Mapping Meaning

 

March 13-April 19

Mapping Meaning

This exhibition draws from the work of artists, scientists and scholars who first met while attending five-day experimental workshops in 2010 and 2012. Inspired by a photograph from 1918 depicting an all-female survey crew, Mapping Meaning workshops provide a forum for women to explore questions of mental, social, and environmental ecology while in a national park or forest.

Mapping Meaning brings together an interdisciplinary group from around the United States and Canada to push against traditional boundaries that come from specialized education. Similar to the workshops, this exhibition takes an experimental approach looking to generate avenues of participation. Participants include:

Karina Aguilera Skvirsky
Krista Caballero
Nat Castañeda
Vasia Markides
Carmina Sánchez-del-Valle
Trudi Lynn Smith
Linda Wiener
THINK AGAIN (S.A. Bachman + David John Attyah)

 Leading up to the exhibition, a series of mini-workshops will take place at Lafayette College focusing on the topic of “ecotone.” Defined as a transitional zone between two adjacent communities, ecotone speaks to ecologies in tension. They are regions filled with diversity, intensity and extremes where species interact in complex and dynamic ways at times producing conflict. During the workshops undergraduate students will work alongside Mapping Meaning artists and scholars to explore current transitions in climate and technology and create site-specific work for the final exhibition. In addition, a symposium including performance, discussion, panels, and screenings will coincide with the exhibition opening.

By linking a photograph from 1918 with this project, Mapping Meaning explores the legacy of unknown histories and considers how we might create an expansive vision for the future where shifting ecologies speak to opportunity and possibility.

Guest curator is Krista Caballero, Associate Director, Digital Cultures and Creativity, Honors College, University of Maryland and Mapping Meaning founder/creative director.

Lafayette participants:
Genevieve M. Asselin
Andrea B. Coles
Elisabeth Day
L’Eunice B. Faust
Julia L. Guarch
Briana Howard
Ariel M. Jakubowski
Deborah M. List
Allison K. O’Donnell
Oluwadamilare Oyefeso
Nicole Pettingill
Megan M. Richardson
Jill Rosker
Aaliyah B. Shodeinde