Extraction Landscapes

Encounters with Stone

Amonate #31 Coal Mine

Jefferson Forest - Encounter with Depth

Presentation Slides Available Here

This project explores my affective relationships to the landscapes and environments of the Jefferson National Forest, specifically the areas adjacent to Blacksburg, VA where I currently live, work, and play. As a designer-researcher this work has been critical in developing a sense of ‘groundedness’ away from my own tūrangawaewae – the place from which draw empowerment and connect to the world around me. The inquiry is founded upon theories of affect and assemblage, aesthetics of new materialism, and a Goethean notion of a ‘slow perceptual science’. By walking through the Jefferson Forest, the project develops and documents an account of my relationality to the topographic, orographic, and geologic aesthetic forces and material. It does so through using my body as an affective register to discern what is relevant or impactful rather than the disinterested distance of scientific investigation. Maps, photographic studies, plan, and sectional studies are developed to produce this expressive account through an expressive assemblage of representation.