How can imagining other beings’ ways of experiencing their environment help us humans in creating healthier multispecies spaces? This is the question that Annie Furman, longtime friend of the FEELed Lab, asked, while devising a series of participatory community workshops that would be the anchor of her MFA Thesis in Interdisciplinary Studies.
The Woodhaven EcoCulture Centre, and the skies, trees and waters that hold the FEELed Lab, also served as the stage for this work. Using performance studies methods, Annie’s work invited us to imageine – with our bodies, and in conversation with each other – how environments are experienced by others with whom we want to share these spaces. This was also an invitation to delightful curiosity: how old is that Douglas Fir? What is that funny moustache-looking thing on sturgeons’ faces? What does a mosquito sound like to a bat?
When I asked Annie what the top two things she has learned from her time here, she replied:
“During this MFA (and particularly the portions of it I spent at Woodhaven), I started to notice what a good conversation partner water can be. I did a lot of the final solo preparation for my thesis workshops sitting with my feet in Bellevue Creek, listening to the water over the rocks and trying to find the right shape of what I wanted to say (in this iteration of Lifeworlds, at least). I have a complicated relationship with water, having grown up by a river so polluted we were discouraged from ever touching it. I’m grateful that Bellevue Creek has helped me learn to listen more to local waterways.
“I’ve also been lucky enough to have quite a few bird encounters—I’ve seen great horned owls, barred owls, and even one western screech owl while at Woodhaven, and quite close by I’ve had the chance to watch a pair of bald eagles raise several chicks over the last couple years. And it never gets old. My first year here I remember being almost scared, like what happens if I see the eagles coming back with twigs for their nest one day and I’m so used to it that I don’t feel that wonder and awe and excitement anymore? But every time I see them still feels like a gift, and I have a theory going that a good bit of keeping that wonder fresh has to do with sharing it. You know, by pointing out the owl to a friend and getting excited about recognizing its hoots together. This is probably a somewhat verbose way of saying that I’ve learned something about the intersection of reciprocity and curiosity. Also that bald eagles are really, really big.
“I’m very grateful for the FEELed Lab and all the folks I’ve had conversations with here (whether about plants, or papers, or competitive timbersports). My time at Woodhaven has been one of the highlights of doing my MFA at UBCO!”
With the MFA done and dusted, Annie is heading out soon to continue this meaningful work in other communities. We will miss you Annie! Thank you for all you have done to bring joy and creativity (and plenty of chopped wood!) to the FEELed Lab!
The FEELed lab 