Before leaving the workshop studio, we agreed to remain silent while corresponding with nature. I led our group downstairs and outdoors to a landscaped area on campus with little foot or vehicle traffic. Here are photos I took as the students independently corresponded with nature.
Keeping silent, we made our way back to the workshop studio. I asked them to return to their seats and gave them a medium-sized Post-it notepad. I wrote two headings on the whiteboard. Correspondence. Interiority.
First, I asked them to remember how they corresponded with nature during the walk. I asked them to use the Post-it notes to write a few words or phrases that described their experience with nature. I encouraged them to write several Post-its.
Then I asked them to remember how it felt. What was the inner process they engaged in during this experience? How would they describe it?
We kept silent.
Then I invited them to paste their notes under Correspondence and Interiority and to read all the other posts. Feel free to rearrange the posts.
the tags on the trees and my feeling that somewhere they were all accounted for, on a ledger
the person on the other side of the window watching us wander
Wind and scattered pieces of trees
Correspondence – left to center
A one-way correspondence, if it can ever be called that. My feet stepping around the trees on the grass.
Defying sidewalk boundaries.
Pulling a branch down to your eye level, Look underneath; a spider lived in one leaf.
Zooming in and out.
Nothing is really still
Wind and scattered pieces of trees.
Correspondence – center to right
I smelled the last standing peonies
Precarious, Proximity, Contrast
smelling the buds on the trees and them entering my nostrils
wandering, wandering, and grounding myself by gently stepping on the roots.
roots under pavement
bright colors (not green) – and my eyes
bird sounds. Looked for bird – it stopped
gravel sound when shoe touched. weight of body.
echoing of sounds from buildings.
echoing of sounds from buildings.
bird sounds – *Looked for bird, it stopped.
These were placed between Correspondence and Interiority.
I dropped one leaf to pick up another.
I was shivering, and the leaves stayed still.
creation of shelter – the birds -evidence of growth, life, death – whispers
The leaf was guiding me to find friends in a somewhat analogous palette.
Interiority – Left to center
I feel sad that architecture isn’t more reflective of nature – that it seems decorative. I feel as though the trees & plants are personified and that I am among beings who are busy doing their things or trying to.
I am frightened of ticks.
I saw a tree with berries and I was wondering what can be food and most people like me don’t even know it.
I am trying to have fun and scavage like my boys do. (Inner child)
I was witnessing how controlled the plants and trees were in the space.
connected with rust textures more than nature itself – decay
moving in and out of different “lifes” personal spaces
Losing the group to find a detail
Interiority – right side
I didn’t want to exclude rocks, even though I was not compelled to reach for it. (teacher)
My own world and focus on one small thing.
My mind forever wandering.
drawn to gestures – signs of life – reaching towards light – shimmering – vibration
Observant – Reflective – Calming – Thankful
silence – peace
moving away to get closer