Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: marine, photography, Senior Project, watercolor
Christiaan van Heerden and Adam Kumm exhibit work
Underwater photography by Adam Kumm
Local artist and owner of the former Moss Gallery, Christiaan van Heerden will be showing watercolors at College of the Atlantic’s Blum Gallery along with underwater photographer Adam Kumm.
The two are exhibiting their work as part of their final projects as graduating COA seniors.
The show features 14 images taken of fish swimming through deep coral reefs in the Caribbean by Kumm and six large watercolors by van Heerden. (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: Blum Gallery, fiber arts, photography, Senior Project
Exhibit features weavings of seven fibers, photos of the hands of ten artisans
"Working Hands" by Hannah Stevens
College of the Atlantic’s spring series of senior work continues with “Working Hands,” a show focusing on the artistry of the hand. The exhibit combines the efforts of Becky Wartell of Portland, ME and Hannah Stevens of Canton, NY. Wartell is a weaver and all-around craftsperson. Stevens is a photographer who has spent the term photographing craftspeople in the highly artistic region in upstate New York where she was raised, known as The North Country.
Wartell’s project involves seven different items each woven with one of seven different fibers: animal fibers of wool and silk; plant fibers of cotton, linen and hemp; and two cellulose fibers (plant fibers that require heavy processing): bamboo and tencel. Her exhibit includes the graduation dress she made from silk she wove, a bamboo skirt, a woolen blanket and some cotton plaid fabric. At the reception, the runner on the food table will be made of linen woven by Wartell. Also part of the exhibit will be a loom on which gallery visitors can experience weaving. The resulting communal piece of fabric will be turned into a purse that will be sold to raise money for a weaving-related cause. (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: anthropology, photography, Senior Project, writing
Michael Keller, Watson Fellow, presents images and a book of refugee experience in the US
A Chinese man and his Bosnian wife were resettled by the International Rescue Committee. They opened a noodle and dumpling shop out of a small window. They were very successful and now operate a much bigger restaurant in Charlottesville, VA. Photo by Michael Keller.
To celebrate the publication of his book, “Streets, Boundaries, and Other Places: Stories of Asylum,” College of the Atlantic senior Michael Keller is presenting an exhibit of photographs and narratives of refugees resettled by the International Rescue Committee in Charlottesville, VA.
“Too dangerous to go back” was the phrase many used to describe the nations that these people left, says Keller of his encounters with refugees in Virginia. His photographs and stories, he says, “show the resilience of refugees in starting over, in starting new lives.” The photographs depict resettled individuals from Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Myanmar, China, Afghanistan, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia. (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: ethnography, Law, photography, poland, policy, Senior Project, study abroad, sustainability
Mike Kersula, Matt McInnis reflect on connections
Self-proclaimed radical environmentalist Janusz Korbel has fought for years to expand the Bialowieza National Park. Photo by Matt McInnis.
Nature of Poland, featuring photos by Matt McInnis and ethnography by Mike Kersula. The exhibit explores Poland as a country of contrasting environments, from moss-covered old growth forests to smoggy industrial wastelands.
The exhibit came about following the annual United Nations conference on climate change hosted by Poland last December. Kersula and McInnis attended the meetings-but with more than the treaty process on their minds. They wanted to understand how people of a post-socialist society connect to nature. (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: 2009, California, cartography, computer science, GIS, interdisciplinary, Senior Project, Socially Responsible Business
Senior Builds a City’s Emergency System
Apoorv Gehlot, senior, working in the GIS Lab
It’s not unusual for College of the Atlantic students to do extraordinary work during their 10-week internships and 10-week senior projects. Students have created large gardens, conducted original fieldwork, completed novels, written business plans. But seldom does their work make a difference for an entire city.
Senior Apoorv Gehlot has built a GIS emergency management system for the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino, CA, population 55,000. Should disaster strike, thanks to Gehlot, the emergency operations manager will be able to (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project
Fieldwork Studying Women and NAFTA in Chiapas, Mexico
Ashleha Khadse and Katarina Jurikova in Chiapas, Mexico
As politically engaged, probing women, Katarina Jurikova and Ashlesha Khadse were inspired by the struggles of the indigenous women of Chiapas against the changes wrought by NAFTA. Katarina, who is from Slovakia, and Ashlesha, from India, had no interest in just reading what others had to say about these women, they wanted to experience the routines of their lives first-hand: to rise at 4 a.m. with the women, learn to fashion tortillas from grainy masa harina, breathe in the wood smoke, touch the thick, beautiful embroideries of their traditional clothes, and help with tasks from fetching water to harvesting—all the while listening to the women’s stories.
Though Katarina and Ashlesha purposefully went to Chiapas without a firm plan, they found ways to get involved. “We joined the women’s movements and helped organize a march against NAFTA, volunteered for (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: 2008, advocacy, Sarah Haughn, Senior Project, Social Services, sustainable development, UFDA, Uganda
Improving Social Service Delivery
An Evaluative Study of Two Islands (Rwabitoke & Kisima II) and Two Landing Sites (Marese & Busana) in Ugandan Lake Victoria
Sarah Haughn interviewing in Uganda, 2008
Working closely with the Uganda Fisheries Development Association (UFDA), Sarah worked in four communities in the Jinja and Mukono districts conducting an in-depth study of social service delivery. What she found was an “incontestable lack of social services.” The 2002 government census reported that 99% of households in these communities had access to potable water, but an independent study in 2006 found a (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: botany, Education, food, Gardens, interdisciplinary, Law, policy, Senior Project
Student’s Educative Garden Creates Controversy
Toria Harr's father tending to her garden. Photo Courtesy of Gian Luiso of the Courier Times
Toria Harr will graduate from COA this spring with a degree in Human Ecology and a teaching certificate earned in the school’s Educational Studies program. But her passionate focus on teaching science to middle schoolers hasn’t diminished Toria’s desire to make connections across disciplines—even when it miffs her neighbors. As a suburban Philly news story explains:
“Toria Harr never thought getting organic and going back to nature would land her in the world of zoning variances and court appeals. But that’s exactly where the Middletown college student finds herself after a neighbor filed an appeal in Bucks County court (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: 2008, Dorr Museum, Jamus Drury, photography, Senior Project, tern
Taking Wing: A Creative Exploration in Science Photographs and Prose
masked boobie
During the summer of 2008, at the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History, birds fly into the sunlight; nuzzle each other in a nest, protect one another, and sit framed in the glory of the setting sun.
Jamus Drury ‘08 has captured these creatures in an exhibit called “The Aesthetics of Science: A photographic journey to Tern Island, in the remote Hawaiian Islands National Monument.”
The photographs offer an intimate view of albatross, frigatebirds, red-footed boobies, white terns and more, all sheltered on this remote preserve in the Hawaiian Islands. (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: 2008, Anna Fialkoff, ethnobotany, illustration, mushrooms, Senior Project, sustainability, wildcrafting
The Ethnobotany of Wildcrafting: A Study of a Contemporary Foraging Culture
Mushrooms for Health
Those who collect wild plants and mushrooms for food, medicine, craft, or ceremony are often referred to as wildcrafters. Anna Fialkoff ’08 discusses the culture, politics, and society of wildcrafting. From a true human ecology perspective, Anna shows both global and regional perspectives on the topic; she includes sketches and drawings from her field experience, and discusses the meanings and implications of the word “wildcrafting.”
American ginseng, blue cohosh, puffball mushrooms, African cherry. These are not your typical ingredients, medicines, and raw materials. But, over the course of the last 25 years (more…)
Filed under: Senior Project | Tags: 2008, COA, College of the Atlantic, killer whales, marine biology, marine studies, Senior Project, tara stevens
Distribution and Social Behavior of Newfoundland Killer Whales
Photo Credit: Stevens and Lawson DFO
By collecting and examining more than 1200 photographs and analyzing nearly 300 sighting events, Tara Stevens has compiled the most comprehensive analysis of killer whale life history in Newfoundland and Labrador waters.
For her 2008 senior project, Tara Stevens compiled the most comprehensive analysis of killer whale life history in the Newfoundland and Labrador region. By collecting and examining 1213 photographs, and analyzing 289 sighting events of killer whales, Tara has compiled a digital catalog of killer whale photographs to aid in the research of the specie’s behavior. Tara has already used the (more…)
Sarah Kebler & Josephine Rassat Show Images of Death and Life
"Cabin Colony" Sarah Kebler, Oil on Wood Panel, 2008
"Jimson Weed and Hawk- moth, Datura stramonium and Agrius convolvuli" Josie Rassat Paper collage, watercolor, gouache, acrylic, paste and technical pen. 2007
College of the Atlantic is continuing its display of senior work with a joint exhibit of oil paintings by Sarah Kebler, “Forever Gone,” and “Botanical Illustrations,” mixed media images of plants and insects by Josephine Rassat. The exhibits open May 28 in the college’s Ethel H. Blum Gallery.
Kebler’s work stems from a summer she spent doing ornithological studies at the college’s (more…)
