Marcus, Ikeda and Jones Publish Essay in POOL Journal

Adam Marcus, Margaret Ikeda, and Evan Jones recently published the essay “Floating With: Buoyant Ecologies of Collaboration and Solidarity” in POOL, the student magazine of the Department of Architecture & Urban Design at the University of California, Los Angeles. The POOL editors invited the AEL to reflect on the Buoyant Ecologies project for the journal’s latest issue, FLOAT. The essay positions the Buoyant Ecologies research in opposition to and in critique of Seasteading and other libertarian visions of colonizing the ocean as a site for extractive, neoliberal capitalism. Instead, this work embraces Donna Haraway’s notion of sympoiesis and “making-with,” advocating a communal and collaborative relationship with the ocean as a site for interspecies exchange, interaction, and mutual resilience.

BioDesign Research Featured on ABC7 News

ABC7 News recently featured work by students in Margaret Ikeda’s Fall 2021 Constructed Ecologies course, in which students developed concepts for artificial habitats made from natural materials. The feature showcased the recent installation of a prototype for a bird habitat, fabricated from local acacia and willow branches, at San Francisco’s Presidio, where the Architecture Ecologies Lab has an ongoing partnership. The story featured interviews with Prof. Ikeda and student Geada Alagha (M.Arch 2022).

Link: “Student-led biodesign architecture project adds habitats to SF's Presidio”

Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab Featured in Munich Exhibition

This summer, the Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab is featured in the Houses that Can Save the World exhibition at Kunstraum München in Germany. The exhibition, which is curated by Courtenay Smith and Sean Topham and runs from June 16 to July 31, 2022, showcases a range of innovative housing types that represent sustainable and dignified models of living. The exhibition is based on the book of the same name that is being published by Thames & Hudson, London, in September 2022.

AEL Research Featured in Barcelona Exhibition "Tools for a Warming Climate"

Research by the Architectural Ecologies Lab is featured in the exhibition “Tools for a Warming Climate,” part of the larger show “La Irrupció" organized as part of the 2022 International Symposium on Electronic Art in Barcelona, Spain. The exhibition, installed at Arts Santa Mònica from June 9 to August 20, 2022, features a collection of design projects selected by curators Sara Dean, Beth Ferguson, and Marina Monsonís that provide tools to respond urgently to our planet’s uncertain future through art, activism and technology. AEL work includes the Ecopoesis Dome, Public Sediment, and the Living Data Pod.

2022 Ecopoesis Workshop 'Repairing Time' Held at Presidio, Features Jenny Odell as Keynote

The 2022 Ecopoesis workshop and gathering ‘Repairing Time’ was held in the San Francisco Presidio on April 9, 2022 and featured artist and author Jenny Odell as keynote. Following the event, Odell delivered a public talk on Thursday, April 14 at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Odell’s book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy served as the thematic catalyst for the event, challenging us to consider the relationship between climate change and our perception of different scales of time. The workshop participants produced a series of cyanotype prints that experiment with the medium’s time-based qualities as a reflection on tangible ecological change. The intent was to challenge the default “how much time is left” sensibility that characterizes much of climate discourse, and instead explore how thinking across multiple time scales might allow for deeper understandings of the crisis we currently face. Through collective acts of making, the workshop tested creative alternatives of language and imagery that can inspire solidarity.

Following the event, timed to coincide with Odell’s keynote at CCA, enlargements of cyanotypes from the workshop were printed on fabric and installed on the Ecopoesis Dome, a new traveling platform for ecological and climate discourse.

Many thanks to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and Presidio Trust for supporting this event.

Adam Marcus Lectures at Florida International University

On March 29, 2022, Adam Marcus delivered a lecture “Ecological Tectonics” at Florida International University School of Architecture as part of their spring 2022 public lecture series.

Constructed Ecologies Research Featured on ABC7 News

ABC7 News recently featured work by students in Margaret Ikeda’s Fall 2021 Constructed Ecologies course, in which students developed concepts for artificial habitats made from natural materials and inspired by Indigenous material practices.

Link: “'Idea of hope': SF college students design sustainable architecture that helps ecosystems flourish”

Presidio Reef Research Featured on ABC7 News

The Presidio Culvert Reef project was recently featured in a story on ABC7 News, by Spencer Christian and Tim Didion. AEL directors Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones were interviewed on site for the story, discussing how the AEL’s work designing and fabricating ecological substrates is contributing to oyster habitat restoration in the Presidio’s Crissy Marsh.

Link: “Combining infrastructure and ecology: Oysters find new home in SF’s Presidio tidal marsh”

Ikeda and Jones Present at UC Davis Symposium

On November 19, Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones presented AEL research at the symposium “A Living Atlas: Community-sourced Design for Citizen Science” at the University of California, Davis. The presentation included an overview of AEL research projects, including the Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, the Presidio Culvert Reef and the work with the Treasure Island Sailing Club’s “Sailing to Save the Sea” science education program. The latter involves an ongoing collaboration with Adam Larson from Stanford University’s Prakash Lab deploying their PlanktoScope to survey microscopic aquatic life. Larson also presented at the symposium, along with CCA student Yitian Ma (B.Arch 2022), who shared the “Living Pod” project developed in 2019 Constructed Ecologies class for the 2019 BioDesign Challenge. This project incorporated a floating PlanktoScope capable of autonomous monitoring of plankton and microplastics, which is being developed in conjunction with Adam Larson at the Autodesk Technology Center in San Francisco.

Ikeda and Jones Present at Maldives Villa College

Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones recently participated in an international conference on social research and innovation at Villa College in the Maldives. Profs. Ikeda and Jones were invited to present their Buoyant Ecologies Maldives studio work from CCA and the University of Washington. The conference, titled “Building Back Better: A Resilient Future for All,” explored responses to threats of sea level rise affecting the Maldives and looked at the potential for floating architecture and regenerative infrastructures to create adaptable solutions for local islands.

Coral Carbonate Research by Alex Schofield Featured on ABC7 News

CCA Adjunct Professor Alex Schofield was recently featured on ABC7 Eyewitness News, showcasing his innovative research into 3d printed calcium carbonate structures that aim to help restore coral reefs and increase biodiversity in the marine environment. Schofield’s Coral Carbonate research is developed through his practice Objects and Ideograms, and a series of his custom-made hanging fish house prototypes are currently suspended underwater from the Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, an ecological pilot project developed by AEL and moored in Oakland’s Middle Harbor.

To see the full story along with recent footage of the deployed prototypes on the Float Lab, see this link or video below.

Roberts and Falliers Present at ASLE Conference

From July 26- August 6, the Association for the Study of Language and the Environment (ASLE.org) convened its biannual international conference, titled EMERGENCE(Y). On August 4, Leslie Carol Roberts and Christopher Falliers, founders of the ECOPOESIS Project with Adam Marcus, presented on the panel “The Art(s) of Environmental Change,” alongside John Yunker, Ashland Press; Michael Hewson, CQUniversity; and the independent artists Sarah Crooks, and Beth Shepherd. In their paper, “How We Hear Now: Spatial Practice and the Materiality of Ecological Stories,” Roberts and Falliers discussed the concept and creation of How We Hear Now, the collective audio project begun in response to the human quieting of the world as the pandemic descended in 2020 and lockdown ensued.

A complete list of conference abstracts and contributors are available here. ASLE was founded to inspire and promote intellectual work in the environmental humanities and the arts, supporting research, education, literature, environmental justice, and ecological sustainability.

"How We Hear Now" Opens at San Francisco Ferry Building

From June 25 to July 10, 2021, the collaborative artwork How We Hear Now was installed for public view at the San Francisco Ferry Building. The artwork was developed by The ECOPOESIS Project, a multi-year initiative led by the Architectural Ecologies Lab and MFA in Writing program at the California College of the Arts. The project was initiated in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in lieu of the spring 2020 ECOPOESIS symposium/workshop gathering.

How We Hear Now invites participants to engage in audible changes in their environments—to record and transmit how the sounds of both human and nonhuman ecologies may have changed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic’s shelter-in-place orders. This installation of the project includes contributions from both 2020 and 2021; each participant constructed a sound recording of their environment on April 22 (Earth Day) and provided a description of ecological or cultural factors. 

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Architectural Ecologies Lab Team Presents at Biodesign Challenge 2021

On June 21, 2021 a three-student team from the Fall 2020 Constructed Ecologies class presented their project Urchigami at the 2021 BioDesign Challenge. This was the third consecutive year that the class, taught by Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones, entered the competition. The project explored folded shell designs and biocementation using calcium carbonate and living algae. The team consisted of Geetika Rohra (MArch’21), Nidhi Patel (BArch’21), and Lina Kudinar (MArch’21). Working in consultation with previous collaborators at UCSF microbiology labs and environmental engineering professor Dr. Varenyam Achal from Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, the project was developed in the spring semester and featured on the SeaShift Collaborative website (seashift.org)

Ikeda and Jones Lead Studio at University of Washington

Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones were recently invited to teach an experimental design studio for the spring 2021 quarter at the University of Washington. The studio was based on the Buoyant Ecologies Maldives Studios curriculum developed between 2017 and 2019 at CCA, and it leveraged local governmental and academic connections developed over the years. The studio, titled “Architecture as a Coastal Resource,” looked at issues of coastal protection, food security, and potable water as ways of exploring implementable community architectural strategies that can empower communities to adapt to the effects of global climate changes.

Adam Marcus Presents Virtual Visit to the Float Lab at the Proxy Festival

On May 14, 2021, Adam Marcus participated in the Proxy Festival, a unique event organized by the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto and hosted by Simon Frasier University’s School of Communication. The festival was organized as an online event exploring our always-online moment and the possibilities that networked experience can offer for the creation of new forms of cultural practice, of embodiment, of place-making, and of experimentation with social conventions. Adam presented a short film that provided a remote, virtual visit to the Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab, which currently floats off in San Francisco Bay off of the Oakland shoreline.

California College of the Arts’ Architecture Division announces new Academic Alliance with the Autodesk Technology Centers

California College of the Arts’ acclaimed Architecture Division is pleased to announce a new Academic Alliance with the Autodesk Technology Centers beginning in spring 2021. Through the Academic Alliance, Autodesk Technology Centers will work with the Architectural Ecologies Lab (AEL) and the Digital Craft Lab (DCL), two of CCA Architecture’s four teaching and research labs, to provide opportunities for CCA students to join Autodesk Technology Center’s Outsight Network and leverage the associated workshops and studios under the supervision of the AEL and DCL lab directors.

On Friday, April 16, at 12 pm PT, CCA Architecture and Autodesk Technology Centers will co-present a panel discussion, “The Future of Learning: Industry and Academia Convergence,” to launch the new Academic Alliance. The panel discussion—which includes Keith Krumwiede, CCA’s dean of Architecture; Sophia Zelov, development lead at Autodesk Technology Centers; and Rick Rundell, senior director at Autodesk Technology Centers—will consider the future of learning with best practice examples from CCA’s Architectural Ecologies Lab & Digital Craft Lab projects hosted at the Autodesk Technology Center in San Francisco. The panel will be moderated by AEL director Margaret Ikeda and DCL director Negar Kalantar.

The Academic Alliance further cements Autodesk Technology Centers’ ongoing work with CCA Architecture. Since 2014, Autodesk Technology Centers have hosted CCA design research ranging from the AEL Buoyant Ecologies Float Lab breakwater project and Presidio Culvert Reef oyster restoration project, to the DCL research projects speculating on the design of Future Factories and the National Science Foundation Grant on developing Wave Tunable Materials for Complex Freeform Structures.

During 2019 and 2020, the Technology Center in San Francisco offered an opportunity to forty DCL Architecture and Interior Design students of tranSTUDIO at CCA to work in the state-of-the-art facility as residents in the Autodesk Technology Centers Outsight Network, providing a change in the way students learn, think, and make innovative designs.

The Academic Alliance builds upon this advanced design research to formalize opportunities for CCA students whose interests align with the Architecture Ecologies Lab or Digital Craft Lab. In the past year, the Outsight Network has expanded to have a global online presence; resident teams now represent over 20 different countries and have access to a diverse and innovative community and subject matter expertise through digital platforms. The Academic Alliance creates a unique opportunity for the CCA Architecture Division to host and collaborate with scholars from international academic institutions while they are pursuing research within the Outsight Network, and for interested students in the Master of Advanced Architecture Design program—CCA Architecture’s one-year interdisciplinary post-professional degree program tailored for advanced students and mid-career professionals—to integrate their area of research with support from both the physical and digital resources of the Autodesk Technology Centers.

Roberts and ECOPOESIS Awarded Al-Balad Artist Residency

In 2020, Leslie Carol Roberts and The Ecopoesis Project were invited to be part of the Al Balad arts residency program in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is the first international artists’ residency hosted by Saudi Arabia. Both Saudi and international artists were selected for the residencies, which take place over six weeks.

Al Balad is Jeddah’s historic district, known for its traditional architecture, the hallmarks of which are coral construction and intricate wooden doors and windows. The old town is known for its traditional architecture and houses paneled with intricate wooden windows and doors. Former houses have been turned into heritage sites, such as the Rubat Al Khuniji, a 207-year-old guesthouse where the residents will work.

Roberts, with her Ecopoesis collaborators Adam Marcus and Christopher Falliers, proposed the installation of a small dome as a tool for activating space and intimate conversations about the realities and feelings—grief, fear, melancholy, wonder, humility—around the climate emergency and individual and collective creative responses. The dome will be draped with fabrics, using local materials and aesthetics, to further integrate the structure into its environment. Events will be programmed for the dome, including food sharing and recordings of environmental sound and short personal essays about local ecologies.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed project implementation, the residency program launched online in November 2020 and plans to be in place in late 2021.

AEL Presidio Crissy Marsh Project Featured in "Consider The Oyster" Exhibit In San Francisco

Natural Discourse & Levy Art + Architecture present
Consider the Oyster: Art, Science & Culture
A storefront window exhibit at Levy Art + Architecture 2501 Bryant St, San Francisco
Join us on February 27th from 5 to 8 for a safe, streetside opening at 2501 Bryant St
Opens this Saturday February 27 from 5 to 8

Join us as we consider pinhole cameras inside oyster shells, native oyster restoration at the Presidio and oyster farming and feasting in Tomales Bay. Participating artists and scientists: Taylor Griffith, David Janesko, Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones, Chris Kallmyer, Gwendolyn Meyer and Jonathan Young.

David Janesko’s poetic series of pinhole cameras Forest/Oyster was the initial inspiration for the exhibit. Delicate images of the forest surrounding the Willapa Bay in Oregon are imprinted on the inside the oyster shells. Jonathan Young, wildlife ecologist at the Presidio, provided us with concrete oyster reef balls and computer designed oyster panels by Margaret Ikeda and Evan Jones of Architectural Ecologies Lab. These objects are part of a native oyster restoration project at the new Quarter Master Reach tidal wetland at the Presidio. Taylor Griffith’s Heard Above, a 19 minute video was filmed at Quarter Master Reach and will be projected every weekend from dusk to 9 pm. From ecology to oyster farming and culinary delights, Chris Kallmyer will be showing Consider the Oyster a two channel video about the last year of the Drake’s Bay Oyster company and we have series of Gwendolyn Meyer’s photos from her beautiful book Oyster Culture.

Healthy oyster reefs are a proven way to effectively reduce water pollution and improve the marine environment. While other bivalves also possess the ingenious ability to clean water while flushing out pollutants as they feed, none are simultaneous symbols of feasting, as is the oyster.       Gwendolyn Meyer

Natural Discourse is collaborating with Levy Art + Architecture to consider this wondrous bi-valve. The art gallery will be visible from the street where anyone can view it, 24 hours a day, beginning at 2501 Bryant St, San Francisco.

Many thanks to Emmanuel Coup, Gene Grealish, Heidi Gregory at Tomales Bay Oyster Co and Ross Levy and his staff for support of this exhibit.

Natural Discourse is an ongoing series of symposia, publications and site-specific art installations that explore the connections between art, culture, science and site.

Natural Discourse is curated by Shirley Alexandra Watts

Roberts and Falliers Keynote Ecological Arts Therapies Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia

On August 8, 2020, Professors Leslie Carol Roberts and Chris Falliers delivered a keynote presentation for the The First International Conference for Ecological Arts Therapies, via Zoom in St. Petersburg, Russia. As part of the keynote, Roberts and Falliers (with Adam Marcus, co-founders of The Ecopoesis Project) presented How We Hear Now, a collaborative artwork launched on Earth Day, 2020.

The conference theme “Ecological/Earth-Based Arts Therapies: International and Multi-Cultural Perspectives" aligned with the ambitions and framework of The Ecopoesis Project. In their talk, Roberts and Falliers discussed how the project generates knowledge and interdisciplinary forms of practice and pedagogy around questions of ecologies that challenge disciplinary norms. They discussed the genesis of the project, its first two iterations: the 2019 gathering of invited guests from across disciplines and How We Hear Now, the 2020 sound and art installation responding to the ecology of pandemic.

An excerpt from the presentation:

Our hope is to build a work that is a tonic towards healing obliviousness—obliviousness to our shared circumstances, which includes nonhumans, from the penguins to the coral to the bivalves that cluster on floating substrate. By creating assemblies where we can be vulnerable, we press forward towards a condition of susceptibility towards ideas for how to change and heal things on Planet Earth. And Earth needs this sort of tenderness now, after hundreds of years of human-lead exploitation. And we propose that the meandering path there comes in allowing grief, sadness, joy, melancholy, weirdness, hilarity, humility to weave together.

As artists, designers, and writers, we are attuned to how things are and then we push this attunement towards a collaborative. In this, we are collectors of ideas rather than self-tasked towards generating “original ideas.”

We argue that design and art and writing can gather a collective of voices to consider—even try to understand—complex emotions associated with the climate emergency, like grief and love. That is, we invite participants to have more naked reactions to the realities of these times. So much of ecological conversation has been dominated by doomsday philosophizing and corporate-speak, both of which often point to humans as the “problem.” But what if instead we use awareness and art to look tenderly and with desire at our shared reality of living together with nonhumans in a climate emergency? In 2020, we focused on what it felt like to experience local and nonlocal ecologies within a time of pandemic, such an extreme form of environmental isolation.