Gowanus Outdoors Club: A Field Guide to Soliphilia

Gowanus Outdoors Club A Field Guide To Soliphilia

Julia Plevin

Gowanus Outdors Club A Field Guide To Soliphilia

Julia Plevin

This book was written and designed by Julia Plevin and edited by Rebecca Plevin. It’s the first of many Plevin sister collaborations. Š Julia Plevin All Rights Reserved New York, NY 2015

Contents Preface

9

Introduction

13

Why, How, and What

19

Psychoterratica

31

A Primer on Gowanus

45

Audience and Market

63

Provocations

79

Implementation

101

Looking Forward

159

Appendix

165

5

Preface

7

Soliphilia A state of being that results in the ability of people to come together as a community to collaborate and heal themselves and the environment. he concept has its origins in the French word solidaire, which means independent. It’s a combination of the Latin solidus (solid or whole) and the Greek philia (love of one’s fellow citizens and neighbors). he term was originally coined by philosopher Glenn Albrect in 2009.

Antonyms: solastalgia, ecoanxiety, ecoparalysis, global dread, nature deicit disorder, generational environmental amnesia, et al.

8

Adults on bikes gave H.G. Wells hope for the human race.

Go to the boulder for beauty

This old Italian restaurant will bring you rejuvenation

There’s great strength in practicing noviolence

Up on the roof you will ind progress

Gather patience where you get your succulents

The Royal Palms ofer wisdom

There’s energy in these hills The Lavender Lake ofers healing to all Find remediation with Proteus, the God of Rivers

Fig. 1.Treasure map from the Soliphilia Scavenger Hunt in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Preface

9

Introduction

11

12

“We can never have enough of nature.”

—Henry David Thoreau

Why I started this club In a 2008 article, “Wasted and Bombed: Clinical Enactments of a Changing Relationship to the Earth,” Susan Bodnar Ph.D writes about her work with people who cannot disassociate from nature without sufering.

“For those people especially, the wasting, the bombing, and the lack of balance in our world grips them in a personality organization that enacts all that chaos. But they may also be our prophets,” she writes. “hose who still hear the weeping earth, the mountain’s call, the desert’s sigh and the ocean’s aria may yet awaken the transitive imagination in us all.”

I’ve realized that I’m one of those people who get thrown into chaos when there is not enough connection to nature in my life. I don’t recall a precise moment when I became “outdoorsy.” As a kid, I loved to play outside. I used to beg my not-so outdoorsy family to take me camping. My mom realized I was

“diferent” when I devoured Henry David horeau’s Walden Pond as part of a summer reading assignment before high school. I cherished every word; his story resonated with me.

In high school, I was the President of he Hiking Vikings club, a group that would go for hikes and adventures in the great outdoors around Washington, D.C. I chose to go to Dartmouth College and spent four years exploring the woods of New Hampshire as part of the college’s Outing Club. Ater graduating, I moved to Vietnam and worked in international conservation by traveling to workshops and doing reports around Southeast Asia.

When I moved from San Francisco to New York City to start graduate school, I certainly missed nature. But I had no idea what a profound efect being out of a natural rhythm would have on me. his year the lack of nature in my life threw me into frenzy and became an itch that I couldn’t scratch. I would dream about the oceans and the mountains and feel trapped within the conines

Introduction

13

Fig. 2.—he desert’s sigh. hose who can still hear it have the responsibility to awaken the transitive imagination in all of us.

of the city. I looked around me and wondered: Is this really how people live? hrough research for this thesis, I realized that I am not alone. here’s an emerging conversation about how nature and the environment – or a disconnection from them - afect our mental health.

Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht studies this framework, dubbing a range of conditions “psychoterratica.”

And then I learned that there are cures to the various psychoterratic distresses. hese are not cures that involve taking prescription pills, but something else that felt spot-on: It’s called “soliphilia” and is basically a state that results in positive energy to heal our community, our planet, and ourselves.

I’ve dedicated this year to inding ways to help people and communities get to soliphilia. One year is just a start.

I could easily spend the next decade designing for soliphilia.

Why we need this club today It’s time for a new way of thinking about the environment.

Climate change is a reality of life today and we are still iguring out what the repercussions will be. One thing is for sure: Nature doesn’t need us. Nature will survive these changes. It’s not that humans can save nature. Rather, it’s

14

Introduction

nature that can save humans. his is a call for a sweeping change to the way we view nature in our daily lives. Now is the time for a momentous choice: We can continue on as is, exploiting nature at an ever-growing pace or we can choose a new direction. As esteemed economist Jefrey Sachs said in he Guardian, “Our mental models, analytical ields of study, and ethical decision making is poorly equipped to handle the challenges of sustainable development. We have been walking blindly into tragedies and more will come unless we learn to open our minds and our ethical reason to the current crisis.”1 his is a big statement from a predominant economist considering that sometime in the 19th century, the entire discipline of economics largely dropped traditional attention to land, water, and food as industry and instead focused on agriculture as the leading economic factory, thinking that they could totally ignore nature and any claims to “limits of growth.”

Behavior change is hard and the current ways of addressing climate change and the environment have not been working. It’s time to amplify what is working, to ind the positive deviants, and scale up the “good” in order to change course.

Enter, the Gowanus Outdoors Club. Instead of using scare tactics to get people to use less resources, the Gowanus Outdoors Club uses the principles of soliphilia, helping people connect to nature so they realize how things might be if we could all start to reconnect with the environment and listen to what it’s telling us.

Gowanus, a microneighborhood in Brooklyn that is famous for its polluted canal, is the positive deviant and its residents are leading the way in reimagining what a place could be. Once a toxic wasteland, it is now one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Brooklyn. here are already people who are striving for soliphilia in Gowanus and we can use the community as a case study for how reconnecting with the environment can have a positive impact on people and communities.

1 Sachs, Jefrey. “By separating nature from economics, we have walked blindly into tragedy.” he Guardian. March 10, 2015.

Introduction

15

hy, How, and hat

17

18

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

—Simon Sinek

he Why: Solastalgia he goal of the Gowanus Outdoors Club is to create a new understanding for what it means to be “green,” or to be an advocate for the environment. he Gowanus Outdoors Club brings about a paradigm shit from the early years of buying “green” products and creates a sense of hope to counteract the paralysis brought about by overwhelming environmental degradation.

More speciically, the goal is to create a replicable template that helps individuals and communities overcome “solastalgia” by connecting to each other and the environment around them.

Solastalgia is a new word for an old concept. he traditions of Buddhism, Romanticism, and Transcendentalism all embrace the vital link between the mind and nature. Henry David horeau wrote about the concept. Native Americans are innately aware of the health of communities being dependent on the

health of the environment.

Glenn Albrecht, a philosopher and professor of sustainability at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, irst coined the term in a 2004 essay.1 he word is “a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root –algia (pain), which he defined as ‘the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault . . . a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home.’”

Albrecht used the term to describe what the residents of Upper Hunter Valley, a region in southeastern Australia, were going through as coal mining took of in the area and transformed their home. “Solastalgia” resonated with people and has been used to describe everything from experiences of Canadian Inuit communities coping with the efects of rising temperatures to refugees returning to New Orleans 1 Smith, Daniel B. “Is there an Ecological Unconscious?” he New York Times. Jan. 27, 2010.

Why, How, and What

19

Fig. 3.—Leadership exper Simon Sinek puts “why” at the core.

Getting to “why” you do something is hard, but extremely important.

20

ater Katrina and people dealing with fracking in their communities. he condition is omnipresent, if not yet fully understood. As Daniel Smith writes in he New York Times, “Solastalgia is not limited to those living beside quarries — or oil spills or power plants or Superfund sites. Solastalgia, in Albrecht’s estimation, is a global condition, felt to a greater or lesser degree by diferent people in diferent locations but felt increasingly, given the ongoing degradation of the environment. So as the environment continues to change at an increasingly rapid and eerie pace, the question becomes, how deeply are our minds sufering?” he concept of solastalgia is part of a growing discipline within psychology - called ecopsychology - that deals with the emotional costs of ecological decline. Experts in the ield study the relationship between the health of the natural world and that of the mind. hey view mental health more holistically than any preceding branch of psychology.

Ecopsychologists believe that our sanity is inextricable from the vitality of our surroundings and the strength of our connection to them.

As part of ecopsychology, Albrecht has developed a typology of what he calls psychoterratic diseases.

Ever the neologist, Albrecht coined the world psychoterratic to mean earthrelated mental health issues. Some of these diseases are: ecoanxiety, nature deicit disorder, ecoparalysis, solastalgia,

Why, How, and What

eco-nostalgia, and global dread. his will be discussed more in Chapter 3: Psychoterratica.

While psychologists are researching and practicing ecopsychology, they are not sure how best to cure the suferings from ecopsychology. Gregory Bateson, an anthropologist and cyberneticist who was married to Margaret Mead for 14 years was preoccupied by the connection between the mind and the environment and wrote about the complex systems at play in his 1972 book “Steps to an Ecology of Mind.”

It seems to be a bit of a chicken-andthe-egg problem. As Smith writes, “It also isn’t hard to see how the seeming circularity of Bateson’s solution — in order to be more ecological, feel more ecological — continues to bedevil the field and those who share its interests.”

It’s clear that there is an opportunity for design to do what psychology cannot: to create systems, services, and experiences that change behavior and inspire people to help the environment so that they can help themselves. he Gowanus Outdoors Club can serve as a catalyst to get people to feel more ecological, so they will be more ecological.

he How: Healthy communities connect to nature Albrecht created a new word, soliphilia, which he has appointed to mean the opposite of solastalgia. He deines soliphilia as, “the love of totality of our place relationships and a willingness to accept, in solidarity and ailiation with others, the political responsibility for the health of the earth, our home.”2 It’s a movement to airm life and build it instead of destroying it.

So if the Gowanus Outdoors Club’s goal is to overcome the pain associated with solastalgia, the how is by spreading soliphilia.

Gowanus is the perfect place to start this movement because it is already on its way to soliphilia. For years, there have been a number of organizations working to transform Gowanus from a toxic wasteland into a functional ecosystem.

For example, he Gowanus Canal Conservancy is a communitybased nonproit that serves as an environmental steward for the Gowanus Canal watershed. heir vision is “an open, clean, and alive 2 Albercht, Glenn. “Environmental Change, Distress, and Human Emotion Solastalgia. Video. Ted.com. TED, June 1, 2010. Web.

Why, How, and What

21

Journey to the Core

22

Why, How, and What

It took a lot of research to arrive at the goal of my thesis – to relieve the pain from solastalgia - and have I a lot of people to thank for all the help. I irst heard the word solastalgia from Ingrid Fetell, Design Director at IDEO New York. I mentioned nature deicit disorder as something that I had read about and hoped the Gowanus Outdoors Club would address and she ofered a word for the condition I was describing: “Solastalgia.” Some people remember the irst time they eat a new food or hear a new song. I remember the irst time I hear a new word.

Fetell, who pens the blog Aesthetics of Joy, wrote a post in response to Daniel Smith’s 2010 New York Times article on solastalgia, “his makes intuitive sense to me. Ater all, our physical health is deeply dependent on the health of our immediate environment. Perhaps before the Industrial Revolution we could have conceived of our bodies as separate entities, impermeable to pollution. But now we know that chemicals in our waterways end up in our veins and that smog chokes our lungs as much as our visibility.”1 he concepts of ecopsychology and solastalgia resonate so deeply with me. I’ve probably been dealing with various degrees of psychoterratic distress since I moved from California to New York City but didn’t have the words or psychology to express them.

And it’s why the original goal I had for starting the Gowanus Outdoors Club did not seem to encapsulate what I was really trying to do. In the prospectus book I wrote midway through this thesis journey, I proclaimed, “he goal of this thesis is to subvert expectations about discarded, polluted places and challenge current beliefs about what constitutes nature. By engaging with the toxic and polluted, we can better understand the connection between nature and industry, as well as between ourselves and the physical world we inhabit.” he connection to people was missing from this original statement. As an IDEO-trained, human-centered designer, I was grappling with the disconnect between designing for the needs of the environment and designing for needs of people. But now I understand that they are interconnected. As Glenn Albercht says in an interview for Yes Magazine, “We have tipping points in our mind, just like we have tipping points in the environment.”2 And in order to solve the globally signiicant environmental problems, we have to solve what’s going on in our heads.

I did not set out on a personal journey. I thought my thesis was a pure academic pursuit. But to get to the why, I had to look within.

1 Fetell, Ingrid. “Aesthetics of Nature.” Aesthetics of Joy. August 22, 2010. < http:// aestheticsojoy.com/2010/08/aesthetics-of-nature/”> 2 Ostrander, Madeline. “When Words Fail: Does a Warming World Need a New Vocabulary?” Yes Magazine. September 19, 2011. Web. <http://www.yesmagazine.org/ planet/when-words-fail-does-a-warming-world-need-a-new-vocabulary>

23

Gowanus Canal Watershed.”3 hey hold an ecology lecture series, have volunteer days, and host beneits to raise money and build community.

Similarly, he Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club seeks to get as many people as they can out on the water because as they say on their website, “As people experience and enjoy the waterfront through our programs, they become advocates for its revitalization.”4 Similarly, Friends of Greater Gowanus (FROGG) is a group committed to “working towards an eco-safe and healthy Gowanus Canal Corridor and watershed including restoration of the natural environment.5 And now that the canal has been declared a Superfund site, there is a community advisory group working with the Environmental Protection Agency. All Superfund sites have community advisory groups and as Bonnie Bellow, the Former Director of Public Afairs for the EPA, said in an interview, Gowanus has one of the most involved groups she’s seen.6 3 Gowanus Canal Conservancy.

Web. Feb. 7, 2015. < http://www. gowanuscanalconservancy.org> 4 Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club.

Web. Feb 8, 2015. < http://gowanuscanal. org/> 5 Friends of Greater Gowanus. Web. Feb. 7, 2015 < http://froggbrooklyn.org/>

he Gowanus Outdoors Club is building on the momentum that is already palpable in this small neighborhood in Brooklyn. It is diferent from the other groups because it is focusing on the mental and physical health of people. Some people are more sensitive to their environment than others, but as psychologists are continuing to discover and as Native Americans have instinctively known throughout history, people are afected mentally, if not physically, by the nature around them.

Another reason why Gowanus is such an ideal place to start this movement is that it has strong Native American roots. he “Gowanes Creek” was named ater chief Gowanes, who was the leader of the local tribe of Native American Canarsees.

As Clif Matias, Native American performing artist and educator said in an interview, “It would be nice to pay homage to the people who once lived there. It could help people tie the past and the present together.”

Matias explained that in Native American culture, water represents the strength and connection of people to the earth.

“When we are around healthy water, our lives are healthier,” he said in an

6

November 2014.

24

Interview with the author.

Why, How, and What

interview.7 According to Matias, the water must be cleaned irst and then the earth and man can follow suit.

Botanist and herbalist Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower also talks about the need for reconnecting to nature. She calls it, “establishing a reciprocal human-plant relationship,” and believes that the key aspects of this relationship are saying thanks, exploring, inquiring, cultivating and nurturing, and recognizing through words and gits.

In her book-in-progress, Uhlmann-Bower writes about what happens when people connect to nature: “he outcome may arise out of what seems like nothing. You realize plants and Nature have made its imprint on you. You come to ind you’ve developed a plant-Nature awareness where in the end our health and wellness of the environment returns to really being all about us. he two are not separate, we’re in a symbiotic relationship, we are enmeshed as a whole functioning ebb and low system. What goes around comes around.”8 Uhlmann-Bower recognizes that what she is writing is a tried-and-true practice that has been around since millennia and has been handed down through many oral traditions.

“If this has been practiced for millennia then why do I call this New Earth Living Skills?

Mostly because current day modern people are new to this way of living.”

—Marguerite UhlmannBower

7 Interview with the author. January 2015.

8 Uhlmann-Bower, Marguerite.

Email. Nov. 24, 2014.

Why, How, and What

25

Fig. 4.—A leaf from a Maple tree. People are disconnected from nature, but there is nature in cities that can become a part of everyday life.

26

People living next to Superfund sites like the Gowanus Canal will beneit from an organization that seeks to spread Albercht’s concept of soliphilia. he Gowanus Outdoors Club could be seen as an umbrella organization or as having a mutually beneicial relationship to the preexisting environmental organizations in the area. Participating in ecological activities such as canoeing or planting gardens is good for the mental and physical health. he Gowanus Outdoors Club will ease the pain of people being disconnected from nature by making it easy to incorporate nature into everyday life. here are many ways to celebrate and be grateful to nature. he club’s objective is to amplify what’s working in Gowanus, a neighborhood of early adopters to this notion of soliphilia, and to capture its essence so that the energy of Gowanus can be brought to other places where people are sufering from the environmental degradation around them.

Gowanus was the initial inspiration, but solastalgia is a global phenomenon. And what’s working in Gowanus could be adopted in communities across the globe.

Why, How, and What

he What: Gowanus Outdoors Club and Remediation Clubhouse he mission of he Gowanus Outdoors Club is to bottle up the soliphilia in Gowanus and bring it to more people and places.

It is a speculative concept that has developed through various design lenses and provocations. he goal is to create a replicable template so that other chapters of the club can open up around the country. Today, nearly one in six Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site, so there are a lot of potential members for this club. here are over 1,700 Superfund sites around the country.9 he Gowanus Outdoors Club is for individuals within a community. he belief is that the health of the individual is also dependent on the health of his or her community. It is a business that brings good energy and ethos to the world.

Members will pay to be part of the club and enjoy the beneits of all-youcan-attend events and open access to the clubhouse for co-working or just hanging out. It is also possible to pay for a day pass to the clubhouse or to register for individual events. he club will collaborate with herbalists, yoga teachers, and

other ecologically minded groups in Gowanus to create a full calendar of nature-focused activities. he store will sell products that aid in connecting to nature, like medicine bags, walking sticks, urban clothes that can handle outdoor adventuring, bags for foraging, and various citizen science tools and kits. he café will serve teas, tonics, and snacks that come from nature and have health beneits. Wild teas, kombucha, chia seed pudding, broths, and other medicinal foods will be available. he Gowanus Outdoors Club has a “seventh generation” design principle that is inspired by Native American tradition. When the EPA plans for the future, they make sure something will last for 30 years.

Native Americans believe that we need to make something that will last for seven generations. It is with this belief that he Gowanus Outdoors Club will make decisions.

9 Voosen, Paul. “Wasteland.”

National Geographic. December 2014. Web. Feb. 8, 2015.

Why, How, and What

27

Psychotratica

29

30

“To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Psychology oten informs design. Psychology is the study of how people behave and design oten seeks to change the way people behave. he psychology that informs the Gowanus Outdoors Club is just beginning to become recognized widely. I predict this all will change soon.

Glenn Albrecht coined the term psychoterratica in order to create a framework for the various emerging concepts of nature-related mental distresses. He has collected the various concepts that have been created by a hodgepodge of researchers and philosophers and organized them with the typology of psychoterratica. So far, these distresses are more existential than scientiic. Psychoterratica is not in the dictionary and none of these terms are in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), which is a guidebook for psychologists. he American Psychiatric Association lists more than 300 mental diseases in its DSM. Among the largest categories of the DSM is sex and among the smallest

category is connection to nature. As the late scholar heodore Roszak wrote in Psychology Today in 1996, “he volume contains only one listing remotely connected to nature: seasonal afective disorder, a depressive mood swing occasioned by seasonal changes. Even here, nature comes in second: If the mood swim relects seasonal unemployment, economics takes precedence as a cause.”1 his is still true in 2015 Dysfunctional environmental relations does not even exist as a concept in psychology. But this could start to change with the emergence of ecopsychology.

Ecopsychology “Nature heals” is an ancient insight, but ecopsychologists are inding contemporary ways to apply it. Over a century ago, Emerson lamented that “few adults can see nature” and if they could, then they 1 Roszak, heodore. “he Nature of Sanity.” Psychology Today. January 1, 1996.

Web. March 21, 2015.

Psychoterratica

31

would know to head to the woods to return to reason and faith. heodore Roszak addresses why so few therapists have made so little of this obvious resource. He writes, “When highly stressed people are asked to visualize a soothing scene, nobody imagines a freeway or a shopping mall. Rather images of wilderness, forest, seascape, and starry skies invariably emerge.”2 In taking these experiences seriously, ecopsychologists are broadening the context of mental health to include the natural environment. his, in turn, has two major implications for how we think and talk about climate change and environmental degradation.

For one, it calls into question the scaring, shaming, and blaming tone in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring that environmentalists have adopted. here is evidence that this approach does more harm than good, especially, Roszak writes, “As ecopsychologists suggest, some environmentally destructive behavior bears the earmarks of addiction.” For example, in ecopsychology workshops, people frequently admit they shop when they are depressed and that they go to the mall to be around “happy people.” If overconsumption is an addiction, then shaming the public is worse than futile because, as he writes, “Faced with scolding, addicts oten

resort to denial—or hostility.”3 So the rhetoric around acting ecological has actually been designed wrong. It isn’t creating the behavior change that environmentalists want.

Another implication of ecopsychology is a new rhetoric and set of behaviors around “saving the environment.” Ecopsychology has the potential to open people to our spiritual dependence on nature. So, as Roszak contends, environmental policymakers will “be able to defend the beauties and biodiversity of nature by invoking an environmentally-based deinition of mental health.” In this way, an assault upon endangered species or an old-growth forest becomes an assault on the sanity of people—a community, children, or our species as a whole.

2

3

32

Ibid.

Fig. 5.—Elephants are an endangered species. In ecopsychology, an assault on an endangered species is an assault on the sanity of our species as a whole.

Psychoterratica

Ibid.

he Set of Psychoterratic Diseases Ecopsychologists aim to extend the deinitions of mental health diseases to include the innate biophilic connection people have to nature. For example, the DSM deines “separation anxiety disorder” as “excessive anxiety concerning separation from home and from those to whom the individual is attached.” But, as Roszak contends, “No separation is more pervasive in this Age of Anxiety than our disconnection from the natural world.”

While ecopsychology is most interested in how our ecological disconnection its into existing pathologies, sometimes it takes a new term to introduce a new idea.

In the case of psychoterratica, it takes many terms to overhaul how we have previously been thinking about nature.

Here is the whole set of psychoterratic conditions that have informed the work of this thesis:

“No separation is more pervasive in this Age of Anxiety than our disconnection from the natural world.”

—Theodore Roszak

I. Solastalgia Solastalgia, a term coined by Glenn Albrecht, is the pain or sickness caused by the loss of, or inability to derive, solace connected to the present state of one’s home environment.

Solastalgia exists when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under assault. It is an existential condition

Psychoterratica

Fig. 6.—Even a small scale event like the loss of a farmhouse can result in solastalgia.

33

Biophobia

Solastalgia

An aversion to nature. It ranges from discomfort in “natural” places to active scorn for whatever isn’t manmade, managed, or airconditioned.

he pain or sickness caused by the loss of, or inability to derive, solace connected to the present state of one’s home environment.

It’s a feeling of nostalgia for a place one never left.

Eco-paralysis

Ecophobia

he sense that all these issues are too big to solve so we might as well do nothing.

34

he fear or hatred of ecology or the environment, involving a denial of the value of biodiversity, the physicality of the earth and the processes that make life possible.

Nature Deicit Disorder

he negative impacts of withdrawal from nature and natural processes.

Eco-anxiety

A non-speciic worry about our relationship to support environments in the twenty-irst century.

Generational Environmental Amnesia

A condition that results as people construct a conception of what is environmentally normal based on the natural world encountered in childhood even though itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been degraded over time.

Global Dread

he anticipation of a future state of the world that produces a mixture of terror and sadness in the suferer for those who will exist within such a state.

35

and not a medical one, but can be seen as a precursor to depression.

For example, citizens and communities experience severe impacts from open caste mining.

Dust, noise, machines, explosions and pollution all have their efects and a once much loved landscape can be dramatically transformed to the point where people feel a severe sense of loss of place. Smaller scale events like the loss of a much-loved farmhouse or garden can also cause people to fall into a solastalgically induced depression and illness.4 People who live near Superfund sites are especially prone to solastalgia.

III. Eco-Paralysis Eco-paralysis, also coined

by Albrecht, appears as apathy, complacency or disengagement with reality as it unfolds, but the detachment people feel may well be psychoterratic, earth-related mental health distress, rather than an active decision to do nothing. It’s that sense that all these issues are too big to solve so we might as well do nothing.7 Example: Eco-paralysis has important political implications when considered from a whole societal perspective that can prevent change and a movement toward sustainability.8

II. Eco-Anxiety he irst recorded instance of the word “Eco-anxiety” was in an article from he Washington Post in1990 by journalist Lisa Lef. he term refers to the non-speciic worry about our relationship to support environments in the twenty-irst century. It is generated daily by the delivery of information and images about negative trends concerning the environment and the climate.5 Example: In a Newsweek article from 2006, William Underhill writes about the SUV’s questionable image in an age of eco-anxiety.6 4 Albrecht, Glenn. “Solastalgia.”

Psychoterratica.com. Web. March 28, 2015 5 Ibid.

6 Underhill, William. “When is big

36

IV. Generational, Environmental Amnesia Generational, Environmental Amnesia is a term coined by Peter Kahn, Jr. Ph.D, a professor in the department of psychology at he University of Washington. It’s a condition that results as that people construct a conception of what is environmentally normal based on the natural world encountered in their too big?” Newsweek. December 17, 2006. Web. March 28, 2015.

7 Albrecht, Glenn. “he Language Grows.” Psychoterratica.com.

8 Kahn, Peter H., et al.

Ecopsychology: Science, Totems, and Technological Species. MIT 2012.

Psychoterratica

childhood. he theory is that with each ensuing generation, the amount of environmental degradation can increase, but each generation tends to take that degraded condition, as the normal experience.9 Example: In his research, Kahn interviewed children in innercity Houston, Texas about their environmental views and values. A signiicant number of the children interviewed understood the idea of air pollution, but they did not believe that Houston had such a problem even though the city was then (and still remains) one of the most polluted in the country. Kahn interprets this to mean that the children may have lacked a baseline from places with less pollution, so they did not recognize that Houston was a polluted city.10

Fig. 7.—A bullseye rash is a marker of lyme disease. Fear of lyme disease can result in ecophobia.

V. Biophobia Biophobia is an aversion to nature. It ranges from discomfort in “natural” places to active scorn for whatever isn’t manmade, managed, or air-conditioned. It is a culturally acquired urge to ailiate with technology and human artifacts.11 9 Kahn, Peter H. “Why Do We Destroy he Nature We Love?” Psychology Today. September 7, 2009. Web. March 30, 2015.

10 Ibid.

11 Orr, David. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human

Psychoterratica

37

“Our team has mused that people badly afected by solastalgia would beneit from a set of professionally developled diagnostic tools so that solastalgia could be listed as a condtion that requires diagnosis and professional attention.”

—Glenn Albrecht

Example: Woody Allen once famously said, “I am at two with nature.”12 Allen does not like to go to lakes because there are living things there.

VI. Ecophobia Ecophobia is the fear or hatred of ecology or the environment, involving a denial of the value of biodiversity, the physicality of the earth and the processes that make life possible.

Example: Fear of oil spills, rainforest destruction, whale hunting, acid rain, the ozone hole, and Lyme disease. Fear of just being outside.

Educator David Sobel believes that these phobias stem from prematurely asking children to deal with problems beyond their understanding and control.13 VII. Global Dread Global dread is the anticipation of a future state of the world that produces a mixture of terror and sadness in the suferer for those who will exist within such a state.

Prospect. Island, 2004.

12 Lax, Eric. Woody Allen: A Biography. First Da Capo, 1991.

13 Sobel, David. “Beyond Ecophobia.”

Yes Magazine. November 2, 1998. Web. March 20, 2015.

38

Psychoterratica

Example: Naomi Klein writes about global dread in her ambitious polemic his Changes Everything: Capitalism VS. he Climate. “It is the Whole Earth which is now a home under assault,” she writes.14 She says that a feeling of global dread “asserts itself” as our climate gets more hostile and unpredictable.

VIII. Nature Deicit Disorder Nature Deicit Disorder is the negative impacts of withdrawal from nature and natural processes.

Richard Louv and many others point out that the epidemics of obesity and ADD are closely related to the disconnection now well established between children and ecosocialization.

Example: Psychologist Susan Bodnar Ph.D. has found in her work that certain destructive behaviors, like drinking and dissociative materialism, are an efect of young adults who have moved to cities and become disconnected from nature.15 None of these psychoterratic terms are in the DSM yet. hey aren’t clinical. But that doesn’t mean they 14 Klein, Naomi. his Changes Everything: Capitalism VS. he Climate.

Simon & Schuster. November, 2014.

15 Bodnar, Susan Ph.D. “Wasted and Bombed: Clinical Enactments of a Changing Relationship to the Earth.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 18: 484-503, 2008.

don’t express the way that people are feeling. In a 2008 interview for worldchanging.com, Glenn Albrecht says about solastalgia, “Our team has mused that people badly afected by solastalgia would beneit from a set of professionally developed diagnostic tools so that solastalgia could be listed as a condition that requires diagnosis and professional attention. We’re happy for other people to take that challenge up and there are some academic psychiatrists who are interested in exploring these ideas further.”16 Albrecht goes on to say that solastalgia is an existential condition and not the same as clinical depression, but it could be a precursor to serious psychic disturbance.

Albrecht is developing a typology for the full set of psychoterratic diseases.

In interviews I conducted about this work, it seems that people are almost thankful for the terms, as if they are giving them a language to express something they otherwise could not.

For example, upon hearing about nature related mental health conditions, Liam McDonnell who recently moved to New York City from Oakland, California, started to nod his head. “I didn’t realize how bad the drought in California was afecting me until I came to New 16 Khanna, Sanjay. “What Does Climate Change Do to Our Heads?”

Worldchanging. March 2008. Web. March 22, 2015.

Psychoterratica

39

York and there was a rain storm. I almost cried.” McDonnell says now when he goes back to California he notices that people seem on edge.

What McDonnell is referring to is same condition that Mark Morford called the “California Water Anxiety Syndrome” in an article for he San Francisco Chronicle from March 2015. He writes, “Of course, that sinking feeling to trump all sinking feelings, that sour know in the pit of the collective stomach, unnerving and strange, and let’s just admit it, unutterably depressing.”17 California is running out of water and the ramiications of that are real.

Soliphilia So what can we do about psychoterratic diseases? Luckily, Glenn Albrecht has a solution for that, too. He coined the term soliphilia to mean a state that results in positive energy to collaborate and work together to heal a community, bioregion, or the Earth. his term resonates because it has to. here’s no other choice.

As Glenn Abrecht says, “Positive outcomes from the negative experience of solastalgia [and other psychoterratic conditions] stem irstly from the recognition of the 17 Morford, Mark. “California Water Anxiety Syndrome: Feel It Yet?” he San Francisco Chronicle. March 17, 2015. Web. March 22, 2015.

40

psychoterratic cause of the distress.”18 here’s empowerment in the acknowledgement of issues that need to be addressed. And a commitment to engage in action to support distressed people and heal distressed environments is itself healing.

Albrecht practiced this in his own life by working to restore a wetland.

And in Australia, voluntary land care groups ofer mutual support for each other and engage in direct action to restore and repair of distressed environments.

Helen Berry, a psychiatric epidemiologist at the University of Canberra has written 27 papers and book chapters on the connection between mental health and climate change in Australia.

Berry has documented increased levels of distress in both young people and farmers in droughtafected areas. In her scientiic studies, she has seen a sense of despair, but also, as Joanna Silberner writes in Grist, “an enthusiasm for reconnecting with the land.”19 Berry has noticed that when people take action to restore the environment, it energizes them and lessens their anxiety.

18 Albrecht, Glenn. “Solastalgia.”

Psychoterratica.com 2013. Web. March 23, 2015.

19 Silberner, Joanna. “What is climate change doing to our mental health?” Grist.org.

July 28, 2014. Web. March 23, 2015.

Psychoterratica

Albrecht has witnessed this phenomenon among indigenous communities in Northern Australia.

He writes that they have been able to achieve important advances in human health while at the same time actively repairing their damaged biophysical environment.20 It is clear to Albrecht that good human health (mental and physical) is intimately connected to overall ecosystem health.

Albrecht believes that soliphilia is a positive state that can be nurtured for everyone. He writes on his website Psychoterratica.com, “Many people sense that something is wrong with our relationship with the planet and their unease just might be an expression of deep-seated solastalgia about non-sustainability. he intense desire to be organically connected to life and living landscapes is, in part, a desire to overcome solastalgia by inding an earthly ‘home’ in the connection with living things and life processes on this planet.”21 We can reconnect with nature to overcome the distress we feel of seeing a community or bioregion change. hat, combined with a commitment to work towards

policy-wide changes, is the way that we will improve our physical and mental health, and continue to exist and prosper.

In research for this thesis, it has become clear that Gowanus is a case study for soliphilia, for people coming together to reimagine and place and then work towards policywide changes.

20 Albrecht, Glenn. “Solastalgia.”

Psychoterratica.com 2013. Web. March 23, 2015.

21 ibid.

Psychoterratica

Fig. 8.— Cattails are wetland plants. Glenn Albrecht practiced soliphilia in his own life by working to restore a wetland.

41

A Primr on Gowanus

43

44

“The Gowanus Canal is a crime scene. If you know you’ve got a crime, you have to ask what caused it.”

—Eymund Diegel

History of Gowanus It’s important to start from the very beginning to understand Gowanus. Gowanus is one of the oldest neighborhoods in New York City. he history of this small neighborhood parallels the history of the United States. Its future could parallel the future of the United States.

Native Americans were the irst inhabitants of the area, then a tidal inlet in a series of small creeks in the original saltwater marshland of South Brooklyn.1 he Gowanus tidal estuary provided rich hunting and ishing grounds.2 It is most likely that the name Gowanus come from chief Gowane, the leader of the local Algonquin-speaking Native American tribe known as he Canarsees.

In 1636, Dutch settlers made an 1 he Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. “Gowanus Canal History.” Web. March 18, 2015. < http://www.gowanuscanal.org/ history.html> 2 Hall of the Gowanus Digital Library. Web. March 18, 2015. <http://issuu. com/proteusgowanus/docs/gowanus_history_presentation_inal_lowres >

initial purchase near Gowanus Bay and three years later, the earliest recorded sale was made between settlers: land for a tobacco plantations. hroughout the 1600s, Dutch farmers who settled along the banks of the Gowanus ished for oysters, which were recorded as being nearly a foot long, and shipped them by the barrel back to Europe, making Gowanus oysters Brooklyn’s irst export.3 By the mid-17th century, the Dutch had taken over all of the Native American land in the area and illed in many of the wetlands to create farm ields. In the 1660s, the English took over the Dutch settlements. And by the mid-19th century, the city of Brooklyn was the third-largest and fastest-growing city in America.4 3 he Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. “Gowanus Canal History.”

4 Milner, Dorothy, et al. Gowanus Canal Corridor Historic Building Study. Columbia University. Spring 2008. Web. March 18, 2015 < http://issuu.com/proteusgowanus/ docs/2008_gowanus_corridor_historic_buildings_-_columbi>

A Primer on Gowanus

45

Fig. 9.—he oysters that the Dutch settlers ished from the Gowanus Canal and shipped to Europe were recorded as being nearly a foot long.

Fig. 10.—Much of the materials used to build “Brownstone Brooklyn” were brought in by barges on the Gowanus Canal.

46

As residential building increased the property value around the creek, there became a need for greater navigability. In 1849, New York State Legislature authorized funds and Major David B. Douglass from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was hired to design the canal.5 he 1.8-mile canal was completed by 1869 and by 1886 the entire area had been massively transformed.

Meanwhile, the population of Brooklyn more than doubled between 1855 and 1880 from 205,250 to 566,663 inhabitants and much of the materials used to build the surrounding neighborhoods, known as “Brownstone Brooklyn,” were brought in on barges along the Gowanus Canal.6 Between 1915 and 1950, the Gowanus Canal was the busiest commercial canal in the country. he Gowanus Canal also quickly earned the reputation for being the most polluted canal in the country. Factories dumped raw sewage and waste directly into the canal. By the end of the nineteenth century, the canal became a rank repository of waste and had earned the nickname Lavender Lake for its purplish hue.7 5 ibid.

6 Verel, Patrick. “he Gowanus Canal: A Waterway Steeped in History.” he Sixth Borough: Redeining Brooklyn’s Waterfront.

Web. March 18, 2015. < http://thesixthborough.weebly.com/the-history-of-gowanus.html> 7 he Gowanus Dredgers Canoe

A Primer on Gowanus

By 1911, the stink of the canal could no longer be ignored.

A lushing tunnel was built to push the putrid stagnant waters of the canal into the harbor. his made the environmental problems out of smell, out of mind for a few more decades. he canal began its decline in the 1950s. he nearby Gowanus/ Brooklyn-Queens Expressway became a more cost-efective way to transport materials. In 1961, the lushing station broke and the canal was basically abandoned for the next 37 years.8 he 1970s brought a new sense of urbanism and environmentalism to the neighborhoods of the Gowanus. his new awareness of environmental issues became the driving force for the revival of the Gowanus Canal.

In 1989, he Red Hook Wastewater Treatment Facility was constructed so raw sewage would no longer be dumped directly into the canal. One of the steps to reviving the canal was to reinstate the lushing tunnel. A decade later, in the spring of 1999, the lushing tunnel was inally repaired and now the entire volume of water is replaced six times daily. he reactivation of the lushing tunnel has reduced the stench that was long associated with the area and has brought back some wildlife, such as geese, horseshoe crabs, shrimps, and

Fig. 11.—Horseshoe crabs (above) along with geese, crabs, shrimp, and mussels began to return to the canal after the lushing tunnel was repaired in 1999.

Fig. 12.—he Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club started ofering free rides along the canal in 1999.

Club. “Gowanus Canal History.” Web. 8 ibid.

A Primer on Gowanus

47

mussels to the watershed. 9 he celebration of the reopening of the Gowanus Canal Pumping Station was also the kickof event for Place in History’s installation of ten red steel viewing boxes along the railings of the Union Street Bridge.10 he boxes contain slides illustrating aspects of the canal’s industrial heyday.

With the wastewater treatment facility and the reactivation of the lushing tunnel, the environmental issues of the canal were held at bay, but certainly not fully addressed. he underlying sediment hadn’t been dredged since 1975 and remained extremely toxic and contaminated.

Still, the surrounding neighborhood began to lourish. In the late 1970s, artists began to notice the spacious lots and cheap rent in Gowanus. hey moved in next to mechanics, textile manufacturers, and storage warehouses. At this time, Gowanus was desolate, dangerous, and visibly more polluted. here was nowhere to get a cup of cofee or a newspaper. Drugs and prostitution were rampant. he artists avoided leaving their studios ater dark. As artist and gallery manager Mary Negro writes in her paper, one artist, 9 ibid.

10 Cravens, Curtis and Tina Chiu, et al. “Copper on the Creek: Reclaiming an Industrial History.”

48

Susan Robbins, said that the smell of the canal was so powerful she avoided the F train because during the few minutes when the tracks were elevated over the canal, riders’ stomachs would churn.11 Spacious, afordable art studios were the bright spot in an otherwise unsavory environment.

In 1999, he Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club started ofering free canoe rides along the canal. heir mission is to restore the once neglected canal back to the oystersupporting waterway that the Canarsees once enjoyed.12 Gowanus Today he transformation of Gowanus really began in the early 2000s as large, glassy apartments began to sprout up on Fourth Avenue, one of the oldest roads in Brooklyn and the boundary between the well-established Park Slope and Gowanus. Since 2006, there has been a debate on a new zoning proposal that would transition Gowanus from a manufacturing zone to a mixed use/residential zone.13 here are 11 Negro, Mary. “Deining Gowanus: A Look into the History, Present Concerns and Uncertain Future of an Arts Neighborhood in New York City.” 2014.

12 he Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. “Gowanus Canal History.” Web. 13 Negro, Mary. “Deining Gowanus: A Look into the History, Present Concerns and Uncertain Future of an Arts Neighborhood in New York City.” 2014

A Primer on Gowanus

strong supporters on either side of the “The point of growth debate. Brad Lander, the New York must always come from City Council member who represents the water. Focus on the Gowanus, is leading an efort to rezone waterway and the land the neighborhood for mixed-use will follow suit. This is development.

In 2010, the Environmental always the order.”

Protection Agency declared the canal —Clif Matias a Superfund site, opening the door for a massive he $500Gowanus million cleanup Canalthat became a Superfund site in 2010 and is will inally dredge the sludge from the now part of what the Environmental Protection Agency describes as bottom of the canal. “the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex Chemical engineer Christos uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.”

Tsiamis is the project manager in he program was born out of the Comprehensive Environmental charge of determining just how Response, Compensation contaminated the canal is andand howLiability Act in 1980, largely in response to Love Canal, a toxic waste site in Niagara Falls, New York. to clean it up. When asked how bad While originally there were only the Gowanus is, he said, “here is on thought to be a couple of Superfund sites across there are average aboutthe 10 country, feet of sediment thatactually over a thousand polluted has accumulated of industrial places that havebecause been declared as Superfund sites. hese industrial waste and New Yorkthe City discharge. byproducts afect entire American landscape. he colorAs is like lava, really Harvard Lawblack…and Professor Richard Lazarus explains, in the it has the texture of thick mayonnaise, beginning, there were lots of leaks and ires, but over time a lot of so it’s very unpleasant stuf. It’s a cleanup has happened. “We don’t create Superfund sites like we used mixture of products…you don’t know to,” he said. According to him, the problem isn’t gone, but it has been what it is.”14 Tsiamis had the creative addressed by either cleanups or containment remedies. idea for disposing the sludge by taking canal has an averAnd while Superfund has worked to Fig.13.—he clean up 380 the lava and turning it into glass cubes. age of 10 feet of industrial waste contaminated sites United States, theresediment is still that a question of what As far as thein lawthe goes, has accumulated cleanup means.

Forare example, hazardous waste sites regulatedaccording to Bonnie over theBellow, years andthe nowformer needs to be cleaned. under Superfund lawAfairs (he at the EPA, the EPA Director of Public plans for thirty years Comprehensive when it designsEnvironmental cleanup regimens for Superfund sites. Alternatively, Response, Compensation Liability Native Americans have and a seven-generation standard—the idea that Act or CERCLA).

Water quality decisions should be consideredis for the impact on the seventh generation regulated under the Clean Water

Superfund

to come.

14 Gootman, Elissa. “Cleaning a Canal, but Not Writing About It.” he New York Times. March 15, 2010. Web.

49

50

51

Superfund! he Gowanus Canal became a Superfund site and is now part of what the Environmental Protection Agency describes as “the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.” he program was born out of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act in 1980, largely in response to Love Canal, a toxic waste site in Niagara Falls, New York.

While originally there were only thought to be a couple of Superfund sites across the country, there are actually over a thousand polluted places that have been declared as Superfund sites. hese industrial byproducts afect the entire American landscape.

As Harvard Law Professor Richard Lazarus explains, in the beginning, there were lots of leaks and ires, but over time a lot of cleanup has happened since the program started. “We don’t create Superfund sites like we used to,” he said. According to him, the problem isn’t gone, but it has been addressed by either cleanups or containment remedies.

And while Superfund has worked to clean up 380 contaminated sites in the United States, there is still a question of what cleanup means. For example, according to Bonnie Bellow, the former Director of Public Afairs at the EPA, the EPA plans for thirty years when it designs cleanup regimens for Superfund sites. Alternatively, Native Americans have a seven-generation standard—the idea that decisions should be considered for the impact on the seventh generation to come.

52

Act. Sewage discharges into bodies of water are not considered hazardous waste under CERCLA, although they are deinitely polluting. New York City has entered into a long-standing agreement with New York State for the city to address combined sewage discharges (CSOs), including into the Gowanus. But, as Bonnie Bellow explains in an interview, “From a regulatory perspective, under a Superfund agreement, it’s diicult to require parties responsible for a hazardous waste cleanup to also address sewage discharges.”15 he main focus is the cleanup of the Gowanus Canal is the contaminated sediment in the canal. he EPA made a strong and innovative case that the sewage lowing into the canal from the CSOs was carrying toxic substances picked up from the contaminated land along the canal. he argument was that the discharges would continue to re-contaminate the canal and would not allow for an efective cleanup.

New York City argued that it was addressing CSOs under its Clean Water Act agreement with New York State and lobbied heavily against any requirement for a CSO cleanup in the inal Record of Decision for the site. In the end, EPA prevailed and the inal agreement with the city under Superfund requires an estimated 58 15 2015.

“The Gowanus is a watershed. But it’s also a people shed.

People and ideas low down the hills into the Gowanus. How do we catch that?”

—Curtis Cravens

Interview with the author. April

A Primer on Gowanus

53

percent to 74 percent reduction in sewage solids going into the canal.

Some people were more excited about the Superfund status of the Gowanus Canal than others.

As a city councilman, Bill de Blassio objected to the declaration of the canal as a Superfund site and supported development along the canal. As a mayoral candidate, he took money from developers interested in the shoreline of Gowanus.16 However, some residents, such as Marlene Donnelly, a member of the activist group Friends of the Greater Gowanus, which fought for the Superfund delegation, were so excited they had a party to celebrate.17 Defeating the mayor gave Donnelly hope for the world.

By 2010, Gowanus was already a veritable hip neighborhood.

A New York Times article from June 2, 2010 called, “Superfun Site” lists some of the happenings in Gowanus including the art gallery Proteus Gowanus with a room dedicated to the Gowanus Canal, ilm screenings on the roof of the Old American Can Factory, and boat rides every Wednesday and Sunday with the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. Making the Gowanus Canal

a Superfund site gave it a badge of honor. As Matt Gross writes in he New York Times, “he half-empty warehouses and semi-derelict factories — for so long seen as post-industrial blight — now give Gowanus a special cultural edge, like a miniature Baltimore or Detroit (with terrifying pollution substituting for terrifying crime).”18 And these days, there’s even more going on in Gowanus. A slew of restaurants, bars, and cultural spaces have opened including a rock climbing gym, a shuleboard bar, and a museum of morbid anatomy. And Whole Foods, which has a knack for identifying neighborhoods on the verge of “gentriication,” opened its irst Brooklyn location in Gowanus in 2014. he Future of Gowanus

16 Laskow, Sarah. “Smells Like Amenity.” Capital New York. August 1, 2014. Web 17 Gross, Matt. “Celebration at the Edge of Decay.” he New York Times. June 2,

he Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club is adamant about waterfront access for the public.

Owen Foote, the treasurer of the club, has been going out on the canal in a canoe twice a week for about twenty years. Foote bemoans the fact that the new Whole Foods built a big parking lot on the waterfront and that there isn’t a dock in front of it for people in canoes to pull up and buy some groceries. he Dredgers’ boathouse is now

2010. Web.

18

54

A Primer on Gowanus

ibid.

part of the lot that Lightstone Group is developing into apartments for rent. However, according to the project’s architect, Lee Weintraub, there will be a boathouse in the new building. “here’s bicycle parking in every building so there should be canoe parking, too,” Foote said in an interview that was conducted in a canoe on the canal. here’s a lot of real estate development in the works in Gowanus. Some people believe that Gowanus is the next SoHo or Williamsburg of New York City. As Ronda Kaysen writes for he New York Times, “But two unyielding realities have kept it of the map: he canal is among the most polluted in the country, and the area is zoned for manufacturing, limiting residential growth. Soon that could change.”19 It is more than a cleaner canal and newfound housing availability that is making Gowanus so desirable for New York City residents. he neighborhood has easy transportation and minimal crime. Residents are walking distance from Prospect Park, he Barclays Center, and countless popular bars and restaurants.20 Not to mention Gowanus itself has a much sought-ater artistic vibe and new bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues opening all the time. In about 25 years,

“If the future brings less access [to the canal], not more, that’s a dismal future.”

—Owen Foote

19 Kaysen, Ronda. “Gowanus Is Counting On Cleanup.” he New York Times.

20 Negro, Mary.

A Primer on Gowanus

55

the neighborhood of Gowanus went from virtually empty to middle class to high-end luxury, making it one of the most dramatic increases for real estate development across New York City.

Longtime residents are wary of these changes. Artists are concerned that they will get priced out and forced out of the neighborhood. As Gowanus gallerist who wrote her Master’s paper about Gowanus as an arts neighborhood Mary Negro writes, others are concerned for the environment and asking questions like, “Should more homes be built in a lood zone? Should more people move in before the Superfund project is complete? Sewage already overlows into the canal. Will the problem get worse?”21 hese were some of the questions that designers and community advocates discussed at he Gowanus Design Summit in Fall 2014, which I attended as part of my research. he Gowanus Canal Conservancy, a nonproit that does a lot of ecological projects such as planting wildlowers and composting along the canal, hosted the event. he all-day design summit kicked of with a keynote speech

by Adrian Benepe, a Senior Vice President and Director of City Park Development for the Trust for Public Land. Benepe talked about 21

56

Ibid.

the historic canals of New York City.

He talked about the “urban alchemy” of turning “bad places into good ones” and recycling landscapes like the Highline. He sees New York as a “design avatar, ” or example, for other places in the United States and other countries.

Susan Drake, the Principal at DLandStudio has been planning the Gowanus Sponge Park, a pollution-preventing greenspace that ilters storm water, for eight years. he plants and soils in the design draw heavy metals and biological toxins out of contaminated water. It is slated to inally happen in Spring 2015. he design community of Gowanus has expressed the need for some design principles for the development of the canal and community so that things don’t continue to happen on an ad hoc basis. If the community is organized, they believe they can have more control over the future of Gowanus.

Councilman Brad Lander said that the community needs, “Something more thoughtful and coherent, not just a shuleboard bar and then a parole building.” Similarly, the Executive Director of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy Andrea Parker said at the Gowanus Design Summit, “We’ve entered an era of development. It’s currently siteby-site development and without a comprehensive plan, we could lose the

unique character of Gowanus.”

It’s possible to imagine a future where Gowanus is a little bit like Venice, with little waterfront promenades that could connect to each other and pass by buildings with storefronts and design studios. But, as Laskow writes, “It’s also easy to imagine a series of disjointed, privately owned public spaces that don’t add up to anything.”22 Public oicials, developers, and community activists are currently deliberating over perhaps the most basic question about Gowanus’ future, which is what purpose the canal is going to serve. his seems to be soliphilia in action. It’s not an easy process, but it is happening. Only time will tell if Gowanus can manage to be a model for soliphilia or if it will go on a more traditional path towards gentriication.

Fig. 14.—he plants and soils in the design for the Gowanus Sponge Park are remediating in that they draw heavy metals and toxins out of the canal water.

22

Laskow, Sarah.

57

Fig. 15.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;X marks the spot for a bridge in Gowanus.

58

A Primer on Gowanus

Fig. 16.â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Owen Foote from the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club placed this canoe in the canal as he was preparing for an afternoon boat ride and tour of the area.

A Primer on Gowanus

59

Audience and Mrket

61

62

“The environment isn’t over here. The environment isn’t over there. You are the environment.”

—Chief Oren Lyons

Design is fundamentally for people. And for this thesis, design is also for a place. Nature is the place all around us. A guiding question for the impact and market of this thesis is: How do you design for both people and the environment?

Designing for People in Nature Designing for people and the environment does not mean designing for two diferent sets of needs. he problem is that in recent history, people, especially in urban areas, have become disconnected from the nature they exist within. his disconnection has been proven to have an efect on human wellbeing. Ecopsychoanalysis is a new transdisciplinary approach that draws on a range of ields including psychoanalysis, psychology, ecology, philosophy, science, complexity theory, esthetics, and humanity.1 he goal is to emphasize how the 1 Dodds, Joseph. “Minding the ecological body: nueropsychoanalysis and ecopsychoanalysis.” Frontiers in Psychology. 25 March 2013.

health of the mind, body, and brain is connected to social and ecological networks.

As H. Searles irst wrote in Psychology Review in 1972, “An ecologically healthy relatedness to our non-human environment is essential to the development of our sense of being human.” 2 his sense has become so disrupted and distorted with the ecological deterioration that it has efected what it means for us to be human.

Journalist Richard Louv coined the term “Nature-Deicit Disorder” to describe, as he writes in his book, Last Child In he Woods, the “Human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention diiculties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness. his disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.”3 If this disorder 2 Searles, H. “Unconscious processes in relation to the environmental crisis.” Psychology Review. 1972.

3 Louv, Ricard. Last Child in the Woods. Saving our children from nature deicit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin. 2006.

Audience and Market

63

“An ecologically healthy relatedness to our nonhuman environment is essential fo the development of our sense of being human.”

- H. Searles

is caused by not being in nature, then it would seem that reconnecting individuals, families, and communities to nature can counteract it.

By now it is common knowledge that our current environmental crisis was both brought upon by and has created a disturbed relationship to our Earth. However, In Wasted and Bombed: Clinical Enactments of a Changing Relationship to the Earth, psychologist Susan Bodnar, Ph.D, contends that there are human behavior and psyche ramiications to this altered relationship to the natural environment. As she writes, “I believe that one factor…relates to changing technologies that have altered our relationship to nature, an arrhythmia that underlies the heart disease of our nation, as well as some individuals.”4 Technology has so far made us more disconnected from nature and from natural rhythms.

Children are spending less time than ever outside. In a 2010 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, Tamar Lewin found that the average young American spends practically every waking moment (except for time in school) using a smartphone, computer, television or electronic device.5 his is such a 4 Bodnar, Susan Ph.D. “Wasted and Bombed: Clinical Enactments of a Changing Relationship to the Earth.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues (2008), 18: 484-512 5 Lewin, Tamar. “If Your Kids Are

64

Audience and Market

new phenomenon that we don’t yet fully understand its repercussions.

However, psychologists like Bodnar are already seeing the efects of disassociation from the natural world on young adults.

Bodnar has found that certain destructive behaviors, like drinking and dissociative materialism are examples of a changing relationship between people and their ecosystem.

Nature is important for child development and for psychological balance for adults. Even something as simple as a walk in the woods triggers human participation in a “larger system of biological life and stabilized the human psyche,” writes Bodnar.

As Joseph Dodds writes in Frontiers in Psychology, children oten build special shelters such as tree houses. hese shelters become their secret spaces of childhood and help with psychological development. If nature is available, Sobel contends that these places, “Also bring us close to the earth and nature in ways that can engender a lifelong love for both.”6 If there are no natural environments available, these games will play out in basements, alleyways, or abandoned warehouses.

Most people can dissociate Awake, hey are Probably Online.” he New York Times. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.

6 Dodds, Joseph. “Minding the ecological body: nueropsychoanalysis and ecopsychoanalysis.” Frontiers in Psychology. 25 March 2013

Audience and Market

Fig. 17.—A treehouse, like the ones that children often build.

Secret spaces help with psychological development and if it’s in nature—can foster a lifelong connection to the earth.

65

with nature and still carry on their lives, but not everyone. It seems that a connection to nature is more important for some people. Bondar writes about one extreme of someone who sufers from the pace of “our technology-dependent world” and “can’t see some of the damage being done to the earth and not feel pain.” he people in that extreme scenario are the early adopters to the principles of he Gowanus Outdoors Club. he Total Addressable Market Some places are more conducive to a connection to nature than others. Urban areas are traditionally thought of as being disconnected from nature, but that way of thinking is fundamentally outdated. According to Glen MacDonald, the John Muir Memorial Chair and Distinguished Professor of Biology at UCLA, the conservationists of the twentyirst century will be city kids. As he writes for Zocalo Public Square, membership in environmental advocacy groups such as the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy is overwhelmingly white and aging. he average age of new members to the Nature Conservancy is 62. So MacDonald writes, if we want to “preserve America’s appreciation for nature and support for wilderness preservation, we must focus on cities

66

and those who live in them.”7 John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, had a diferent target market. He was preaching to a group of wealthy whites who could aford to disengage from the cities whenever they wanted.

As MacDonald argues, nature conservation needs a paradigm shit. Investment in conservation and nature means investing in urban parks and gardens in cities and to create programs that facilitate immersion. he issue of disassociation from nature extends beyond the city. Superfund sites are an extreme example because these are sites that have literally been designated as being toxic and dangerous. here are more than 1,700 Superfund sites across that nation, but no one really talks about Superfund anymore. he urgency that was felt about Superfund Sites during the 1970s is no longer apparent. he government has found ways to contain, control, and clean many of the sites. Paul Voosen quoted William Suk, who has directed the National Institutes of Health’s Superfund Research Program since its inception in the 1980s, in National Geographic. Suk said, “Superfund sites have entered a mostly benign but lingering state, dwarfed in the public’s eye by issues like climate change.”8 7 MacDonald, Glen. “he Next John Muir is Chasing Butterlies in the Heart of L.A.” Zocalo Public Square. Web. 8 Voosen, Paul. “Wasteland.” Na-

Audience and Market

By elevating this discussion, and giving people tools to interact with the Superfund sit near them, we could improve the lives of 49 million Americans.

Current Target Market his thesis is grounded in Gowanus and the primary audience is residents of Gowanus, the small neighborhood with a rich history, nestled between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn. As mentioned in the chapter A Primer on Gowanus, there are many groups such as Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Gowanus Alliance, and Friends of Greater Gowanus that are working towards particular group’s needs. hese groups are some of the stakeholders of this thesis and will be involved in the outcome, but they do not represent everyone in Gowanus. And this thesis doesn’t end at the neighborhood boundaries of Gowanus.

Gowanus is a microcosm. he community encapsulates in miniature the characteristics of something much bigger. he issues of environmental degradation, postindustrial economies, and lux are concentrated in Gowanus and are representative of some of the most pressing urban issues today.

“If we want to preserve America’s appreciate for nature and support for wilderness preservation, we focus on cities and those who live in them.”

—Glen MacDonald

Fig. 18.—A butterly catcher.

Glen MacDonald belives that it’s the kids in cities catching butterlies who will be future conservationists.

tional Geographic. December 2014. Web. Feb. 8, 2015.

Audience and Market

67

Fig. 19. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A map of the Gowanus Open Studios in 2014. Gowanus has a thriving arts scene that is now afraid of being priced out as the neighborhood changes.

68

Audience and Market

Fig. 20.â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Elizabeth Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Reilly has been painting the post-indutrial, toxic meets beautiful, Gowanus Canal for over twenty years.

Audience and Market

69

Fig. 21.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Delicious, healthy juices. Urban Adventurers have jumped on the juice craze and know they were around the workout scene. hey are proactively trying to feel better.

In the past couple of years, Americans have been moving back into cities. In 2013, there were 2.3 million more people living in urban areas than in 2012. his number is mostly derived from migration into cities and not an increase in birthrate in cities.9 he issues of resilience and remediation that are important in Gowanus will be important across the country. With the urbanization of America, we will need to reclaim contaminated land and ind new uses for post-industrial places.

In biology, an experimental microcosm is a testing ground. In design, a microcosm is the place equivalent of personas. If a design works for a representative community, then according to difusion theory of innovation, which seeks to explain why and how certain ideas and technologies spread across culture, it has potential to work in other places. he Personas for he Gowanus Outdoors Club Personas are archetypes that are important throughout the design process. hey are based on research and help to make sure the designs actually serve people. he following personas have guided the design work for he Gowanus 9 Wescott, Lucy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;More Americans Moving to Cities, Reversing the Suburban Exodus.â&#x20AC;? he Atlantic: he Wire, 27 March 2014.

Web.

70

Audience and Market

Outdoors Club. All of them have some sort of psychoterratic ailment and could beneit from soliphilia.

In researching for personas, it’s always a good idea to look at extremes and then design for the extremes. In this case, at one extreme is people who have no idea they are sufering from a detachment for nature and natural cycles and the other extreme is people who are extremely connected to nature and are aware of how environmental degradation and climate change are afecting them.he former extreme are classiied as “he Oblivious.”

In the latter extreme are the climate scientists. hey are the researchers, scientists, journalists, and activists that have been struggling with grief around climate change. Joe Duggan, a science communicator, runs the blog “Is his How You Feel?” He asks scientists to pen letters about how they feel about climate change. he responses are fascinating and range from frustration to anger, fear, and even hope.10 What’s most interesting is that scientists feel like no one else has asked them about how they feel about their indings. Duggan is addressing the psychoterratic distress -- the mental health efects of climate change.

Scientists were not originally envisioned as the audience for the Gowanus Outdoors Club, but there

is no reason why the oferings could not be adapted to their needs, too. For now, this extreme user is classiied as a “Biophiliac.”

10 Duggan, Joe. “he Scientists.” Is his How You Feel. Web. April 2, 2015. < http:// isthishowyoufeel.weebly.com/this-is-how-scientists-feel.html>

Biophiliacs are people who already act and think ecologically (his is known as biophilia). hey might

Persona: Urban Adventurer Need: Spend more time in nature he urban adventurer is a city dweller who oten feels the need to get away. hey are sensitive to their environment and are overwhelmed by environmental degradation. hey feel the need for some sort of break and are always seeking new remedies. he urban adventurer jumped on the juice craze, makes his own bone broth, and has tried every workout in the city. he channels to reach the Urban Adventurer are through a likeminded community like an outdoors club or at a hip shop or urban outdoor event.

When designing for the Urban Adventurer, it’s worth considering that they may not be aware they have a problem. Any solution has to strike a balance between trendy and impactful, underground and open, and local and nationwide.

Persona: Biophiliac Need: A new way of framing their passion

Audience and Market

71

be part of a conservation group or a boating club. hey deinitely compost and ride a bicycle when possible.

Biophiliacs are concerned citizens who are actively pursuing a more ecological lifestyle. hey have a lot of pride in what they do and can come of as snooty or disconnected from the rest of the community. It might seem like they care more about nature than people, but this is probably not the case. hey need ways to make their work more approachable, inclusive, and fun. he channel to reach a biophiliac is through a volunteer ecological activity, at a policy meeting, or a lecture or documentary about climate change. he best way to collaborate with them is through the organizations they already support. he factors to consider when designing for them are that they are already well-educated on these topics. hey need a balance between scientiic and new-age, and fun and work.

Persona: Superfund Suferers Need: A healthy environment and an action plan Fig. 22.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Composting is really beneicial to soil. People who already practice ecological habits are known as biophiliacs.

72

Superfund suferers are people who live near Superfund sites, brownields, or are watching as their neighborhoods sufer from the side efects of hydraulic fracturing. he channel to reach the Superfund Suferer is through Superfund

Audience and Market

Community Advisory group meetings and online forums. heir environment is literally toxic and they need ways to deal with their situation. he factors to consider are that they might not be ecologically aware or inclined. here is also an environmental justice element to consider for this persona, as oten people in these situations feel powerless.

Persona: Designers Need: A way to connect environmental degradation to people Designers are people who are making products and environments. If they knew about the psychological connection to environmental degradation, they might adopt biomimicry and green design. It had been hard to connect the needs of people to the needs of the environment, but now that we understand they are innately connected, it becomes easier to design for both. he channels for reaching designers are at design events and design-focused media. he factors that designers appreciate are details, insights, and highly crated storytelling.

Audience and Market

Fig. 23.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Hydraulic fracking in process. People who have seen their homes degraded before their eyes are among the Superfund Suferers.

73

Persona: he oblivious Need: A catalyst that connects them to nature Fig.24.—Hip designer glasses.

Designers have the ability to change people’s behaviors. hey can use the indings of this thesis to add to their own work.

he oblivious are tired, stressed-out city folk who have no idea how much better they would feel if they became more attuned to the rhythms and cycles of nature. his relates to kids too, but it is the parents who need to be made aware so that their kids can spend more time in nature.

Since they aren’t actively looking to add more nature to their lives, the channels to reach them are through advertisements or pop-ups at cofee shops, yoga studios, bars, or grocery stores. Factors to consider are ways to help them identify the root of their ailments without feeling overwhelmed, and designing small steps that can easily it into their current lifestyle. he Byproducts

Fig. 25.—A New York City metrocard. he oblivious ride the subway to work every day and don’t even realize that they might feel better if they walked, rode a bike, or found other ways to add nature into their lives.

74

And now for a word about the product market that this thesis touches. It would seem contradictory to add more stuf to this world.

Superfund sites are the byproducts of industrialization – of making things for people and extracting resources.

Most material objects inhibit our connection to nature by creating a

Audience and Market

distraction from the world around us.

It is possible to create products that give back to nature or at least allow people to get closer to nature. here is an opportunity to create products that bring people back to nature and allow for kids to safely play outside. For example, sundials and kites only work with the elements. A surfboard is nothing without the ocean. A wind resistant leece only reaches the pinnacle of its function in the wind. here is a market for products that enhance the outdoor experience. here is also an opportunity to explore biotechnology and materials that bring people closer to nature, like making objects from kombucha. his thesis would have a greater impact if it could allow all four persona types to collaborate and create a future for the neighborhood that is suitable for everyone involved.

Another product ofering is an experience, or series of experience, that would bring people together and build community. A set of design principles and a storytelling tool about Gowanus are other ways to involve the community.

And as the impact of he Gowanus Outdoors Club extends beyond the neighborhood, a tool kit of what works in Gowanus will allow the millions of Americans who live near Superfund sites to reconsider their neighborhood.

Audience and Market

Fig. 26.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A surfboard is connected to nature because it is nothing without an ocean for suring!

75

Provocations

77

78

“I’m positive there are soil remeditators in Gowanus. The only way to ind out is to look mid Spring.”

—Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower

he body of work created for this thesis addresses psychoterratic diseases and provokes potential cures by both seeking to bring about more soliphilia and bottle up the soliphilia that’s happening in Gowanus to share with other communities that might be sufering. his work was realized through various lenses under the instruction of the faculty of the Products of Design. For the irst half of the year, the focus was on deining the need that he Gowanus Outdoors Club was addressing and branding the club in a way that appealed to the target audience. It took a lot of research, prototypes, and provocations to reach the core of he Gowanus Outdoors Club.

For the second half of the year, the focus of this work found a sweet spot in designing at the intersection of environmental degradation and mental health. his thesis was realized through exploring and producing design work in many diferent mediums.

Speculative Before going deep into research, initial thoughts were crated into a set of speculative objects. hese objects call attention to contaminated, forgotten land as a way to talk about the history of America’s impact on the environment and frame the issues of our uncertain, climatechanging future. he Gowanus Outdoors Club itself started as speculative design for what an outdoors club in an environmental wasteland might entail. A set of props and objects helped to deine the club.

First, embroidered patches from he Gowanus Canal Outdoors Club show what types of activities the club might engage in. Both kids and adults can earn diferent patches for participating in labs and clean ups. here are patches for every Superfund site, including the Gowanus Canal’s sister Superfund site, Newtown Creek. he creek is just a few miles away in North Brooklyn and was “founded” as a Superfund site in

Provocations

79

Fig. 27. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Patches and stickers from the Gowanus Outdoors Club. Participants can earn patches for diferent activities, such as citizen science or water explorer. Learning about our environment is key to caring about it and planning for the future.

80

Fig. 28.— An upclycled fleece commemorates Love Canal, the first ever Superfund Site.

Love Canal, in Niagra, New York, was meant to be a dream community but became one the country’s biggest nightmares as chemicals seeped out of the dump, causing cancers and birth defects.

81

Fig. 29. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Above: he water necklace positions water as a valuable resource when worn like jewelry. Below: Jellyish are one of the species that will thrive with climate changeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;so get ready for peanut butter and jellyish sandwiches.

82

Fig. 30.â&#x20AC;&#x201D; America is Superfund is a play on the famous United States Travel Bureau posters. he country celebrates beauitful places, but tries to hide the eyesores that are all over the country.

83

2010. With these artifacts, people can engage in “toxic tourism” and learn about all the Superfund sites.

Toxic tourism is a new kind of travel for the environmentallyminded adventurer. Andrew Blackwell wrote about toxic tourism in his book Visit Sunny Chernobyl. Blackwell, who actually lives near the Gowanus, realized that he had never seen an environmental problem with his own eyes (well, besides the Gowanus Canal) and so set out on grand tour to see the world’s most polluted environments. here’s something horribly awesome in the power of humans to ruin environments.

It’s possible to imagine a future where Superfund sites are not messes that we hide, but rather pinpoints for where to focus environmental cleanups and learn about histories we do not want to repeat. he irst Superfund site was the Love Canal. As Harvard Law Professor Richard Lazarus said over the phone, “he Love Canal captured the attention of the American public because it was below a school and residential homes.

And the name has irony in it. hose sites attracted enormous attention and fear. Superfund was designed to impose liability on the sites.”1 A Love Canal embroidered vintage leece commemorates this site and could be imagined as a product in a series of 1 Conversation with Richard Lazarus.

September 2014.

84

up-cycled vintage outdoor clothing and gear with Superfund branding. here is also a strong element of water to this topic. Collecting a glass jar of water from the canal was a way to get intimate with the Gowanus. he jar then sat for three weeks on my desk as a visceral daily reminder of contamination. he smell got to be so putrid. It could make an interesting Gowanus perfume. Or perhaps inspiration for a lavor of cocktail bitters. his also provokes the notion of water as a precious element. In New York City, water is abundant, but in California water is on the way to becoming as precious as gold or silver, so maybe we will wear it around our necks. he last initial speculative object is a poster. During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt commissioned artists as part of the New Deal to create “See America” posters. he beautiful posters showcase America’s national parks. Changing the text on one of these posters from “See America” to “America is Superfund,” reframes the way we think about this country.

Press Release In another early iteration, he Gowanus Outdoors Club was inspired by Edward Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang and had more of an environmental activist slant. he

Provocations

imagined gang would be vehemently opposed to the gentrifying grocery store. Placing non-edible, wateriltering oysters into the Gowanus would be a kind of peace ofering and collaboration between the activist environmental club and the Whole Foods in Gowanus: Whole Foods and he Gowanus Outdoors Club Put Non Edible Oysters in he Gowanus Canal Brooklyn, New York -- November 3, 2014 – In a bizarre series of events, Whole Foods has teamed up with he Gowanus Outdoors Club to help with the cleanup of the infamously polluted Gowanus Canal. he arrival of Whole Foods to Gowanus, an industrial neighborhood tucked between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, was a harbinger of gentriication. While families living nearby applauded the massive health food chain’s arrival, artists feared for their future. It seemed that the cliché story of artists making a neighborhood more valuable and then getting priced out and forced out was about to happen again.

“I thought we were immune to the curse of gentriication in Gowanus because this neighborhood is literally sick. It’s a Superfund site.

Who besides artists would want to live here?” said a local artist.

Provocations

“It is only hubris to imagine that we can destroy nature, or the world. It is the mirror image of the industrialist’s egotistical desire to exploit and control it.”

—Andrew Blackwell

85

Fig. 31a. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A subway poster for a speculative collaboration between he Gowanus Outdoors Club and Whole Foods Market to place non-edible, water-iltering oysters into the canal.

86

Provocations

he Gowanus Outdoors Club, a monkey wrench gang whose mission is to maintain the wilderness of urban environments, at irst vehemently opposed the arrival of Whole Foods. hey threatened to throw seed bombs during construction and graiti-ed an entire side of the building with moss. he rebellion garnered so much media attention that Walter Robb, the CEO of Whole Foods, stepped in. In a public address he said, “We stand with Gowanus and are prepared to do whatever we can to meet the neighborhood’s demands.”

Ater a lot of back and forth, Whole Foods and he Gowanus Outdoors Club reached an agreement.

Beginning in Spring 2015, Whole Foods will be supplying oysters, to the Gowanus Canal. hey will also have a display at the store of post-natural creatures, like three-headed ish, and potentially disease-curing pills made from the adaptable microbes that live in depths of the canal.

Real estate values have already skyrocketed but groups like he Gowanus Outdoors Club and artists guilds are working to ensure that Gowanus doesn’t turn into a hotbed of retail chains or an expensive and boring neighborhood.

A partnership with Whole Foods is mutually beneicial: the club gains a national presence and Whole Foods earns some street cred.

Provocations

Fig. 31b. — An example of the seed bombs that a monkey wrench gang version of the Gowanus Outdoors Club would throw!

87

Social Enterprise In order to frame he Gowanus Outdoors Club as a social enterprise, I framed this thesis as a social problem and then created opportunities for overcoming it.

An issue for Gowanus is people are overwhelmed by the change that’s happening in their neighborhood and want a way to control it. here’s an opportunity to reframe gentriication as the natural process for cities. Like ecosystems, cities are highly dynamic and change is required for survival.

One way to do that is through public perception. he Gowanus Outdoors Club as a brand makes biomimicry accessible to people and can frame change in cities as a natural ecological process that is neither good or bad.

Another opportunity is to focus on bright spots in Gowanus.

Groups like he Gowanus Canal Conservancy are already working to clean up and develop the canal into a park. One way to clean up is through bioremediation.

I imagined what bioremediation, the onsite use of natural, biological means to reduce contamination, might look like for people. his could be natural remedies and miracle foods like kombucha and chia seed pudding. It would be

88

sold at a store where people could come in and talk about whatever was contaminating them or their neighborhood. his enterprise would be more full-circle if these remedies came locally from Gowanus. It seems crazy that there could be remedies for people in a Superfund site, but as herbalist Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower told me, “he same plants that remove antioxidants from our bodies will do the same for soil. I’m positive there are soil remediators in Gowanus. he only way to ind out is to look mid spring.”2 It’s pretty exciting that there could be health remedies in the toxic Gowanus. he Gowanus Outdoors Club as a social enterprise has a mission to change public perception of Superfund sites and contaminated land through a rebranding.

Brand Creating the brand for he Gowanus Outdoors Club really helped to move this project forward. he Gowanus Canal itself is kind of drab and gross. he obvious move for branding would be to emulate the ick factor of the canal, but it seemed more itting for the branding to be the direct opposite of drab and gross. his represents the alchemical or magical 2 Phone call with the author.

November 2014.

Provocations

ability of he Gowanus Outdoors Club to transform a place.

In its irst iteration, he Gowanus Outdoors Club branding is pink, bright, cheerful, and loving.

Positioning its essence as whimsical subverts expectations about he Gowanus Canal and eventually for toxic, over-looked, hidden places around the world. he irst logo for he Gowanus Outdoors Club was a mushroom because the best mushrooms grow from harsh environments. Mushrooms are a symbol of resilience.

Herbalist Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower leads weed walks in upstate New York. She believes that plants move into places to help remediate and is interested in what plants might have moved into the Gowanus. She was interested in leading a walking tour in Gowanus and so I branded the objects that she needs for her walks: a walking stick, a cotton bag for collecting samples, and a small shovel. Continuing with this thread, there are opportunities to design all the objects a botanist would use for a weed walk, such as a irst aid kit and a plant identiication book. he imagined Gowanus Outdoors Club goes on ield trips to other forgotten, under-loved places.

One such place is Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn. It was once where horses were incarcerated to make glue. It then became a dump. Somehow only

pieces of ceramic and glass have oozed up from the dump. People come from around the country to collect pieces of antiques. Even this is taking from the land. his begs the question: How might we give back to the environment?

I, too, took from the environment when I collected shards of ceramic from Dead Horse Bay and turned them into a wind chime.

However, placing the wind chime back in Dead Horse Bay or on the banks of the Gowanus Canal would be a way to give back to nature. he irst iteen weeks of research and making brought up more questions than it answered and inspired a lot of ideas that could either be taken further or let behind. Some of the open questions were around the connection between environmental degradation and Native Americans, and how to make this something that people needed. Little did I know that I was creating a club that helped to bring about soliphilia.

89

Fig. 32. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Licensed R.N. and herbalist Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower believes that the same plants that remove toxins in people will remove toxins in a place. By this sentiment, remediation for people is the same as remediation for place.

90

Provocations

Fig. 33 â&#x20AC;&#x201D;In ecological succcession, a place starts as bareground and then develops in stages from colonizers, to pioneers, herbaceous plants, shrubs, and then climate forest.

What does succession look like for an urban place like Gowanus? his positions change in a neighborhood as neither good or bad, but rather a natural process.

Provocations

91

Fig. 34. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A Gowanus Outdoors Club walking stick made from a piece of wood from Prospect Park.

92

Provocations

Fig. 35. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A small shovel for collecting samples on a weed walk in Gowanus.

Provocations

93

Fig. 36. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A small bag for collecting weeds and samples during an urban nature hike.

94

Provocations

Fig. 37. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Image of the beautiful Dead Horse Bay, which is another forgotten spot in Brooklyn, New York. he site was once where horses where incacerated to make glue, then became a trash dump, and is now a magical beach full of ceramic and glass pieces. People come from all over the country for collect items from Dead Horse Bay.

Provocations

95

Fig. 38. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A wind chime made from pottery pieces that were collected from Dead Horse Bay. Placing this wind chime by the Gowanus Canal is an auditory reminder to pay attention to discarded, polluted places.

96

Provocations

Fig. 39. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he sand at Dead Horse Bay is peppered with pieces of pottery and sea glass.

Provocations

97

Implementation

99

100

Implementation | Speculative Design

“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction.”

—E.O. Wilson

Ater exploring the topic in the irst half of this year, the focus of this thesis found a sweet spot in designing at the intersection of environmental degradation and mental health. his thesis was realized through exploring and producing design work in many diferent mediums.

I proposed four possible futures based on research on Gowanus. Each person chose a future and wrote a postcard from that future and then used found objects to create a product , or a prop that people could use to interact with the canal in the future. he four near- future scenarios were:

Speculative Design

1. Real estate development company Lightstone Group completed the project at 363-365 Bond Street, right next to the canal. he 700-unit building illed up quickly and brought a new group of residents to the neighborhood.

he thing about thinking about the future is that no one really knows what is going to happen.

However, designers can create products and scenarios that pose questions about possible futures.

I hosted a workshop in Gowanus with people who live in the neighborhood to get them thinking about the future of their community. here were two urban planners, three lawyers, and one designer.

We gathered on the Whole Foods Roof because it is right smack in the middle of Gowanus and symbolizes a lot about the change in the neighborhood.

2. A strong network of artist collectives has enabled artists to thrive in Gowanus. he neighborhood is renowned for its creativity and talent.

3. Gowanus, which is now called Silicon Canal, is a hot spot for tech startups. Companies Farmigo and Genius led the way and now every other person seems to be a founder.

Implementation | Speculative Design

101

4. he EPA completes the $500 million clean up of the Gowanus Canal. Gone is the sludge, the oil, and the stink. With more environmental groups than any other neighborhood in Brooklyn, Gowanus is an example of idllyic sustainability.

Most of the participants in the workshop were surprised to learn that these were all possible future scenarios. In the postcards, the participants were instructed to answer at least three of the following questions: What does the canal look like?

What types of activities do people do near the canal?

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the most spiritual place in the neighborhood?

Where do you go to meet your friends?

What about the neighborhood makes you uncomfortable?

What do people do for recreation?

What do you for a cofee? he participants came up with really interesting ideas for Gowanus including a running path, community gardens, food stalls, and a neon ish exhibit. It would be great to run this workshop again with people who are actively involved in shaping the future of Gowanus, such as members of he Gowanus Canal Conservancy or attendees of the

102

Gowanus Design Summit. A design futuring workshop like this could be a catalyst for soliphilia. he workshop was also inspiring for my personal work for this thesis. I could develop some of the ideas that came up during the session, such as a scavenger hunt with special glasses to see hidden art, a watermonitoring bracelet that changes colors based on the measurements in the water, a demarcated trail around Gowanus to connect people closer to nature, and an eco museum exhibit from the future.

I kept all of these ideas in my mind as I started to develop a story and a set of speculative objects for he Gowanus Outdoors Club.

To frame the future around the territory of this thesis, I created a two-by-two diagram. On the x-axis is a spectrum from disconnected to connected to nature and on the y-axis is from individualistic to communityoriented. With this framework, the top right is soliphilia and the bottom let is solastalgia. he Gowanus Outdoors Club would have done its job if the scenario in the top right were to come true.

I then wrote a scenario for each of the four quadrants. All of these stories take place in 2040 in Brooklyn, New York. he protagonist is Terry:

Implementation | Speculative Design

Fig. 40. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he making supplies for the co-creative workshop on the Whole Foods rooftop in Gowanus.

Implementation | Speculative Design

103

Fig. 41. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Each participant chose one of the four future scenarios and wrote a postcard from that future.

104

Fig. 42. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he workshop participants read their postcards outloud before making an object that would help them connect to nature in the future that they speculated.

105

I. Connected to nature + Individualistic Terry wakes up with the sunrise at exactly 6:37am. She can’t remember a time when she woke up to an artiicial alarm clock or slept past sunrise. She’s hungry, like she always is when she wakes up. It’s a side efect of being in tune with nature.

She can barely stand up in her eco-pod, one of the small structures that are being built in brownields around Brooklyn. hese eco-neighborhoods are called Solitopia. She steps into her greenhouse room and does a few sun salutations before picking some kale and mixing it with protein powder to make the breakfast she eats alone everyday.

Her digestion is quick and clean. he pipes process her poop and return it to compost. She inds solace in being her own closed loop system.

II. Connected to nature + Community-oriented It’s seven in the morning and the neighborhood where Terry lives in Brooklyn is teeming with activity. On her way to Whole Foods, which has been a mainstay in Gowanus for the past 30 years, she sees her friend Kali. hey work a morning produce shit at Whole Foods together. Basically, they work in the green house in exchange

106

for food. Almost everyone she knows has a shit at Whole Foods.

Today she really wants to get a lot of root vegetables. She is planning a roast for a full moon community potluck. It happens every full moon but there is no planning. No one creates Facebook events anymore because everything is cyclical.

III. Disconnected from nature + Individualistic Terry wakes up when the chip in her watch starts to vibrate.

Her eyes feel pufy and swollen. She reaches for the stack of pills on her nightstand as she sits up in bed. “One dose of D-365 for nature deicit disorder, two tablespoons of V-34 for eco-anxiety, and half a pill of CC24 for generational, environmental amnesia. She has been so heavily medicated for psychoterratic diseases that she qualiied for a new study at NYU that is trying to ind a cure for the degraded environment by making people remember what it feels like to be connected to nature. he origin of CC24 is LSD and scientists have been working with this substance for the past 35 years.

Terry hasn’t felt much of anything in her 30 years on this planet. She was programmed to be a computer scientist but inds that it’s hard to get a job now. She’s looking

Implementation | Speculative Design

for the next thing. She wants her big break.

IV. Disconnected from nature + Community-oriented Terry wakes up to the sounds coming from the speakers on the streets. It sounds like a nice squeaky song. She’s told it is how people used to wake up, but back then it was the natural morning song from birds and now it’s syndicated. What diference does it make anyway.

People in her neighborhood of solastalgia are gathering in the street. hey all bring chairs and sit on the cement. hey are passing around a water-like substance and various pills.

Everyone has a psychoterratic disease and has a diferent prescription. An eco-psychologist sits in the middle of the circle monitoring the situation. here was once a time when everyone had a psychotherapist in New York City, but now the whole community has realized that it’s sick and stuck because people are unconnected to nature. he ecopsychologists have come in droves from California to serve the people of New York City.

Fig. 43 — the D-365 medicine that Terry would have to take for nature deicit disorder in one of the proposed future scenarios.

Implementation | Speculative Design

107

Fig. 44a. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Kombucha mothers take the shape of their containers. A doll shaped container will produce a doll shaped mother.

108

Implementation | Speculative Design

Fig. 44b. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; his doll was grown from kombucha. For people who are worried about the enviroment or have psychoterratic distress, a doll that has no environmental footprint can help relieve worries.

Implementation | Speculative Design

109

Fig. 45. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Kombucha is a fabric of the future. It can be stitched like leather and used as a bag. In this scenario, it is a modern day medicine pouch.

110

Implementation | Speculative Design

Fig. 46. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Another example of a modern medicine pouch. In Native American cultures, people carried keepsakes in their medicine pouches to remind them of themselves and their connection to the Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water.

Implementation | Speculative Design

111

Product Development he scenarios helped to build out the diferent futures but did not relate exactly to the products that I developed. I created worry dolls for people who have psychoterratic distress. I wanted the worry dolls to have as little an environmental footprint as possible, so I started experimenting with materials. I created a doll-shaped container and then used it to make kombucha mothers. Kombucha mothers, the mushroom that reproduces as the tea ferments, take the form of their containers, so I was able to grow doll-shaped mothers. Once dried out, kombucha mothers take on a leathery material that is deinitely a material of the future.

I imagine that people could git these dolls or use them as a voodoo dolls of sorts. he material is biodegradable and actually has nutrients for soil. herefore, the product that is meant to represent worries about the environment is actually good for the environment.

Taking this concept further, I proposed a scenario where psychotherapists treat people with psychoterratic distress.

In this future, an esteemed New York City psychologist has started making molds for all her clients who are distressed, anxious, and depressed about the environment.

112

hese molds are all of things that are disappearing with climate change, such as the Joshua Trees, salmon, coral, and a sacred glacier in Peru. For the patients, these molds serve as transitional objects, and are intended to provide psychological comfort, especially in unusual or unique situations. he patients are then prescribed missions for each mold, such as bringing ice in the shape of the Qolqepunku glacier back to Peru. he locals used to take blocks of ice for an annual festival, but these days the glacier is melting so fast that it’s prohibited. he locals worship snowcapped mountains as gods and believe that when the ice melts, the world will end.

As Trebbe Johnson, founder of the nonproit Radical Joy for Hard Times, , writes in Ecopsychology, “he prospect of actually going to a damaged, or ‘‘wounded’’ place can be daunting…. Although the irst few moments of being there can ignite intense feelings of sorrow, fear, and anger, those reactions usually give way as details of the place emerge and present themselves to our attention. With a facilitative attitude of openness and curiosity, both toward the place and toward our own responses to it, we discover that we are capable of confronting what we had imagined would be unconfrontable.”1 1

Johnson, Trebbe. “Gits For Broken

Implementation | Speculative Design

he molds and accompanying missions are meant to help patients return to the places that are causing them psychoterratic distress. his could be really helpful for climate scientists that are depressed, such as the ones Madeline homas writes about in Grist. As homas writes, “Two years ago, Camille Parmesan, a professor at Plymouth University of Texas at Austin, became so “professionally depressed” that she questioned abandoning her research in climate change entirely.”2 For climate scientists, these molds and missions are less a speculative object and more a needed object.

“The prospect of going to a damaged or ‘wounded’ place can be daunting... we discover that we are capable of confronting what we had imagined would be unconfrontable.”

—Trebbe Johnson

Places: Attending the Earth/Healing the Psyche.” Ecospychology, March 2014. Web. 2 homas, Madeline. “Climate depression is for real. Just ask a scientist.”

October 28, 2014. Web.

Implementation | Speculative Design

113

Fig. 47. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; In a speculative future, this esteemed New York City psychotherapist makes molds of all the things that are disappearing due to climate change, such as Joshua Trees and salmon and prescribes missions for her patients to go to the place they are worried about and either give something or gather something.

114

Implementation | Speculative Design

Fig. 48. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; For one mission, the patient is told to bring ice in the shape of the Qolqepunku glacier back to Peru. he glacier is melting fast and the locals believe that when the ice melts, the world will end.

Implementation | Speculative Design

115

Fig. 49.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;In the past men, called Ukukus, cut and hauled down large blocks of ice from the Qolepunk glacier to share with family, friends and livestock as part of an annual pilgrimage. These days itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prohibited to take ice. The locals believe that when the snow disappears it will be the end of the world.

Prescription for global dread: Take this piece of ice and keep it cold on a journey to Peru. Return it to the glacier.

116

Implementation | Speculative Design

Fig. 50.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;The Joshua trees of Joshua Tree National Park need periods of cold temperatures before they can flower. Young trees are now rare in the park. Older trees are beginning to sag.

Prescription for nature deficit disorder: Visit the park anyway. Talk to the trees. Bring a seed bomb mold and find a special place to plant new seeds.

Implementation | Speculative Design

117

Screen Design Terrarium is an iPhone game that enables its users to build a digital terrarium. Creating a terrarium is a ive-step process of adding rocks, charcoal, soil, plants, and a garden gnome that is meant to bring the user closer to a state of soliphilia.

Each part of the terrarium is symbolic and the choices the user makes along the way indicates the cures they need. For example, if they add a lot of soil it means they need more “grounding.” Similarly, each plant on the app has a diferent healing power. Instead of focusing on diagnosing psychoterratic diseases, Terrarium is the cure.

According to ecopsychology, caring for something, like a pet or a plant is healing. As Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D. writes in Psychology Today, “Having plants, going for a walk in the park, or even looking at a landscape poster could produce psychological beneits, reduce stress, and improve concentration.”1 So when a user cares for a digital terrarium, they are actually taking care of themselves. here are notiications for when the terrarium needs a walk or more sunlight. And chances are what the terrarium needs is inline with what the user needs.

As the work of Peter Kahn, Director of the Human Interaction With Nature and Technological Systems Lab at the University of Washington, demonstrates, digital or technological nature is not as good as the real thing. But it is better than nothing. And in the case of terrariums, they were already behind glass so putting them under glass is not very diferent.

3 Kaplan, Jonathan, Ph.D. “Plants Make You Feel Better.” Psychology Today.

March 11, 2009. Web. March 27, 2015

118

Implementation | Screen Design

Implementation | Screen Design

119

Fig.51. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; With the app Terrarium, users build their own terrariums by adding all the ingredients for a terrarium: rocks, soil, charcoal, plants, and of courseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a garden gnome.

120

Implementation | Screen Design

Terrarium needs fresh air.

Step outside in order to reach the next level.

Go Outside

Fig. 52. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Caring for the Terrarium is a form of self-care. he terrarium will tell the user when it needs more fresh air or sunlight, which is really a sign that the user needs more fresh air or sunlight.

Implementation | Screen Design

121

Service Entrepreneurship In designing a service, it’s best to start with a need. In this case, the need is that the psychological efects of environmental degradation are a big problem that we are just beginning to understand. People around the globe are sufering from earth-related mental health disorders.

And people living near Superfund sites are especially prone to so-called psychoterratic ailments. One issue is that people might not realize that they have a psychoterratic ailment or know that the environment is afecting their wellbeing. So the question becomes: How might we cure psychoterratic ailments while building ecologicallyminded communities? hat’s where Re:Store comes in. Re:Store is a service that provides remedies for you, your community, and the whole environment.

All of the remedies are based on the principle of soliphilia. With the three-part service, people can access their ailments, get deliveries of remedies, and rebuild community.

First, Re:ckon is an app that guides users through a ten minute assessment.

At the end of the assessment, they will be given an overview of their diagnosis and some recipes and regimens to help cure

122

them. hey’ll get the opportunity to sign up for Re:ceive, which delivers soliphilia in box kits every new moon. Every delivery is diferent. For example, it could be anything from a citizen science toolbox, a nature haiku journal, recipes and ingredients for natural lip balm, or a smudge kit. hird, there’s Re:mediate, a physical place to see soliphilia in action. he irst shop is located in Gowanus, right next to the Gowanus Canal. here are ecological community events planned as well as healthy drinks and snacks for sale. here will also be psychoterratic guides on staf who will lead visitors through an assessment and diagnose them with their ailment right on the spot. he total addressable market for this service is the 50,000,000 Americans who live near Superfund sites and the target market is the subset of people who are craving more connection to nature. he Gowanus Outdoors Club as an experience served as a prototype for the physical store element of this service.

Implementation | Service Entrepreneurship

INTRODUCING

Re:Store Remedies for you, your community, and the whole environment.

Implementation | Service Entrepreneurship

123

124

Implementation | Service Entrepreneurship

Implementation | Service Entrepreneurship

125

126

Implementation | Service Entrepreneurship

Implementation | Service Entrepreneurship

127

work with

a

con

community

aff e

str u c t s

gh throu

Superfund

s

toxic site tidal estuary

industrialization

t hrough

canal contaminants

p o ll u t

which is the remov al of

ed

resilience c r e a te s

that will determi ne

disturbance

remediation

secondary succession

Fig. 53. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A map of the past and future of Gowanus, Brooklyn. Community is at the center of everything both on this map and in Gowanus.

128

Implementation | Service Entrepreneurship

leads to

ed port sup

a

primary succession

resulted

to nds

ure

me ca be

that affects

spo

p ress

as a

co ncer n s

culture

up ned clea

ecosystem a which had

changes

re

environment

s ct

an

future

r ge lar

involves

es ang ch

h as

repre sen ts th e

whic h is

is a

microcosm

EPA

constructs

s age man

m fro me na its t o

Gowanus

che

h ris

g

Native Americans

Goal of The Gowanus Outdoors Club

Relieve solastalgia

Connect the community to urban nature

Wild weed walk for the community

Gowanus Outdoors Club System

Discover the magic in natural remedies

Give back to nature

Reframe toxic places

Can increase

Community involvement in urban nature

can lower

is measured by

Attendance

Weather Busy schedule

Fig. 54. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A system map for the Gowanus Outdoors Club. he goal of the club is to connect the community to urban nature and the second order goal is to relieve solastalgia.

Implementation | Service Entrepreneurship

129

“Experience Design is a contemporary approach to design that recognizes that no matter what we create, there is always an experience created that surrounds it.”

—Nathan Shedrof

130

Experience Design he manifestation of he Gowanus Outdoors Club as an experience is one of the most highidelity, high-resolution products of this thesis. Considering the essence of he Gowanus Outdoors Club is about building community, the corresponding experience was an opportunity to get people together in Gowanus to learn about psychoterratic diseases and then quickly experience soliphilia. he experience I created was a soliphilia scavenger hunt around Gowanus followed by a visualization workshop where participants were invited to create their own soliphilia terrarium worlds. he event was planned for about 25 people, but as this is New York City, in order to get 25 people to come, you have to invite hundreds.

Fellow designers from SVA and IDEO, faculty at SVA, friends, and people who live in Gowanus were invited to he Holstee Workshop on March 22, 2015. Holstee is a design studio that creates products and experiences for an inspired life. heir studio is on an industrial block in Gowanus, just around the corner from the Gowanus Canal. For this day, the studio became the clubhouse he Gowanus Outdoors Club, complete with a chalk sandwich board and vinyl lettering on the front window. he

Implementation |Experience

vibe of Holstee is very much inline with what he Gowanus Outdoors Club’s clubhouse would feel like: big windows, bars and tables made from reclaimed wood, festive string lighting, and lots of posters designed by Holstee that encourage a relective, sustainable lifestyle, such as the famous Holstee manifesto poster that starts with, “his is your life. Do what you love and do it oten. If you don’t like something, change it….”

Guests started to arrive around 2pm. It was a cold March day, the end of a winter that wouldn’t end.

But at least the sun was out. Just two days ago there had been a snowstorm.

And Gowanus looks her best when it’s sunny out. he guests were greeted as they came in and handed a schedule for the day. here were also Gowanus Outdoors Club knit hats for sale. A bunch of people bought hats as soon as they came in and others bought hats before going out for the scavenger hunt. People walking by stopped in to see what was going on and learn more about he Gowanus Outdoors Club. hey asked what the club does, if it has a website, when the next event would be, and if they could buy a hat.

People started to mingle over pitchers of mimosas and do-it-yourself trail mix. here were mason jars illed with diferent trail mix ingredients: cashews, almonds, dried apples, banana chips, chocolate chips, raisins, and chocolate covered almonds. Next to

the jars was a stack of waxed brown paper bags stickered with the diferent logos for he Gowanus Outdoors Club. A long table was set up in the middle of the studio with diferent ingredients for making a terrarium.

Each ingredient had a symbolic name. For example, soil was called “grounding” and the succulents were labeled “hope.” he guests could look at the table but they didn’t know what it was all about yet. his kept the intrigue high.

Around 2:45pm, I gathered the guests and began the brieing by introducing myself, the special collaboration we had going with Holstee for the day, and the hashtag for the event, which was #soliphilia.

And then to learn more about soliphilia, I introduced he Spirit of Soliphilia. he design researcher and nature-lover Ajay Revels appeared. She was dressed in a beautiful headdress and lowing pink gown. She was dressed as the Spirit of Soliphilia and delivered a ten-minute brieing on the state of the environment, how we became so disconnected, the psychoterratic diseases we are now sufering from, and the cure of soliphilia. She talked about how Gowanus is an example of soliphilia.

To learn about Gowanus, she explained, everyone was going to go out on a scavenger hunt and collect treasures from around Gowanus. he

Implementation | Experience

131

treasures would be used during a workshop, where they could put all the elements they needed into their visioning tool. here was a stack of pink envelopes on the table. Each envelope had a sticker that corresponded to a psychoterratic disease. Each person was instructed to pick the envelope that they were drawn to because it symbolized the disease they had.

Inside each envelope was a disease card that explained more about the disease, a treasure map, and a set of clues. hen everyone set out in groups of three or four. People who didn’t know each other organically grouped together. “It was a really great way to meet up. We learned we had a lot of strange connections,” said one of the participants about her group. hey had one hour to collect as many treasures from around Gowanus as they could. Before the event, I had placed the treasures in mason jars and brought them to ten local businesses in Gowanus that represent diferent aspects of soliphilia, of a community coming together to get more in touch with nature and reimagine what a place might be. Some of the places were: a community-oriented ice cream shop, a gallery with a whole room dedicated to the Gowanus Canal, a bike shop, a terrarium store, a rock climbing gym, the Whole Foods rootop where they

132

grow their own greens, and the oldest Italian restaurant in Brooklyn where the mob used to meet. he goal of the scavenger hunt was to help learn about the area’s past and see what its future might hold. he irst group came back in about 45 minutes. hey had created a Foursquare map to igure out the best route between all the places. he rest of the groups trickled in ater and had lots of initial feedback.

“Wow, there are so many cool places in this neighborhood. I’ll deinitely be coming back here to hang out,” said one of the participants when he came back from the hunt. “I live a few blocks away and I never come down here,” said another participant. “I learned there were so many cute bridges in Gowanus,” said a participant who lives in Greenpoint, near another Superfund site. “I love Gowanus now. I thought that we were going to come back and there would be a real estate agent here to sell us on the new condos that are going up,” said another. I had never intended to sell people on Gowanus, but it was encouraging that they were seeing the soliphilia of the community and responding positively to it. here were a lot of variables with the scavenger hunt and it’s pretty amazing that it all went of without a hitch. I guess there really is magic in Gowanus. Every business I asked to participant said yes, and more—they

Implementation |Experience

were enthusiastic and curious about he Gowanus Outdoors Club. he clues were meant to be relatively easy, especially for people who knew the neighborhood. People who had never been to Gowanus were encouraged to use their smartphones.

“We followed the path on the treasure map so it wasn’t necessarily the fastest route, but we didn’t run into other people so it really felt that we were alone,” said Liam McDonnell, one of the participants. “he event was timely for me. It was what I needed,” he said.

It was interesting from an experience design perspective that I could not see the bulk of the experience that the participants were having when they were out in the neighborhood. But everyone came back with new friends and smiles on their faces. he next portion of the event was to create a visualization tool, or a diorama for a future world using the symbolic ingredients that participants picked up in the form of treasures during the scavenger hunt and additional supplies for making a terrarium. Everyone was instructed to bring a jar to the event. I’d always intended for guests to use the jars to make terrariums, but the guests did not know that before they arrived, and some thought that they would be collecting samples from the canal in their jar. his was an unplanned

but successful way to change people’s perception about he Gowanus Canal. People put the things they wanted into their worlds. For example, soil represented grounding, a succulent stood for hope, a pink feather meant progress and pieces of rose hips meant beauty. All the guests created their own soliphilia worlds to take home.

If I were to do this again, I might choose to do a nighttime activity so more people could come, or have people pay because people are more committed to coming if they have paid for it. Still, the irst-ever soliphilia scavenger hunt was a great success. It also served as a prototype for the Gowanus Outdoors Club as a business.

Implementation | Experience

133

134

Implementation | Experience

Fig. 55. — he Gowanus Outdoors Club’s First Ever Soliphilia Scavenger Hunt was held at Holstee Work/Shop in Gowanus, Brooklyn on March 22, 2015.

Implementation | Experience

135

136

Implementation |Experience

Fig. 56. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; As guests arrived, they were invited to have a mimosa and create their own DIY trail mix for the adventure.

Implementation | Experience

137

138

139

Fig. 57. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he Spirit of Soliphlia (pictured on page 134) instructed the guests to take the envelope with the sticker that they were drawn to. Each sticker represented one of the psychoterratic syndromes. he envelope contained a treasure map, clues, and more information on their psychoterratic syndrome that they were trying to cure.

140

Implementation | Experience

Fig. 58. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Guests formed small groups and traveled together to 10 diferent spots in Gowanus. hey had one hour to complete the scavenger hunt.

Implementation | Experience

141

142

Implementation | Experience

Fig. 59. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Guests were allowed to use their phones to solve the clues. One of the clues led to Monteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, the oldest Italian restaurant in Brooklyn.

Implementation | Experience

143

Fig. 60. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; his group found their way to one of the spots, the Gandhi mural.

144

Implementation | Experience

Fig.61. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Underneath the mural, there was a mason jar illed with yoga poses. he guests picked a yoga pose and had to make the pose before moving on.

Implementation | Experience

145

146

Implementation |Experience

147

Fig. 62. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Each guest made a terrarium that served as a visioning tool for the world they want to create. Every ingredient was symbolic. And at the end, the guests took home their terrarium to serve as a reminder of their connection to place and to nature.

148

Implementation | Experience

Fig. 63. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A guest shows her terrarium to the Spirit of Soliphilia.

Implementation | Experience

149

150

151

Fig.64. —As one guest said, “It was really reassuring to discover that I’m not the only one stressing out about the impending doom of the natural world as we know it. My succulent is quite happily keeping me company in the studio now and hopefully that will hold me until the summer when I can get outside.”

152

Implementation | Experience

Fig. 65. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he very pink aftermath of the event.

Implementation | Experience

153

“A Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG) is made up of members of the community and is designed to serve as the focal point for the exchange of information among the local community and EPA....”

—epa.gov

154

Business Design In order to scale the onetime experience into a viable business, I created a prototype business model. he Gowanus Outdoors Club is a membership-based urban hangout with daily events and healthy snacks.

In the competitive landscape, there are other urban oasis spots, like Mountain Apothecary Kitchen in Brooklyn or Dimes restaurant in the Lower East Side, and plenty of outdoor-oriented spots outside the city, but no other urban oases that serve to connect people to nature. he Gowanus Outdoors Club is a social good model that brings in revenue and gives back to the community. Approximately one third of the revenue will come from subscriptions, one third from sales at the café, and one third from corporate events. It’s possible to rent a spot with a kitchen and a backyard in Brooklyn for between $3,000 to $7,000. he model can scale to all the Superfund Sites with active community advisory boards.

Implementation | Business Model Prototype

Implementation | Business Model Prototype

155

Looking Frwrd

157

158

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”

—Henry David Thoreau

As we continue to turn to technology as the panacea for everything, it’s important to consider the efects of turning to technologically enabled nature.

Peter Kahn, who created the concept of Generational Environmental Amnesia, poses an important question in Psychology Today. He asks, “In terms of our physical and psychological wellbeing, does it matter that we are replacing actual nature with technological nature?”

And his answer is yes.

By “technological nature” Kahn is referring to, “he technologies that in various ways mediate, simulate, or augment our experience of nature.”1 For example, entire television networks such as Discovery Channel and Animal Planet provide us with “mediated digital experiences of nature” such as the lion’s hunt or the monarch’s migration. People “harvest” crops from Facebook games and have traded in real pets for robotic ones.

Kahn and his colleagues have investigated the experience

of “cutting-edge” technological nature. In their studies they have found a general pattern that technological nature is better than no nature but not as good as real nature in terms of stress reduction. he big problem is that instead of augmenting our experience of actual nature with technological nature, we are destroying actual nature and replacing it with technological nature. he Terrarium App was a design internvention that tried to bridge the gap between technological nature and actual nature. he danger is that we might not realize what we are missing before it’s too late. And without a solid relationship with nature, we as a species can survive but we won’t be able to lourish.

Or as Jonah Lehrer ominously writes in Wired, “I sometimes wonder if, when we look back at the mass cognitive mistakes of the 21st century, we’ll worry less about the Internet and multitasking and instead fret about our turn away from nature.”2 Even as the human species continues to urbanize, we are only just beginning to understand

1 Kahn, Peter. “Can Technology Replace Nature?” Psychology Today. June 13, 2011. Web. March 26, 2015.

2 Lehrer, Jonah. “he Psychology of Nature.” Wired. August 19, 2010. Web. March 26, 2015.

Technology and Nature

159

how being surrounded by skyscrapers and concrete afects the brain.

Somewhat ironically, Google, the company that is at least partially responsible for our technologically-powered life, released plans for its new oice design at its nature-centric headquarters in Palo Alto. he design is meant to send a restorative message. As Christopher Hawthorne writes in he Los Angeles Times, the design plan “aims, in no particular order, to: hide the scars inlicted by car culture; bring nature and (small-scale) agriculture back to the Silicon Valley landscape, sit lightly in a drought-stricken region on a warming planet; [and] undo the mistakes and loosen the rigidity of modernist oice-ark architecture….”3 he community gardens, bike paths, and raised yoga pavilions are deinitely architectural concepts that can help create a state of soliphilia. And as Google is a leader in the tech industry, perhaps more companies will start to design for soliphilia. Perhaps the same culture that brought us technology for all needs will now lead the way in connecting us back to nature.

3 Hawthorne, Christopher.

“Google’s new headquarters design takes transparency to new levels.” he Los Angeles Times. March 3, 2015. Web. April 2, 2015.

160

Reframing How We Talk About Climate Change As more and more people come to realize the detrimental efects of climate change and environmental degradation on our psyche, the way that we frame these issues will change. his is a new way to think and talk about the impacts of global warming.

Up until now, much of the rhetoric and tactics have been focused on getting people to act in order to help the environment. But actually their ecological actions will be helping them. As Clive hompson writes, “Everyone’s worrying about resource management and the spooky, unpredictable changes in the ecosystem. We fret over which areas will get looded as sea levels rise. We estimate the odds of wars over clean water, and we tally up the species — polar bears, whales, wading birds — that’ll go extinct. But we should be concerned about the huge toll climate change will inlict on our mental health.”4 So combatting climate change and environmental degradation is more than conserving resources and buying “green” products. It is a matter of expanding the framework to include mental health as well as spiritual and 4 hompson, Clive. “Clive hompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Mind.” Wired.

March 21, 2012. Web.

psychological wellbeing. his is a new way of thinking about what it means to be “green.”

What’s next for the Gowanus Outdoors Club? he Gowanus Outdoors Club is local and global. Ideally, it would start in Gowanus and spread out to Superfund Sites around the globe. Or the soliphilia scavenger hunts would take of and be designed to help people ind value and community in discarded places. here’s endless work to be done and this thesis has just barely uncovered the vast design opportunities for people’s mental health in an age of climate crisis. here’s just not enough sun or trees to keep me in New York City. I wish I could be a martyr for the cause of nature in New York City, but I’m going to do what’s best for my mental health. It would be awesome if someone wanted to start the Gowanus Outdoors Club locally.

As for me, I’ll see you in the Bay Area, perhaps at the Oakland Outdoors Club.

“I sometimes wonder if, when we look back at the mass cognitive mistakes of the 21st century, we’ll worry less about the Internet and multitasking and instead fret about our turn away from nature.”

—Jonah Lehrer

161

Appendx

163

164

Bibliography

Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind; Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology. San Francisco: Chandler Pub., 1972. Print.

Benyus, Janine M. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. New York: Morrow, 1997. Print.

Bodnar, Susan Ph.D. “Wasted and Bombed: Clinical Enactments of a Changing Relationship to the Earth.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues (2008), 18: 484-512 Bone, Eugenia. Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms.

New York: Rodale :, 2011. Print Blackwell, Andrew. On he Phone with Emma Marris. 5 Sept. 2012. <andrewblackwell.tumblr.com> Blackwell, Andrew. Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World’s Most Polluted Places. New York: Rodale :, 2012. Print.

Busch, Akiko. he Incidental Steward: Relections on Citizen Science. Print.

Campo, Daniel. he Accidental Playground Brooklyn Waterfront Narratives of the Undesigned and Unplanned. New York: Empire State Editions, 2013. Print.

Chouinard, Yvon. Let My People Go Suring: he Education of a Reluctant Businessman. New York: Penguin, 2005. Print.

Cravens, Curtis and Tina Chiu, et al. “Copper on the Creek: Reclaiming an Industrial History.”

165

Dekker, Diana. “Prime Real Estate? Look to the Sky.” Dominion Post. 20 June 2011. Web. <http://www.stuf.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/visualarts/5161746/Prime-real-estate-Look-to-the-sky>.

Dodds, Joseph. “Minding the ecological body: nueropsychoanalysis and ecopsychoanalysis.” Frontiers in Psychology. 25 March 2013.

Gootman, Elissa. “Cleaning a Canal, but Not Writing About It.” he New York Times. March 15, 2010. Web. < http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/ nyregion/16experience.html?_r=0> Gowanus Canal Corridor Framework Land Use Framework. 6 Feb. 2007.

Web. 13 Oct. 2014. <http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/gowanus/gowanus3.shtml/>.

“Gowanus Canal May Hold Clues to Development of New Antibiotics.

29 July 2008. Web. < http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/aboutus/newsevents/ haques/>.

Hawken, Paul, and Amory B. Lovins. Natural Capitalism: Creating the next Industrial Revolution. Boston: Little, Brown, 1999. Print.

Hawthorne, Christopher. “Google’s new headquarters design takes transparency to new levels.” he Los Angeles Times. March 3, 2015. Web. April 2, 2015. < http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-new-googleheadquarters-mountain-view-20150303-column.html#page=1> Johnson, Trebbe. “Gifts For Broken Places: Attending the Earth/Healing the Psyche.” Ecospychology, March 2014. Web. <http://www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Ecopsychology_ March_2014.pdf> Kahn, Peter H. Ecopsychology Science, Totems, and the Technological Species.

Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2012. Print.

Kahn, Peter H. Technological Nature Adaptation and the Future of Human Life. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2011. Print.

166

Kaplan, Jonathan, Ph.D. “Plants Make You Feel Better.” Psychology Today.

March 11, 2009. Web. March 27, 2015. < https://www.psychologytoday.com/ blog/urban-mindfulness/200903/plants-make-you-feel-better> Kaysen, Ronda. “Gowanus is Counting on a Cleanup.” he New York Times.

3 October 2014. Web. < http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/realestate/ gowanus-is-counting-on-a-cleanup.html?_r=0> Khanna, Sanjay. “What Does Climate Change Do to Our Heads?” Worldchanging. March 2008. Web. March 22, 2015, < http://www.worldchanging. com/archives/007906.html> Lehrer, Jonah. “he Psychology of Nature.” Wired. August 19, 2010. Web. March 26, 2015. < http://www.wired.com/2010/08/the-psychology-of-nature/> Louv, Richard. he Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-deicit Disorder. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 2011.

Print.

MacDonald, Glen. “he Next John Muir is Chasing Butterlies in the Heart of L.A.” Zocalo Public Square. Web. 23 January 2015. <http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2014/12/24/the-next-john-muir-is-chasing-butterlies-in-the-heartof-l-a/ideas/nexus/> Marris, Emma. Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-wild World.

New York: Bloomsbury, 2011. Print.

Mars, Roman. “Episode 114: Ten housand Years.” 12 May 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. <http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/ten-thousand-years/>.

Manaugh, Geof. he BLDGBLOG Book. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2009.

Print.

Meadows, Donella H., and Diana Wright. hinking in Systems: A Primer.

White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub., 2008. Print.

167

Milner, Dorothy, et al. Gowanus Canal Corridor Historic Building Study.

Columbia University. Spring 2008. Web. March 18, 2015 < http://issuu.com/ proteusgowanus/docs/2008_gowanus_corridor_historic_buildings_-_columbi> Morford, Mark. “California Water Anxiety Syndrome: Feel It Yet?” he San Francisco Chronicle. March 17, 2015. Web. March 22, 2015. < http://blog. sfgate.com/morford/2015/03/17/california-water-anxiety/> Nosowitz, Dan. “How Much Damage Would Drinking A Glass Of Brooklyn’s Terribly Polluted Gowanus Canal Actually Do To You?” Business Insider, 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. <http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-whatwould-happen-if-you-drank-water-from-the-gowanus-canal-2013-10>.

Ostrander, Madeline. “When Words Fail: Does a Warming World Need a New Vocabulary?” Yes Magazine. September 19, 2011. Web. <http://www. yesmagazine.org/planet/when-words-fail-does-a-warming-world-need-a-newvocabulary> Patagonia.com. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. http://patagonia.com/ “Pentagon Signals Security Risks of Climate Change.” he New York Times.

13 Oct. 2014. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/us/pentagon-saysglobal-warming-presents-immediate-security-threat.html>.

Portlock, Sarah, and Rob Anderson. “Residents.” Characters of Gowanus.

Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://www.charactersofgowanus.com/>.

“Public Lab: A DIY Environmental Science Community.” Web. 16 Oct. 2014. <http://publiclab.org/>.

Robinson, Jo. Eating on the Wild Side: he Missing Link to Optimum Health.

Print.

Roszak, heodore. “he Nature of Sanity.” Psychology Today. January 1, 1996.

Web. March 21, 2015. < https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199601/ the-nature-sanity> Roszak, heodore. he Voice of the Earth. New York: Simon & Schuster,

168

1992. Print.

Sachs, Jefrey. “By separating nature from economics, we have walked blindly into tragedy.” he Guardian. March 10, 2015. Web. March 26, 2015. < http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/ mar/10/jefrey-sachs-economic-policy-climate-change> “See America.” See America. Web. 16 Oct. 2014. <http://seeamericaproject. com/>.

Sierra Club. Web. 18 Oct. 2014. <https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?c md=display&page=UserAction&id=14474> Silberner, Joanna. “What is climate change doing to our mental health?” Grist. org. July 28, 2014. Web. March 23, 2015. < http://grist.org/climate-energy/ what-is-climate-change-doing-to-our-mental-health/> Singer, Brooke. Superfund365. 1 Sept. 2007. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://turbulence.org/Works/superfund/about.html>.

Smith, Daniel B. “Is there an Ecological Unconscious?” he New York Times.

Jan. 27, 2010. Web. 6 Feb. 2015.

Sobel, David. “Beyond Ecophobia.” Yes Magazine. November 2, 1998. Web. March 20, 2015. < http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-for-life/803> Stamets, Paul. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help save the World. Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed, 2005. Print. homas, Madeline. “Climate depression is for real. Just ask a scientist.” October 28, 2014. Web. < http://grist.org/climate-energy/climate-depression-is-forreal-just-ask-a-scientist/> hompson, Clive. “Clive hompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Mind.” Wired. March 21, 2012. Web. < http://archive. wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-01/st_thompson> Verel, Patrick. “he Gowanus Canal: A Waterway Steeped in History.” he

169

Sixth Borough: Redeining Brooklyn’s Waterfront. Web. March 18, 2015. < http://thesixthborough.weebly.com/the-history-of-gowanus.html> Voosen, Paul. “Wasteland.” National Geographic. December 2014. Web. Feb. 8, 2015. < http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/superfund/voosentext> Wapner, Paul Kevin. Living through the End of Nature the Future of American Environmentalism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2010. Print.

170

171

172

Lexicon

Superfund: Superfund or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) is a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances.

Example: he Gowanus Canal, one of the most polluted waterways in the country, became a Superfund Site in 2010.

Brownield: An urban site for for which redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence of environmental contamination.

Example: Since the Gowanus Canal was delegated as a Superfund site, real estate company Starr Whitehouse had to do a brownield examination study of the land that they wanted to develop.

Gowanus: A neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York with a large artist community. he area was originally home to Native Americans and became the site of the irst settlement by Dutch farmers in Brooklyn. he Gowanus Creek was turned into a canal and became one of the busiest industrial waterways, and arguably the most polluted, in the nation. Today the neighborhood is zoned for light to mid-level manufacturing.

Example: Artists have lived in Gowanus for a long time and are now afraid that as the neighborhood changes they will get priced out.

Nature: All the phenomena of the physical world that is not created by humans.

Example: You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to go to Patagonia to ind nature. You can even connect to nature in Gowanus.

Recreation: A mental reset or refresh brought about from engaging in an enjoyable, physical activity outside.

Example: Taking a hike in the woods is a great way to get some recreation.

173

Remediation: he act of remedying something, speciically having to do with environmental damage. Phytoremediation is the use of plants to reduce contamination in soil, sludge, and groundwater.

Example: Sunlowers are used in phytoremediation because they can absorb heavy metals such as lead.

Environmental degradation: he deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil, the destruction of ecosystems, and the extinction of wildlife.

Example: It is hard to ind a place in the United States where there has been no environmental degradation.

Climate change: A change in global or regional climate patterns since the mid to late 20th century that is attributed largely to increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.

Example: he conversation around climate change has shited from trying to avoid it to needing to adapt to it. For example, New York is going to have a lot more water and Southern California will be too hot to inhabit.

Psychoterratica: he whole set of earth-related mental health conditions.

Example: Solastalgia is one of the psychoterratic conditions coined by philosopher Glenn Albrecht.

Nature Deicit Disorder: he negative impacts of withdrawal from nature and natural processes. Richard Louv and many others point out that the epidemics of obesity and ADD are closely related to the disconnection now well established between children and eco-socialisation.

Example: Susan Bodnar Ph.D. has found that certain destructive behaviors, like drinking and dissociative materialism are a consequences of nature deicit disorder among young adults who have moved to cities and become disconnected from nature.

174

Solastalgia: Solastalgia is the pain or sickness caused by the loss of, or inability to derive, solace connected to the present state of one’s home environment. It’s a loss of solace for a place, or a feeling of nostalgia for a place one never let.

Example: Entire communities in Southeastern Australia have solastalgia for their home ater it got totally transformed from large-scale open caste mining.

Soliphilia: he antidote to the stress and anxiety we feel about environmental degradation and climate change. It’s a state that results in a positive energy to collaborate, heal, and work together.

Example: he Gowanus Canal Conservancy is one of the many community groups that are contributing to soliphilia in Gowanus.

Generational Environmental Amnesia: A term coined by Peter Kahn, Jr. Ph.D. It’s a condition that results as that people construct a conception of what is environmentally normal based on the natural world encountered in childhood. he crux is that with each ensuing generation, the amount of environmental degradation can increase, but each generation tends to take that degraded condition as the non-degraded condition, as the normal experience.

Example: When interviewed, children growing up in inner-city Houston understood the concept of air pollution, but did not believe Houston had a problem because they had generational environmental amnesia and did not have any baseline to compare the air quality to.

Ecophobia: he fear or hatred of ecology or the environment, involving a denial of the value of biodiversity, the physicality of the earth and the processes that make life possible.

Example: Fear of oil spills, rainforest destruction, whale hunting, acid rain, the ozone hole, and Lyme disease, and fear of just being outside are all under the umbrella of ecophobia. hese phobias are believed to stem from prematurely asking children to deal with complicated issues of the environment.

Biophobia: Biophobia is an aversion to nature. It ranges from discomfort in “natural” places to active scorn for whatever isn’t manmade, managed, or air-conditioned. It is a culturally acquired urge to ailiate with technology and

175

human artifacts.

Example: Woody Allen, who once famously said, “Nature and I are two,” might have biophobia. Allen does not like to go to lakes because “there are living things there.”

Eco-paralysis: Eco-paralysis appears as apathy, complacency or disengagement with reality as it unfolds. It’s that sense that all these environmental issues are too big to solve so we might as well do nothing.

Example: he Climate Change March was an attempt to overcome widespread eco-paralysis.

Eco-anxiety: A non-speciic worry about our relationship to support environments in the twenty-irst century. It is generated daily by the delivery of information and images about negative trends concerning the environment and the climate.

Example: here’s a new climate change movie, but Julia did not want to see it because she was already stressed and was afraid it would cause her more ecoanxiety.

Ecological succession (Primary and secondary): he natural maturation process for an environment. Primary succession is the gradual growth of an ecosystem over a longer period of time starting from a place that is devoid of any vegetation.

Secondary succession occurs ater a previous environment has undergone an ecological succession such as a hurricane or tornado.

Example: Nature is always evolving through ecological succession. We can reframe change in cities as a natural succession process.

Eco-therapy: Healing and growth through healthy interactions with nature.

Example: When you feel stressed out, trying taking a walk outside as a form of eco-therapy.

Ecopsychology: A study of the relationship between human beings and the natural world through ecological and psychological principles. he ield seeks

176

to develop and understand the emotional connection between individuals and the natural world.

Example: In an ecopsychology study, some participants looked out a window and others looked at a wall. Ecopsychologists found that participants exposed to nature performed better on a test.

177

178

Interviews

Joseph Alexiou, Journalist Stuart Candy, Producer, Strategist, and Educator Sasha Chachavadze, Founder of Proteus Gowanus Curtis Cravens, NYC Mayorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Oice of Recovery and Resiliency Ingrid Fetell, Designer at IDEO Owen Foote, Treasurer at he Gowanus Canal Dredgers Canoe Club Chris Garvin, Managing Partner at Terrapin Bright Green hor Hartten, Sustainable Design Building Consultant, Green Rabbits Ronda Kaysen, Journalist at he New York Times Richard Lazarus, Professor at Harvard Law School Clif Matias, Native American Performing Artist, Educator, and Photographer Mary Elizabeth Negro, Artist in Gowanus Reece Pacheco, Surfrider Foundation Andrea Parker, Director at the Gowanus Canal Conservancy Ajay Revels, Strategic Design Researcher Sarah Rich, Writer, Editor, and Strategic Consultant Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower, R.N. and Herbalist

179

180

Acknowledgements

his book is dedicated to my family for their endless support and Benjamin Gadbaw for his consultation, photography skills, patience, and love. hank you to everyone who helped make this thesis possible. It takes a lot of people to make a thesis happen. his work would not have been possible without all the faculty and staf at Products of Design, workshop participants, Gowanus Outdoors Club attendees, classmates at Products of Design, and expert interviewees who shared their time, knowledge, and passions: Allan Chochinov, Program Chair, Products of Design Brent Arnold, Screen Design Advisor Emilie Baltz, Experience Design Advisor Abby Covert, hesis Professor Steven Dean, Service Design Advisor Janna Gilbert, Business Design Advisor Elliott Montgomery, Speculative Design Advisor Andrew Schloss, hesis Professor

And a special thanks to he Products of Design Class of 2015 for their camaraderie. Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see all the amazing things this group accomplishes in the coming years.

181

182

About the Author

Julia Plevin is an American writer and designer. She received her B.A. in History from Dartmouth College in 2009 and an M.F.A. in Products of Design from he School of Visual Arts in 2015. She is an avid runner and yogi and an aspiring surfer and climber. Her writing has been featured in he Atlantic, he Huington Post, and VentureBeat. his is her irst book.

Contact: juliaplevin.com julia.plevin@gmail.com @juliaplevin

183