The Landscape Tapestry Exhibit
|
 |
This project is funded by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, with additional support from the Delwiche Fund. |
Project Directors Dr. Janet Silbernagel and Steve Cotherman, Wisconsin Historical Society
Email Janet
Sponsoring Organization: Northern Wisconsin Heritage Connection
The Wild Rice Project
Sustaining a ricing culture: a landscape approach to understanding management and harvest of wild rice across state, tribal and treaty ceded lands in Minnesota and Wisconsin
Known as 'manoomin' by the Ojibwe and classified taxonomically as Zizania palustris (L.), wild rice has been used in ceremonies and for sustenance by the Ojibwe of the region for centuries. Today this unique resource, found in the shallow lakes and slow moving streams of Minnesota , Wisconsin and Ontario , Canada , is harvested by hand by both Native and non-Native Americans.
Wild rice habitat, like other water based resources, is under increasing pressure from development, recreation and changing land use. Management of wild rice and wild rice habitat, which typically falls under state jurisdiction, is complicated by public water rules that can vary from state to state as they do between Minnesota and Wisconsin. In addition, tribal reservations and areas of land that have been ceded through treaties are managed under tribal governance and tribal/state cooperative agreements respectively. Across the region the pattern of management for wild rice is fragmented and understanding of its distribution incomplete. Questions framing this research include: What landscapes currently support harvestable wild rice and how are they different or similar across the region? How is wild rice 'managed' and for what purpose(s)? And finally, who are the people involved in harvesting wild rice today and what is their relationship to this unique resource?
This research was funded by the UW Grad School and USDA Forest Service - North Central Research Station.
Research Assistant and PhD Candidate Annette Drewes
Email Annette
The Maple Project
Where the Forest Meets The Farm: A Comparison of Spatial and Historical Change in the Euro-American and American Indian Maple Production Landscape
This research examined the cultural landscape history of American Indian and Euro-American maple sugar and syrup production in the Western Great Lakes region between 1850 and today. Fourteen case studies from contemporary and abandoned American Indian and Euro-American sugarbushes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, were used to trace the evolution of spatial, historical, and cultural change in the industry of maple production. Historical, archaeological, and ethnographic methods were combined to present a narrative history that examines the relationship between the components and boundaries of the maple production landscape and its changing technologies, environments, demographics, policy and regulation, and patterns of sociability. Over time, the structure of the Euro-American maple production industry has become more complex, with more segmented product sales, syrup buyers and packers, central evaporation plants, and equipment dealers. In spite of its decline, maple production in American Indian communities continues to serve as an important symbolic element in the development and maintenance of an Indian identity, solidifying the relationships of individuals and communities in the present with their land and their ancestors.
This research was funded through a USDA McIntire Stennis grant and the UW Grad School.
PhD Alum Dr. Matthew Thomas
Email Matt
The Broken Hardscape Project
Site Integrated Sculptural Rain Gardens
Broken Hardscape was a collaborative, eco-revelatory design between a sculptor and landscape architect/ecologist for a site in transition. Valencia Lofts, in Middleton, Wisconsin, is a residential development planned and built by the Alexander Company, a firm with interests in historic building redevelopment. Valencia Lofts, the site of the former Pet Milk building (ca. 1914-1967), houses 19 warehouse style loft condominiums and accompanying sculptural rain gardens.
In the spring of 2002, we (design faculty Simpson and Silbernagel) received a seed grant from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison to initiate collaborative, innovative work that brings together sculpture and ecological design. We approached the project manager for the Alexander Co. and the city planner for the City of Middleton with a proposal to apply our efforts to the Valencia project. After receiving conditional approval we developed a design treatment for the site. Full approval from the Alexander Co. was granted in October 2002, and the project was installed in 2003.
This project reveals ecological and cultural dynamics through expressive site-integrated art and gardens for a new use of an abandoned site. Eco-revelatory design is intended to reveal or make evident ecological processes. This project takes the form of a 'broken hardscape' in which a designed pattern of irregular, broken forms and use of salvaged materials allows vegetation and rainwater to emerge within the renovated site as an expression of place and culture-nature interface.
This project was supported by the UW Grad School for Interdisciplinary Innovation and installed with the Alexander Co.'s site development budget. It offered a wonderful opportunity to integrate an eco-revelatory design into an otherwise conventional site treatment.
Project Designers
Dr. Janet Silbernagel
Email Janet
and
Gail Simpson, Assistant Professor of Art
Email Gail
Project Assistant
Bea Drysdale
The Green Wallscape Project
This project will be a transdisciplinary endeavor, in that we bring two different disciplines together toward new, enriched knowledge and solutions (Art + Landscape Architecture), and we have been invited to work collaboratively with a Madison professional organization (Madison Environmental Group), thus extending knowledge and benefits of our work directly via an application in the public realm. We propose to design and implement a vertical garden or "wallscape" that incorporates plant material, rainwater, and sculptural forms to make a visual, physical, and environmental transition from a green roof to the public alley below. This innovative design will integrate at least three popular environmental design trends: green roofs, rain gardens, and the re-use of space and materials. The goals of this design will be to:
1) create an aesthetically appealing pedestrian experience,
2) animate and activate an otherwise neglected urban space,
3) celebrate rainwater run-off in an urban environment,
4) demonstrate the possibilities of a 'wallscape' through this design of a highly visible downtown site.
5) invite community dialogue about the potential for sculpture and design in addressing urban environmental issues
6) re-use and recycle building materials.The site that we will work with is 25 N. Pinckney, a three-story historic brick building on the Madison Capitol Square (get picture). The building is owned by Sonya Newenhouse, President of the Madison Environmental Group. It houses their offices and a restaurant on the first floor. Dr. Newenhouse invited us, as a design team, to develop concepts for the project after learning of our previous work at Valencia Lofts in Middleton (Grad School Grant 2002-03). As a leader in waste management and energy conservation, her group is especially interested in demonstrating ways to re-use and recycle materials. She is also interested in developing elements that can be easily replicated by others, by using recycled or common materials. This project is funded through a UW Grad School Interdisciplinary Grant.
Project Designers
Dr. Janet Silbernagel
Email Janet
and
Gail Simpson, Assistant Professor of Art
Email Gail
Project Assistant and Graduate Student Jerry Butler
Email Jerry
Cooperator: Dr. Sonya Newenhouse, Madison Environmental Group
back to Studio home page
Top of page || LA Home || Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
UW-Madison Home