2018 Ecotopian Toolkit Recipients Announced

This spring, the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH) invited artists to contribute proposals to the second installment of the Ecotopian Toolkit, an ongoing public project that began one year ago. 

Through a competitive juried process, PPEH is thrilled to announce the five recipients of the 2018 Ecotopian Toolkit awards. Proposals for this year’s awards for tools retained an engagement with floating on/ sinking in/ and otherwise living with urban waters; and they similarly explored what it might mean to face contemporary ecological challenges with critically attuned and creatively oriented tools.

Each artist/team's projects will be highlighted in a public demonstration led by the artist/team, documented on the PPEH/Schuylkill Corps websites, and archived and included in ongoing Toolkit initiatives. Each recipient will also be awarded a $1,000 prize. 

2018 Ecotopian Toolkit cohort:

• Deirdre Murphy, "Mapping Movements: The Invisible Highways of Urban Birds at Water's Edge"

• Beth Uzwiak and Anastasia Hudgins, "Monsters of the Deep, Myths for the Future"

• FICTILIS, "Wastewater Walk"

• Environmental Performance Agency, "Embodied Scientist Parkour"

• Dylan Gauthier, Kendra Sullivan, and Marina Zurkow, "Floating Studio for Dark Ecologies Field Guide to Everywhere"

Stay tuned for upcoming posts about these artists and their projects with PPEH.

Documentation of last year’s projects, developed as tools for WetLand, resides in the living public archive of the Schuylkill River & Urban Waters Research Corps. Previous Toolkit contributions included: a field guide, illustrated maps, water experimentation tools for youth, habitat pods, sculptural provocations, and on-water floating filtration system. 

2018 Ecotopian Toolkit Art Jury

• Bethany Wiggin – Founding Faculty Director, Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, and Associate Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania
• Paul Farber – Managing Director, Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, and Lecturer in Fine Arts and Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania
• Grace Sanders Johnson, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
• David Stoughton, Visitor Services Manager, John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum
• Danielle Redden, River Program Manager, Bartram's Garden
• Dan Rothenberg, Artist, Director and Creator of Experimental Performance
• Orkan Telhan, Artist, Associate Professor of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania

Image Credit: Wastewater pipes run through hidden gulches along the route of the Santa Cruz Wastewater Walk, 2015. (FICTILIS).