Welcome: Grounding landscape in a virtual semester

Collaboration with Emily Wettstein at Harvard GSD

This project began as an attempt towards equity and inclusion in the first virtual semester at Harvard GSD due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
While brainstorming with the Landscape Representation I teaching team on how to ground and connect with new students in a virtual semester, I proposed shipping a package to each new student. The package would contain some foundational materials for their first semester, and served as a parallel to being given a studio desk in Gund Hall.
The analogue drawing and modeling materials were intended as counterweights to a virtual semester that would lend itself so much more to digital making than to making by hand.
Each item in the package held meaning, which was revealed as the semester unfolded across various courses. An item of particular meaning was a pressed elm leaf from Harvard Yard.
Working remotely in collaboration with Joanne Li on file production, with the GSD FabLab on fabrication, with faculty and administration on permissions, packaging, and delivery, 37 welcome packages were mailed to each incoming GSD MLA I student around the world in July 2020.
GIF illustrations by Rae Pozdro. 
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