Student Projects - Site
Students were invited to choose a space on campus and consider both the environment and/or architecture and what they know about the past and present of that site to create a performance event for their classmates.
Sculpture Garden
This piece invited classmates to create bows and arrows from natural materials to leave as an "offering" for the goddess in the glade, inviting us to experience one of the most picturesque spots on campus in a more interactive way.
The Library
Students invited their classmates to play a variation of hide and seek mixed with tag, activating an often overlooked segment of the campus and eventually directing our attention downward - looking into the warm light of the library reading room from our position in the cold, concrete space of the library's Brutalist exterior.
The Lakefill
Students took the class out onto the bridge that connects the campus to the island lakefill. Copying the format of campus tours, they highlighted the contradictions in Northwestern's self-made image as they emphasized the wild nature of the tiny sliver of land they stood on, where native plants stubbornly grow on an otherwise manicured campus, framing those plants as a reminder of the native populations displaced by the ongoing colonial presence of both the university and most of its faculty, staff, and students.
The Beach
The students in this group gave their classmates sticks and a series of questions about their past (copying a strategy from a company we studied in class) inviting them to think about the transient nature of memory - as the things they write will inevitably be erased by the wind and water.
