Overview:
How can plants be companions in the intentional and critical exploration of place within a creative documentary practice?
Creative documentary is grounded in real stories, but it also weaves imagination, possibility and subjectivity into the storytelling, taking creative licenses to approach reality in original ways. This course will be a dialogue between instructors and attendees focused on the creation of place-driven stories, using the language of creative documentary and centering plants as an integral part of placemaking. Attendees will be encouraged to consider and learn from the ways in which plants experience place, and will examine how through creating relationships within a space, plants hold and embody the different stories of that place.
The class will convene for 10 weekly online meetings (of 2 hours each) combining theoretical sessions, creative practices and group discussions. In between sessions, resources and exercises to engage with plants and place will be assigned to guide participants in the development of a personal project, and there will be one-on-one sessions for participants to receive feedback on said projects.
By the end of the course, participants will have gained a theoretical framework and creative practices to explore placemaking with the guidance of plants, thus developing both new approaches to creative documentary and new ways of showing up in conscious relationality with landscapes.
Eligibility:
This course is primarily recommended for photographers, filmmakers and multimedia artists, as well as scientists, conservation practitioners, researchers, or scholars wanting to explore creative documentary, and who are interested in themes within spiritual ecology.
The only prerequisite is that participants must be interested in exploring the language of creative documentary (we will be focusing particularly in visual and audiovisual formats of documentary, but text-based artists are also welcome).
While no significant experience or expertise is required, participants should know that this is not a technical workshop—we expect participants to have a basic previous experience with the media or medium they choose and to have their own equipment.
Course Structure:
The class will convene for 10 Zoom meetings (2 hours each) to meet one another and cover the more theoretical aspects of the course. These sessions will happen every week. A final online session will be held for participants to share their projects and reflections of the process. These convenings will occur from: September 7, 2024 - November 9, 2024. Online sessions will be held Saturdays at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST, starting on September 7, 2024.
Virtual Convening Schedule
Saturday, September 7, 2024 | Introductory Session | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, September 14, 2024 | Module 1 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, September 21, 2024 | Module 1 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, September 28, 2024 | Module 2 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, October 5, 2024 | Module 2 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, October 12, 2024 | Module 3 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, October 19, 2024 | Module 3 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, October 26, 2024 | Module 4 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, November 2, 2024 | Module 4 | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, November 9, 2024 | Final Session | 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
Course Fee
$750 is covers your full tuition and provides ongoing access to online course materials and resources, A limited number of full or partial Fee Waivers are available for this course.
Selection Process
Applications will be reviewed by course instructors and OSGF staff.
Application Deadline
Round 1 applications are due Friday, June 7, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST. Following the initial deadline, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until full. Round 1 applicants will be notified of their status around June 21, 2024.
Instructors:
Maya Kahn-Abrams
Maya Kahn-Abrams has a background in mycology, botany, natural product chemistry, biogeochemistry, history and anthropology, and has worked in horticulture and organic/regenerative agriculture since 2011. After completing two years at Bard College (2012-2014), she graduated in 2019 from The Evergreen State College with a dual BA/BS in environmental microbiology and ecology. Since graduating she has worked with the Rare Plant Care and Conservation program at the University of Washington Botanic Gardens and for USDA-Agricultural Research Service. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Restoration Ecology at the University of Washington. Through discovering plants, microbes and their roles within ecosystems and human survival, Maya has been guided on a journey of profound scientific and personal discovery, instilling a commitment to exploring how equitable societies shape ecological resiliency through indigenous traditional ecological knowledge.
Alessandra Baltodano
Alessandra is a documentary photographer/filmmaker and anthropologist from Costa Rica. Through creative documentary, she explores the affective, existential and spiritual dimensions of the relationship between humans and their inner and outer landscapes. Her work is inspired and informed by the fields of environmental humanities, ecofeminism and spiritual ecology. She holds an M.A in Anthropology & Documentary Film from Tallinn University, as well as B.A. in Communication Studies (University of Costa Rica) and Photography (Veritas University). She is also the co-founder of Wimblu, a creative documentary studio telling stories to restore our sense of belonging and connection to the Earth. Wimblu is a grantee project of the Kalliopeia Foundation and Alessandra’s work has been published and shown in exhibits, publications and festivals in Costa Rica, United States and different countries across Europe.
About OSGF:
The Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) is a philanthropic foundation based at the former primary estate of the late Paul and Rachel Mellon, who were major philanthropists in the U.S. of the arts, humanities, and sciences in the second half of the twentieth century. OSGF is located in the northern Virginia Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountains region (ca. one-hour drive from Washington, D.C.). Led by Sir Peter Crane, the Foundation’s inaugural President, OSGF supports residencies for artists and scholars. It is becoming a new center of excellence and stimulation of all things botanical, from fundamental research in plant evolution and conservation, to horticultural and plant conservation practice, to the history and art of plants gardens and landscapes.
Overview of Session and Activities
Module 1: Roots| Session 2-3
Themes: Context and Memory
This module will look at roots and the relationship they hold with soil and fungi, as a way to explore the concepts of intersubjective and corporeal memory. The way that roots anchor a plant in place and become a point of nutrient uptake and information exchange offers a particular lens to understanding local, ancestral and rooted knowledge and to recognizing how the story of a place is always made up of bodies in relationship to other bodies. The invitation of roots is to consider how memory is always more-than-human, embodied and relational. We will then discuss ways in which we can explore the memory of a place and include it in the research and crafting of our stories.
Module 2: Stems | Session 4-5
Theme: Corporeality and Spirituality
Stems are channels of connection between the sky and the earth. They elevate the plant from the ground, connecting what happens below and above. As places of constant movement and interaction, stems are liminal spaces that defy dualities and certainties. Through stems we are invited to think of the encounter between the corporeal and the spiritual and to challenge absolute and dominant narratives. Through this module we will explore contemplation and corporeal engagement as methods to approach and elevate reality in our processes of creative documentary, recognizing our attention as the channel of connection between the ordinary and the sublime and between our inner and outer worlds.
Module 3: Leaves | Session 6-7
Theme: Alchemy, Intersections and Imagination
Leaves are where photosynthesis happens, they are the site of alchemy of the plant where different elements come together to create something new. Converting light into food is nothing short of magic! In fact, this single act of plant creativity is the basis of all life on Earth. During this module, leaves will invite us to consider how intersectional thinking and our imagination can transform reality into emergent stories. Like the leaves, we will learn to observe and respond to the context, whilst also infusing it with our own subjectivity, perspective and imagination to come up with narratives that emerge from the in-betweens. Inspired by leaves, we can explore the alchemy of documentary, which transforms reality into an experience in and of itself.
Module 4: Flowers and Fruit | Session 8-9
Theme: Reciprocity and Possibility
Flowers and fruits are plants’ intentional engagement with the world, it is how they enter in reciprocity with other beings, offering beauty and nourishment in exchange for the possibility of new beginnings. Perhaps what is most fascinating is that the perception of those fruits and flowers will vary depending on the observer's role, corporeal form, evolution and relationality to the plant, meaning that the experience of fruits and flowers is a co-creation. Fruits and flowers thus invite us to consider our creative documentary as an offering, as a way of engaging our audience’s own corporeal and spiritual experience of the world. Through this relationship we too can enter in reciprocity with the world and we can open, through our stories, possibilities for new beginnings.