Unearthing Ecology
This dissertation is a multidisciplinary investigation of the layers of the pandemic from environmental and humanistic approaches. By adopting these various lenses, I attempt to demystify the complex interplay between biodiversity loss and human interaction with nature. Through creating an interdisciplinary framework, I explore the relationship between environment and infectious disease emergence, theories of human ecology and my positioning as a designer in the ecological realm.
Collaborators: Creature Conserve x NYC Urban Soils Institute
Exhibitions: 'Re-imagining Conservation: From the Ground Up' at Swale House, Governor's Island, New York, USA, May - November 2023.
Medium: Academic, philosophical and personal written explorations
Year: 2022
Concept x Academic Discussion
The Coronavirus pandemic has brought a monumental shift in perceptions of planetary health and human well-being. In the last three years, numerous studies have been analysing the causes and impact of Covid-19 in medicine, ecology, psychology, and socio-cultural fields. The list is endless – and no one field can be removed from the other, as there is no one satisfactory approach that will enable us to understand the depths of change that have taken place.
In this collection of essays that explore the human experience in tandem with the ecosystem, I journey the reader from an objective, broader scope to a subjective, context-driven narrative. Reading this paper is like cutting into a piece of the earth – the depth is formed by the layered accumulation of different perspectives that have evolved over each other. The key question threads these approaches together, ultimately asking, what does ecology mean to us, and what will we choose to remember from this time that we lived?
Academic Dissertation
Critical & Historical Studies | RCA