Examples of Student Artwork from the Exhibit

Welcome to Maine the Way Life Should Be

Welcome to Maine the Way Life Will Be

Wrap Up: Environmental Citizen

Currently there is an art exhibit in the hallway of 1B2B in the Student Activities Center. This is a finished prototype that will eventually be put up in Maine Audubon down in Falmouth, Maine. Students were very surprised to see this exhibit coming together; I think once they started making the art for it and we all started to put it together the class became one cohesive whole. They began to talk and work with one another and collaborate on what they think should or should not be done and by the last class on Thursday the 28th of April, we had a 99% finished exhibit standing.

Moving from the left to the right there are short student bios on their artworks, a sign that says "Welcome to Maine the Way Life Should Be" and then there is an introductory piece. This introductory piece has a drawn state of Maine map with some phrases from students on what Maine means to them. For example, one student said that "Maine is my rainbow" while another said "Maine is my sanctuary". Next is the first section of the exhibit; this includes art done by the students that portray how they feel about Maine and how they see it. Then there is a transition piece with students' human impact on the land observations from when they were watching their one acre of land earlier in the semester. And lastly is the second section of the exhibit with a sign that says "Welcome to Maine the Way Life Will Be". This second section has three panels with three different regulations and reforms from LePage's Phase 1 Acts and Reforms. Each regulation has several different pieces of artwork to show how the students think life in Maine will be affected by the reforms. For example, one art piece shown in the pesticides and toxins regulations is this:
It shows how the pesticides and toxins when leaked into the water could affect local fish populations if it doesn't kill them.

A lot of different mediums were used in the making, including different types of paints, charcoal and ink drawings, collages, sculpture and photography. Even live plants were integrated into the display. We are hoping that this exhibit will provoke people to contact their local senator or take action against LePage's reforms. At the end of the exhibit is a list of contact information for all the VIPs in the different towns throughout Maine.

Internship Presentation

On April 27 I gave my internship presentation to Tom Mullin's Interpretive Methods class. Overall it went well; it was roughly 25 minutes long and I think the students got something out of it. I had honestly forgotten that I had to do a presentation as one of the final steps to the internship, but luckily Tom Mullin reminded me and I had time to prepare. However, I only went in with four power point slides, a handout for the class, and an article for the CMBG portion of the talk. When Tom asked me to do the presentation I thought to myself "what do I even say?" The reason for that is because we are still waiting to hear back from the director of CMBG on what she wants. The whole process for the past two months has been giving her what she asks for and then she turns around and decides she wants something different. Currently and most recently, she has finished texts from us but she doesn't want any graphics for her graphic designer to get ideas from, and she asked Catherine and I to come up with some inter-actives. At the beginning phase of all this she did not want graphics because they were going to be too expensive. So in my preparation for my presentation I had not idea how to explain what we were doing and had done because as of right now it is an unfinished process.

For the part when I talked about being the teacher's assistant for the Environmental Citizen class I simply took the class into the hall where the finished exhibit is being shown right now. I think having the exhibit in front of the class instead of just pictures was better overall for the students because they could actually see a finished product of the work that I was explaining. It was also good because it allowed for the students to ask more questions and to give feedback on it as a prototype.

Speaking of Environmental Citizen,

The classes have been going well. While Cindy was gone I met with the class on the assigned class days and we worked together on the exhibit for Maine Audubon. The first segment of the exhibit will show deep connection and belief in the power of the Maine landscape. This first section of artwork will capture the sense of place and the spirit of Maine the way it is now. It will set the stage for visitors. It will remind visitors of their own connection and love for Maine. It nicely fits the mission of Maine Audubon. For this section we have a wall that is 10 feet long and 8 feet tall. A couple of students will be doing short documentary movies for this section. The other students have decided that they will place their artwork in windows or old window frames. This will give visitors the perspective of looking out their windows at Maine the way the students perceive it. Photography, painting, and drawing will be incorporated, and maybe even a car door.

The second segment of the exhibit will incorporate LePage's Phase 1 Regulatory Reform Proposals. Students will create a second piece of art that show how these reforms will weaken or eliminate environmental laws passed in 2000-2010. On April 2nd, the class will be taking a field trip to the Portland Art Museum and the branch of Maine Audubon where the exhibit will be placed.

Today the class will be meeting in the art gallery here on campus. I'm not sure what Cindy has up her sleeve but it will be interesting to find out.....

A Realization:

The other week when I was thinking about writing some entries for this, I realized that while I was supposed to be writing daily reflective entries with photographs, I haven't been doing that. Upon further reflection I realized that I can't do those kind of entries because we haven't been doing work consecutively like I thought we would be. We don't meet everyday and there hasn't been anything to take pictures of.
When I started this internship I was under the assumption that I would be working on this project everyday and that it would be much more time consuming than it actually has been. I was even planning on writing down the hours that I worked on the project, but I haven't been doing that either. I figure that because Catherine, Cindy and I meet at least once to twice a week, and when Cindy is away, we communicate via email, that I will have logged the appropriate amount of hours by the end of the semester. Of course yesterday Catherine and I learned that Cindy is leaving just after the middle of April for good; she is moving to Detroit!!! So we need to have everything wrapped up by then. I wonder how the Env Citizen class is going to end......

Now That Cindy Is In One Place For A Few Seconds....

Today the three of us met for an a hour and a half to go over the three different versions of all the signs. We got through a decent chunk but by 1:30 were not able to focus anymore so we adjourned. Instead Cindy is going to make one big thing of all the versions and then send it to me and Catherine one at a time. We will add/edit stuffs and pass it on to the next person, depending on who gets it first. This way we will have only one document floating around cyber space instead of three different ones.
Cindy's son, Jake, drew up designs for the plants we want on the signs, We are doing a birch tree, blueberry bush, beach pea and the Bosarge center with a tree coming out of the center of the building (this design will be used for the LEED Platinum sign). They look awesome!

Visitor Info Card

Card Demo Front
Card Demo back

Progress

I have completed all the signs in my version of the chosen voice and style we want to incorporate. Now I am waiting on Cindy to come back from her trip so that the three of us can figure out what version of the signage we want to use. I have not been taking pictures of our progress because everything so far is digital and brainstorming. But, I did manage to put it on here! More Pics will follow now that I know how to do it!

CMBG Signage

So now...

Cindy is having Catherine and I rewrite the signs and play with two different voices: one a friendly, excited voice for the mascot and a excited, friendly voice that is informative but not he mascot speaking. We have to decide on which voice we like and then do all the signs in that voice.
Cindy also described to us how she wants the signs to look on the walls. We are thinking 3' by 6' panels for each concept, and we are considering getting rid of sustaining. We want to do this because on more reflection Catherine brought our attentions to the point that the WHOLE building is about sustainability and that all of the characteristics of the building reflect that. Since we are already breaking them into different concepts it makes more sense to simply have a section for sustainability in general.

Meeting 2 Notes, Conference Call

This second meeting was held while Cindy's Env Cit class was going on and Catherine was busy elsewhere, so I got to sit in on conference call! I also thoroughly enjoyed this and participated in the discussion a little bit more. However it was harder to know when to talk and who was talking because I was not with the group and could not see them. Essentially this meeting was to discuss the digital dashboard that is going into the exhibit. This will be created by Gunner, who I believe is a graphic designer. These are the notes I took:

· Dashboard

o Signage independent of dashboard except for icons and wording, reinforcement of each other

o Standard package of information w/ main “page” and buttons for people to push see other “pages”

§ Have charts showing consumption/energy/ect for different features of building

§ Keep it brief

§ Example: sacred heart school link http://www.buildingdashboard.com/clients/sacredheartatherton/

o They are thinking about another name or something else to call the dashboard

o All age friendly:

§ Don’t want older adults to be intimidated by it, so may have docents inviting people to use on busy days

§ Feel that kids will be drawn to it

o Tell audience:

§ why creating building at this level, key players and how it took shape

§ Green features

§ Building tour?

§ Photo gallery?

§ ect

· CMBG Wants:

o path from model in center of room to dashboard

o Or free standing sign with mascot inviting people to the dashboard

o Written summary of approach to exhibit; 5 concepts, mascot, voice, ect

o Gunner will initiate what he wants for plaques from us; where wants them, what wants, ect

o On the sign we create explaining LEED Platinum, they want us to also add:

§ How/why did building at this level

§ Key players (donors?)

§ Photos of construction

· Card:

o Make into an educational package sold at gift shop?

o Coloring book? Will people take the time to do it?

1^st go round of dashboard completed by April with all features as draft

Meeting 1 Notes

· “If a plant designed a building…” on each sign

o Mascot plant on each sign as head icon: beach pea

· Quotes in gallery, maybe on some signage

· Sign material: bamboo or composites, leaf shapes of indigenous plants

· Most important features to focus on for signage:

o Water

o Solar energy

o Thermal envelope

o Passive energy

o The reason chose maple floors over bamboo

o Explain Net zero/LEED platinum/U.S. green building standards (place right in front of model)

· We need to rework text so that mascot is talking in fun, excited, clean voice.

· Timeline: Finished texts to CMBG by April 1st

o done July 1^st, opening July 15th

To my surprise the meeting was not boring; I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe because I actually knew what was being talked about. I even got to talk a little bit, I told the group about the passive solar setup for the model, and also asked what kind of tone they wanted the mascot to have on the signage. They all thought this was a very good question and I was pretty impressed with myself. We also walked around the unfinished building and saw the space that we are going to be using. This was very helpful to me and Catherine because we had only seen floor plans, and now we can get our minds around what we can do with the space and how.

My Part

I designed my first part of the exhibit today! One of our ideas is to have the concept icons throughout the rest of the gardens to show other examples of what the five concepts are. In order to do this we want to have visitors pick up a card when they enter the gardens or the Bosarge center. This card will show the five icons along with a definition of what they mean. The front says "The Bosarge Family Education Center" "A LEED Platinum Sustainable Building Come See How It Works!" On the front there is also a picture of the building. The back has the five icons down the left, and down the right there is a one sentence definition of the concepts. So if a plant designed a building:
Generating: The SUN would be it's primary source of energy
Cycling: Recycling, reusing and rethinking 'waste' materials would be a priority.
Shaping: The shape would fit the topography, the soil and climate of the bioregion.
Conserving: The earth's limited stock of resources would be used carefully and creatively.
Sustaining: The needs, health and survival of the next generation would guide all decisions.

What I am Going to Be Doing

As an interpretation assistant to Cindy Thomashaw I will be working on an exhibit at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (CMBG), and as her teacher's assistant for the Environmental Citizen Arts of Exhibit course at Unity college. Catherine Van Amburgeh will also be working with us. I am very excited to working with these women and feel that it will be an exceptional creative team.
Today Catherine, Cindy and I met for breakfast and brainstormed for about two hours. Working with the "big idea", to imagine a building that is designed and constructed to function as efficiently as a plant, we came up with four concepts, or ideas that we want the exhibit to focus around. In doing so we used these six statements that begin with: if a plant designed a building...
1. It would shape its structure to fit the character of the bio region
2. It would function efficiently and add value to the ecosystem
3. It would generate the energy that it uses without a dependence on fossil fuels or toxic emissions
4. It would only produce waste that could be used by another
5. It would conserve water by on-site capture and cycling
6. It would adapt to changing environmental conditions like temperature and climate
The four concepts we came up with to cover these statements are: shaping, cycling, generating and conserving. We would also like to link these concepts throughout the rest of the gardens with signage so that other examples of the concepts may be seen and easily understood.
I really enjoyed having breakfast and hanging out with Cindy and Catherine and am looking forward to spending more time with them on the project and in the class.
On our own time Cindy would like Catherine and I to come up with some icons for the concepts and a list of things we might deal with under each.