARCH 403 to me was probably the high number of group projects. Prior assignments were almost entirely solo - we had some assignments where we were in similar themes and shared research, but not many assignments where we had to work together to produce a combined final product. This was a great experience of the range of what a group experience can feel like. Some are unclear and frustrating - you don't know how to work well together with your group partner and you don't know who's supposed to do what. Others are exciting and feel like flow well. Yet others are somewhere in between or move from one state or another. One group project felt like we both had similar interests and viewpoints and were able to easily share tasks and talk about the project. Group projects like this are invigorating. Another group project had good clarity of tasks and communication, but our interests and schedules didn't align much, so I felt like I plugged my piece into a larger whole rather than collaboratively made something that benefited from everyone's input. The real world of design for most professionals occurs in highly collaborative settings, where designers work together on projects and also communicate with a variety of stakeholders and other collaborators from communities to clients, engineers to environmental review boards. Although this aspect of the class had its difficulties, I was glad to get some experience with group design work.
HONORS 222 D - Natural history and culture museums in the 21st century
My Honors class for the quarter, HONORS 222 D, was a fun and engaging class. This class took place in the Burke Museum, a place I am often at since I find the exhibits interesting and I work for the meadow project just outside its doors. The class began with an exploration of museum decolonization, which I found very interesting and necessary. Museums have a long and well-documented history of colonization. Many museums contain many stolen artifacts from Indigenous cultures and other marginalized peoples. In natural history museums, these peoples are often otherized through the display of artifacts - natural history museums often just show artifacts from non-white cultures, showing these cultures as an interesting 'other' to an audience that is assumed to be white. Toni Morrison explains this point powerfully in a lecture for Portland State University's Black Studies Department: "Anthropology is the study of the colored peoples of the world; they don’t study anybody else. […] Urban studies is the study of Black people, and the approach, vigorously held to in these studies: Blacks as wards of the state, never as its pioneers. It does take two to hold a chain: the chained, and the chainer. And it takes two to make anthropology: the student and the studied." Later, she states: "That being the case, it is time... for the studied to examine the student and to evaluate its own self."
I saw many inspiring examples of decolonization within the museum, such as a statement near the entrance to the arts & culture exhibit that acknowledges the colonial harm the Burke Museum has perpetuated and its land acknowledgement. Examples of decolonization were not just statements about colonial harm and acknowledgements of Indigenous stewardship, however important those may be - they were also tangible in various ways. Many belongings in the museum's arts & culture exhibit were studied by local Coast Salish or Plateau/River Indigenous artists to re-learn traditional practices. Many items made by this study were then purchased by the museum. Relationships between Indigenous peoples and the Burke Museum have been strong for years, but class co-teacher and Burke Museum director of DEAI (Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion) and decolonization Polly Olsen (Yakama) often stressed that there is still a lot of work to be done. The Burke Museum has many valuable examples of collaboration with Indigenous peoples and decolonization but shouldn't be idolized.
One example of the changing nature of relationships between the museum and Indigenous peoples stood out to me - the example of the Kaats' house posts. This section of my reflection draws heavily from the essay "Acts of Propatriation" by Emily Moore, which I quote several times. The Kaats' house posts are two Tlingit house posts taken from the village of Gaash. The village was thought to be abandoned, so a party of Western explorers known as the Harriman expedition - including notable names like photographer Edward Curtis and environmentalist John Muir - stole many Tlingit belongings from the village. Anthropologists at the time saw Indigenous cultures as dying due to colonization, and believed they had a right to take belongings in the name of science since the cultures they came from were expected to die out and that knowledge would be lost.
The party took "four totem poles, four house posts, the entire house front of the Teikweidí Grizzly Bear house, and several box drums, bentwood boxes, and masks" (Moore - Acts of Propatriation). Reading this shocked me - imagine owning a vacation home and leaving that home to find not just your house door but the entire front of your house missing! Not only that, the thieves believe they are doing the right thing - they are aiding "science". The Harriman party donated the stolen items to museums throughout the country. The Burke Museum eventually acquired two house posts from the Teikweidí Kaats’ house which were taken as part of this expedition.
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Sanyaa Kwáan Teikweidí member (a subgroup of the Tlingit people) Irene Dundas began the repatriation process for the Kaats' house posts and other at.óow ("owned or purchased thing") at nineteen years old, a process that took nine years as she had to prove clan ownership for various belongings. This extensive effort led to the return of the house posts from the Burke Museum to the Sanyaa Kwáan. The Burke Museum then commissioned two more posts from Tlingit carvers Nathan and Stephen Jackson.
Both carvers chose to embark on a new direction rather than replicate the stolen posts. Moore explains this decision: "Nathan’s emphasis on remaining faithful to the story of Kaats’ rather than to its exact physical representation honors Tlingit belief that the right to an origin story, crest, name, song, or other object of at.óow claimed by an individual or clan matters more than a physical representation of that right (Dauenhauer and Dauenhauer 1987: 28–29). It also represents a refusal to provide the Burke a copy of at.óow that had never been rightfully “purchased” or recognized, as required by Tlingit tradition, at a potlatch as the Burke’s 'owned or purchased thing.'" Nathan's post, on the left, roughly maintained the style of the original posts but depicted a different moment of the story. Stephen's, on the other hand, showed the violent end of the story which the posts depict, in which Kaats' bear wife dismembers Kaats'. This post uses epoxy and resin and breaks from the form of the post while containing some Salish visual motifs. Stephen describes his intent with the post: "he wanted to “give the cultural disruption [settlers enacted upon the Tlingit] back to the museum” (quoted
in Jonaitis 2008: 61)." The return of stolen belongings and then commission of new artifacts is known as "propatriation", a process that strengthens relationships between museums and Indigenous peoples. As Stephen Jackson said, "the exchange is never over". |
This aspect of museum decolonization, although a topic that came up throughout the course, was only explored in depth for a week or two. On other days, we got to see behind the scenes of the museum and look at the museum's extensive bird collections, blanket collections, etc. This was very exciting. I was surprised by how much went on beyond the scenes that I never saw at the museum. What we see on display in museum exhibits is really the tip of the museum iceberg - museum curators choose what to display from vast collections and include scientific research from vast studies. We see the outcome but not the intensive work taken to produce it.
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For our final project, we chose a self-directed topic to design a museum exhibit around with a fellow student. I chose textile practices from cultures around the world to showcase the powerful messages included in textile practices (mostly weaving practices), the connection between these practices and the local ecologies they're rooted in, and what those of us who are disconnected from traditional textile cultures can learn from these practices for more sustainable fashion systems. Overall, this class was interesting and inspiring and I'm glad I got the opportunity to take it and learn from Melissa and Polly, my incredible instructors.
L ARCH 424 - Advanced planting design
The third class I took this quarter was L ARCH 424 - Advanced Planting Design. I grew a strong interest in plants and planting design as I began to study landscape design, so this class was very engaging for me. Although some of the course content was redundant for me - for instance, I had already read one of the books we were assigned to read - Eric Higbee, the instructor for the class, brought in plenty of guests and structured Q&A time into each class. We also went on several walks to designs near campus and talked about what we observed. This class format taught me a lot and allowed me to dive deeper into something I'm very passionate about. Taking this class helped me to realize that planting design is probably my specialty or focus in design - it's one of my strong suits and a strength I'll bring to future work teams in class and in the professional world.
Another important aspect of this class was learning how to make technical planting drawings using an AutoCAD plugin called Plant F/X. This plugin simplified the process of making planting designs and schedules - the program has a plant database (which you can add to if anything is missing) which you can import from for your individual project plant database. You then assign symbols to those plants and other information. The program does a lot of the calculation and busywork for you - I'm excited to know this tool now and use it in future projects.
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Deepening my ecological knowledge
Beside the two ecology-related classes I took this quarter, I had several other opportunities to deepen my ecological knowledge this quarter. I tried to take advantage of the spring season by getting outside and gardening. I volunteered for restoration work parties, removed weeds from a traffic circle near my apartment and planted more plants at my apartment.
However, most of my time with my hands in the dirt was for the Burke Museum meadow project, which I worked for this quarter as well as last. This was a great opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary setting and communicate with different collaborators. I was able to watch the meadow progress as spring began and then turned to summer. The camas flowers bloomed and went to seed, and then yarrow and several daisy species took the place of camas, filling the meadow with white, light purple, and yellow blooms. When I was weeding in the meadow, people often came by to talk about the important Salish Sea lowland meadow ecosystems that the Burke Meadow replicates.
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The Burke Museum held a meadow celebration event toward the end of the quarter, and Sarah Hammond, someone involved in meadow restoration, spoke about her work with meadow restoration in collaboration with tribal communities who care for and harvest camas and other traditional foods from these ecosystems. It was inspiring to hear from someone doing similar work throughout her career, and I am happy to be able to contribute to these ecosystems in my own way.
summer awaits
Looking back on my winter reflection, I am happy to say that I feel like I met my goals of appreciating what's in front of me and being content with my abilities. This quarter was much more relaxing for me, although I certainly struggled with anxieties about work and relationships on occasion. However, I felt like I had the breathing space to manage these stressors. I also spent more time with my apartment-mates and our growing circle of friends who all watch Twin Peaks every Monday. I'm very blessed to have a loving group of apartment-mates and several other close friends who support and uplift me.
This summer, I will be stepping into a bigger role at the Burke Meadow, interning with a Seattle landscape design-build firm, and working with a friend on a design project. If this, chores, and enjoying the summer doesn't swallow all my time, I hope to also set up a website and blog for Woollypod Design, the platform for my designs and musings about design, and share more of my work on social media. These greater work responsibilities and plans to share more of my thoughts in the public sphere (which may be controversial, as I am passionate about political factors which intersect with design such as sustainability of materials, local histories of Indigenous stewardship and colonization, labor rights, etc.) where others may criticize them sparks some anxiety within me. However, I am passionate about sharing my work, engaging in design in collaborative settings, and continuing to spark conversations about what sustainable dryland design in the "Columbia" Plateau can and should look like. I'm sure that I'll get things wrong and receive criticism - I'm human and that's part of life. I won't let my fears hold me back but will try to continue to cultivate humility and acceptance, and focus on the present rather than fears of the future.
As I write this from my childhood home in Eastern Washington, I know I'll miss my hometown as I spend my first summer away from my family and my hometown. However, I'm excited to spend more time with my friends and communities in Seattle. Although my short break back home wasn't as refreshing as I wanted it to be, it was important for me to return home and remember what I'm going to school for. I care about the people, plants, and land of Eastern Washington and hope that the knowledge and experience I gain in Seattle will help me to care for this place.
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