Caring in Public: Testing Our Framework with Different Social Infrastructure Sites and Systems (Part 2)

By Lindsay Campbell, New York.  Robin Cline, Chicago.  Laura Landau, New York.  Georgia Silvera Seamans, New York City.  Ben Helphand, Chicago.  Paola Aguirre, Chicago.  Sonya Sachdeva, Chicago.  Natalie Campbell, Washington D.C..  Nora Almeida, New York City.  — As part of The Nature of Cities Festival, on 29 March 2022, a team of practitioners and researchers …

Composing an Entropic Symphony from the Sounds of Plants About to Be Displaced

In early 2018, the Assiniboine Park Conservancy, which is located in the western part of the city of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, announced that they would be demolishing their conservatory in April, citing the end of the structure’s lifespan. At that time, artist Helga Jakobson was experimenting with designs for capacitors that could capture plant …

Discovering Stewardship Through Play: Using Applied Theater Techniques for Environmental Education

Human impacts on the environment are no joke, and climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. So, Environmental Education (EE) is serious business. Given the context, it is understandable that EE is usually communicated to adults through serious methods of communication such as lectures, information sessions, and pamphlets. But are these the …

Artists and scientists that co-create regenerative projects in cities?
Yes, please. But how?

Introduction Storytelling about humans and nature We know that different ways of knowing produce different insights. Scientific knowledge produces key knowledge about urban social and natural systems and how they might be sustainable and regenerative. Similarly, artistic practice and expression yields its own knowledge, which often connects us to deeper emotional paths of understanding. Both …

Quarantine Fatigue and the Power of Activating Public Lands as Social Infrastructure

This essay is part three in a series. Since 13 March 2020, our team of social science researchers has been keeping a collective journal of our experiences of our New York City neighborhoods and public spaces during COVID-19. Read the essays from spring and summer here. 1. Winter is coming: Second wave and quarantine fatigueIn …

The LEAF Episode 1: Show and Tells from FRIEC Collective Artists

Want to explore diverse and connecting threads in urban ecological arts? In the LEAF, three FRIEC Urban Arts Collective members share something from their ideas and work for 10 minutes each, followed by Q&A. Presenters: Olive Bieringa, OsloMatthew Jensen, New YorkStéphane Verlet-Bottéro, Paris Olive Bieringa, Oslo: “Resisting Extinction” is a performance work that will offer embodied practices for …

Socially Distant Summer: Stewarding Nature and Community to Meet Basic Needs during a Pandemic

This essay is part two in a series. Since 13 March 2020, our team of social science researchers has been keeping a collective journal of our experiences of our New York City neighborhoods and public spaces during COVID-19. Read the first essay from spring here. SUMMER We started to settle into our “new normal”, with …

The View from Our Windows: Our Social Ecologies of Sheltering in Place

How do you conduct social science research about people’s relationship to place and the environment during shelter-in-place? Many are turning to big data—scraping social media, tracking cell phone use and movements, and these aggregated, digital data streams are providing key insights about mobility, vulnerability, and spatial patterns of the virus and its impacts across the …

Covid has upended all the normal routines in our lives and work. How do you imagine you might be changed by it, both professionally, but also personally as you negotiate a new post-virus “normal”?

Introduction We are all confined to our homes—if we are lucky (more on that later). Which is something, since most of us are “outdoor types”, “people types”, can we find meaning, motivation, and renewed spirit for action in this contemplative but deeply strange time? We find ourselves wondering, doubting, planning our next steps or perhaps …

Who Takes Care of New York?

Civic leaders and community members regularly put time and energy into caring and advocating for the environment. We call these acts of care stewardship. Beyond improving green and blue spaces, stewardship can also lead to other types of civic action. Local stewardship groups can strengthen social trust within a neighborhood. People who come together around …