Research, scholarship and creativity coexist and thrive at 51爆料网. While such work is on display in April, when the campus joins in the global celebration of and , studying environmental issues and developing sustainable practices is not limited to a single month. All year long, Syracuse students and faculty engage in creative endeavors, like architecture, storytelling and visual art, to forge new relationships with and fresh insights into our natural world.
Sarah Fellingham 鈥�24, a senior majoring in architecture, recently took a nature drawing course that was life-changing. 鈥淐reativity is the bedrock of innovation,鈥� she says. 鈥淏y pushing your creative limits, you can do things that you鈥檝e never done before and experience nature in a new way.鈥�
Drawing on Nature for Inspiration With Professor Susan D鈥橝mato
Professor Susan D鈥橝mato (right) says courses like Drawing Nature, which she teaches every fall, enable students to 鈥渉ave direct experience in nature with an intention toward deep attention and discovery.鈥�
professor Susan D鈥橝mato believes images have the potential to not only activate the unconsciousness, but also help us understand the human condition. Her drawings speak to 鈥渢he correspondences of bodily, earthly and cosmological forms and to notions of fleeting and enduring time.鈥�
She leads a popular fall course titled Drawing Nature (ARI 233), where students draw at local parks, forests and cemeteries. 鈥淚t enables them to have direct experience in nature with an intention toward deep attention and discovery,鈥� says D鈥橝mato, whose students also in the paleontology lab of Professor Linda Ivany 鈥�88.
Phoebe Ellen Sessler 鈥�27, a sophomore majoring in film, was scared to attempt so-called physical drawing until she met D鈥橝mato. Now she considers art a meditation that regulates her personal and academic life. 鈥淚n Nature Drawing, we bridge the gap between my favorite place to be鈥攐utside in nature鈥攁nd the academic creative classroom,鈥� says Sessler, who has learned how to draw flowers from direct observation and use a walnut ink stick.
鈥淪itting in nature and studying what鈥檚 around you helps you realize your vision鈥攆rom thought to hand to paper,鈥� Fellingham adds. 鈥淚t鈥檚 calming and sometimes thought-provoking.鈥�
A drawing-based artist, D鈥橝mato is working on a long-term project called Taxonomy of Air; from the Ten Thousand Things. The numeric title is a Taoist reference to the universe鈥檚 material diversity. Inspired by walking meditations in nature, she鈥檚 producing 10,000 ink drawings on small, torn pieces of rice paper that hang from pins to a wall. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e based on the felt sense and memory of my contemplative experiences in nature.鈥�
Building a Sustainable Future With Professor Bess Krietemeyer
鈥淭eaching is about thinking outside the box,鈥� says professor Bess Krietemeyer. An expert in sustainable built environments, she鈥檚 training the next generation of architects in environmental health and equity. 鈥淚 want my students to imagine what environmentally just, sustainable architecture can be.鈥�
Bess Krietemeyer鈥檚 expertise in sustainable built environments permeates the Net-Zero Energy Retrofit Living Lab, which she co-leads with fellow architecture professor, Nina Wilson.
This attitude permeates the , a three-year research project that Krietemeyer co-leads with fellow professor Nina Wilson. As part of the project, Krietemeyer designed an interactive, 3D exhibition at the , extoling the personal, environmental and economic virtues of building retrofitting.
She and her students test these ideas on South Campus with support from a $5 million grant from the . Emily Lane G鈥�24 draws on her chemistry background to better understand building materials, energy-efficient design and microecology. 鈥淚鈥檓 thinking beyond what is technically possible to become the architect I want to be,鈥� says the .
Architectural creativity underscores almost everything Krietemeyer does. 鈥淚nnovation emerges through productive constraints,鈥� she says. 鈥淲ith design, we can inspire environmental consciousness and express diverse cultural identities."
Turning the Page on Environmental Storytelling With Professor Brice Nordquist
As climate change impacts biodiversity and human welfare, professors like Brice Nordquist are looking at environmentalism through a humanistic lens. He鈥檚 co-founder of the addressing the climate crisis with creative events, programs, workshops and courses.
鈥淓nvironmental awareness, attunement and responsiveness require a full range of sensory, emotional and intellectual ways of knowing, being and doing,鈥� says Nordquist, founder and director of the University鈥檚 (EHN) and professor of .
Professor Brice Nordquist believes environmental storytelling can bridge the gap between science and the humanities. 鈥淚t personalizes environmental justice, while encouraging interaction and collective action.鈥�
He considers ESS a striking example of environmental humanities, bridging the gap between the sciences and humanities. 鈥淭he series shows how different kinds of , while encouraging interaction and collective action,鈥� continues Nordquist, who also serves as Dean鈥檚 Professor of Community Engagement in the .
EHN research assistant Valeria Martinez Gutierrez 鈥�26 took up creative writing after working with two ESS visiting artist-activists. 鈥淭heir visit was transformative,鈥� says the triple major in environment, sustainability and policy; Earth sciences; and sociology. 鈥淎mplifying the knowledge and voices of people of color and their communities is vital to the environmental decision-making process.鈥�
Fusing Art and Ecology With Professors Susannah Sayler, Edward Morris and Mike Goode
鈥淎ll art is ecological,鈥� admits Professor Susannah Sayler, quoting the title of the Timothy Morton bestseller. 鈥淚t affects our relationship with the world.鈥�
This is the idea behind the University鈥檚 Canary Lab, where she and her husband, Edward Morris, develop research-based art and media focusing on ecology. 鈥淭he Canary Lab is a hub for ecological thinking,鈥� says Sayler, who along with Morris, serves on the faculty of the . 鈥淲e provide students with opportunities to read, discuss and create artworks about a range of ecological topics.鈥�
The duo has co-curated Assembly: 51爆料网 Voices on Art and Ecology with Mike Goode, the William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities, and Melissa Yuen, interim chief curator of the . Running on campus this spring, the exhibition places objects from the museum鈥檚 permanent collection in dialogue with contemporary artwork by faculty and alumni artists.
鈥淥ur goal is to highlight environmental issues and foster ecological understanding,鈥� says Tolley Professor Mike Goode of Assembly, which is on display in the 51爆料网 Art Museum through May 12.
鈥淥ur goal is to highlight environmental issues and foster ecological understanding,鈥� says Goode, who as a Tolley Professor, gives humanities faculty access to artwork and educational materials for the teaching of ecology and climate issues.
Abi Greenfield 鈥�25 assisted with the exhibition, whose opening coincided with that of the museum鈥檚 . (The project has used the museum鈥檚 collections to create 15 virtual exhibitions on ecology.) A junior majoring in history and political philosophy, she says that some of the objects currently on display are hundreds of years old, proving that ecologically minded art is nothing new. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just coming to a head now.鈥�
