Muse No. 11 – June 15, 2020
Interaction by Tallie Segel, Santa Fe Botanical Garden Adult Education Coordinator
Interaction by Claire LaRose, Santa Fe Botanical Garden Volunteer Coordinator
Visual Interaction: How do the elements (sun, rain, wind) interact with and change the world around us? Find a collection of natural objects and make a sculpture that integrates with your outdoor surroundings. Need some inspiration? Take a look at the work of Andy Goldsworthy. Check in on your creation every day, and document how it changes, what’s driving the change? Post and share your musings with us, #santafebotanicalgarden, #gardenmusings
Musings on Interaction
What a time in the world to be thinking about interaction. Musings on interaction may help us to think about, or perhaps briefly escape our thoughts about the social transformations in which we are in the midst. Like the other Garden Musings themes, interaction allows us to look at singular elements, or layers of relationships. For example, we can look, think, and create around a biological interaction – what forms of symbiosis do you observe in your nature space? We can do the same around ecological interactions by observing what’s happening between living and non-living components in your space. We can think about social interactions in your nature space. We can think about this moment right now, or the history of your nature space, or even it’s future – with questions like what has happened here, what’s happening now, what may happen here next? We can think about all of these interactions laden with politics, interests, power – can you play with these ideas through biological interactions? Can you think about the social interactions as ecological? This series of musings provoke observations about art and ecological interaction.
The Garden Musings Project is an open invitation to look more closely and broadly at our backyards, front yards and neighborhoods. Each week we’ll send three prompts focused around a theme – color, texture, lines, interaction to name a few. These prompts will include ideas to guide a musing or conversation between you and your nearby outdoor spaces. Try each of the exercises, or stick with one that evolves into a regular practice.
Every few weeks, we’ll have a live-stream conversation (via Zoom) to share our experiences, and to chat with artists, educators, writers, poets and gardeners from New Mexico and a far about their own practices observing and interacting with their gardens, landscapes and other natures around them.
Ways to Join: Participate at any level in the project is welcome. Try the weekly musings as they come up in your social media feeds. Sign-up for the project emails below to receive the weekly musings in your inbox, as well as the information for the group gatherings via Zoom through the registration list.
