How do we come to know a place? How can creative, embodied and analog research methods support sustainability research and meaningful place engagement?
These were the broad questions that guided us (= Pond People* + Astrida & Julia) over the course of 12-weeks in Winter 2026. Pond is a place many of us have already encountered during our studies at UBCO. This winter, we have been invited to spend more time here—arriving with new curiosities and practices for understanding this place differently.
This production started as part of the undergraduate course on “SUST/CULT 304: Place-based Methods for Interdisciplinary Research”, which was designed as part of a project on Access and Inclusion in Environmental Humanities Research, funded by UBCO’s ALT-2040 program. Researchers included UBCO’s informal place-based pedagogies research group convened by Astrida Neimanis and Natalie Forssman with assistance from Daisy Pullman, Haeda Gaide, Emilie Ovenden and Madeline Donald. Blair Weber and Julia Jung have contributed to its implementation.
“Meeting Pond”
Meeting Pond details the experience of building relationship with the Old Pond in ways that challenged us to be open, vulnerable, curious, and sometimes uncomfortable.
A 40-page chapbook of curated collages, reflections, drawings and photographs based on weekly meetings with Pond. It contains three sections: Listening, Mapping and Storying. Practically, it uses 10 sheets of 8.5x11inches, with four chapbook pages per sheet of paper, back and front.
You can download “Meeting Pond” here.
“All Hands on Deck for Pond”
This deck was produced by Pond People* on the unceded territories of the syilx people. It is designed to be used in relation to the Old Pond on UBC Okanagan campus, but we welcome its experimental adaptation in relation to the lands and waters that surround you, wherever you are. This deck showcases a suite of collaborative and interdisciplinary low-tech methods for coming to know a place, collectively. It shares our questions of honoring Indigenous (especially local syilx) knowledges, and considering access and inclusion in sustainability research.
You can download the individual suits for the deck here.
A 12 page chapbook accompanies the deck. Includes descriptions of each of the 6 suits and instructions for how to engage with the deck. You can download the accompanying booklet here.
*Pond People = Jared Adams, Soha Afab, Hamid Al Mahri, Tesi Altiman, Ryah Ayyobi,Jeronimo Bahamon, Kajah Berrie, Mozelle Bertelsen, Jennifer Blake, Olivia Bromley, Mathias Carter, Nimrat Dhaliwal, Grae Englund, Khaliun Gantsogt, Noah Gordon, Laighton Graeme-McMullan, Ewan Gratton, Luca Grossi, Maaike Houtstra, Issy Jackson, Jett Jardaleza-Toole, Ria Kaeley, Vraj Khatri, Tamsyn King, Ian Klumpen, Maddy Krestanowich, Lily Liang, Jordan Lovell, Gabrielle Luedke-Nichols, Lola Macherey, Kaylah Majerech, Samuel Mitchell, Alyx O’Neill, Sarah Rasmussen, Jordyn Sanche, Ally Shorter, Zoe Sibthorp, Liv Utigard, JarenVicaretti, Maggy Woelfing, Jake Yule.
The FEELed lab 