Anne Dalke's blog

I didn't go into the woods this Monday morning, when I was spending the time curled up cozily in my apartment in Center City, watching the news of the "Frankenstorm," the "monster" Sandy, puzzling over the disconnect between my "hurrication" and the media description of the disaster swirling around me. Ever since mturer put the problematics of representation back on the table (naming hurricanes to make them less threatening?), and froggies315 provided that  "awesome" windmap for comparison with the wierd music videos the Weather channel was using for their live coverage, I've been thinking about ecological literacy (okay, well, just thinking about it more pointedly), wondering what more responsible reporting might look-and-sound like.

I may have found one example in this morning's NYTimes: it's about the enormous oyster beds, built up over 7000 years and now entirely depleted, that once formed underwater reefs around the shores of New York, creating "undulation and contour on the harbor bottom that broke up wave action before it could pound the shore with its full force. Beds closer to shore clarified the water through their assiduous filtration...this allowed marsh grasses to grow, which in turn held the shores together with their extensive root structure."

(provoked by Christine Sum Kim):

past senior row on Wednesday morning, when I saw

a red-tailed hawk (entirely undisturbed by me) making her breakfast of a squirrel.

For Mural Arts month, the story of Michelle Ortiz

"There is no time" (Rachel Carson)

Time was short.
(I didn't "leave" myself enough of it.)
Time was long.
(I counted the rings on fallen trees.
150 years apiece.)
The stones in the graveyard evolved.
From Wissahickon Schist (surely?) to marble (really?).
How long will that last?

By Sunday @ 5: initiate, or choose a "thread" to follow w/ your classmates: How might we revise the remainder of the semester to reflect our shared interests? How do you understand/what questions do you have about the intersection of gender and the environment? (Or: what questions did Spretnak's article on ecofeminism answer or raise for you?) And/or what further conversation would you like to have about our other recent, under-discussed readings (Pollan on weeds, White on working for a living, Carson on pesticide use)? What other ideas have arisen for you this week? (for example, see Sarah's invitation, below, to dance, for a possible new direction...). And/or what "ecologically imaginings" do you have re: Hurricane Sandy? You're welcome to post stand-alone comments, but also please consider writing in response to what a classmate has said....

As you know, Christine Sun Kim will be joining our class on Thursday, and we're attending the opening of the exhibit, What Can a Body Do? @ HC's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery on Friday evening. I'm writing to tell you about a screening event that's part of WCaBD?  Filmmaker Alison O'Daniel will visit on November 7th and 8th.  Her film Night Sky will screen Wednesday night in Chase Auditorium at 8pm.  The next day, Thursday, she will visit John Muse's Visual Studies class, which meets at 10am in Stokes 102.  Both of these events, the screening and John's class are open to the public. As students of "silence," you are all most welcome @ both.

Here's a blurb from http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/alison-o-daniel-night-sky/2644

This NYTimes article caught my eye, mostly for its assumptions about predictability (and human responsibility for geological events):
"Seven prominent Italian earthquake experts were convicted of manslaughter on Monday and sentenced to six years for failing to give adequate warning to the residents of a seismically active area in the months preceding a fatal earthquake that killed more than 300 people...."

Changing Skyline: A mural for PSFS....?

By 5 p.m. on Sun, Oct. 21 (the date of our return), please
post (AS A COMMENT HERE) a mid-semester course evaluation:
* take some time to review all your postings/papers,
reflecting on what's working and what needs working on, both for you
as an individual learner and for the class as a learning community.
* How are you using the class? How do you see others using it, individually and as a group?
* How is this course functioning "ecologically," how might it be more "ecological" in structure and action?
* Are there additional ways you can imagine y/our using the class, to expand our understanding?