Ok, so, as part of this senior project I made a conscious decision not to document it with photos and instead now I am going to give an oral history. So, I’ve handed out some questions to members of the audience and when I prompt you, please ask your question in numerical order. Um, so, this project, the story of this project begins with a table and ends with a tablecloth. Okay I’m ready for the first question.

What offers support?

So, a big part of this project, kind of like the foundation, was thought about local and non-local food and the role that they play in food access efforts and so I spent, I’ve spent, a lot of time thinking about that, um, and just like within, it’s, it’s, kind of like built a foundation for this project and I’ve also thought a lot about, kind of, my location at Bard as someone who is not local to this area and what my community at Bard is and what my support structure is, and so, it’s really, kind of, all of these ideas have, kind of like, woven to create this support structure that’s laid the groundwork for the rest of my project. Next question.

How do things transform?

So, my original idea, um, for this, wh-, project as a whole was to build a series of tables and host events with them and the tables were going to be, like, different pieces that could be assembled because I was thinking about, like, democratic shapes and how to engage people in, like, constructing the place where they would be eating a meal or communicating or collaborating, um so, I did do that I made two versions of the table one out of vinyl that was buttoned together and I had an event with it in the Kline tent, um, and I cooked a meal with food I sourced from the Bard farm and it was a really nice event, um, and the second version of the table I made was out of plywood and we floated it actually in the Bard pool and the water acted as, kind of, the support for the table and with that event I served sumac lemonade that I foraged from Red Hook, um but, ultimately I, kind of, had a shift in what I wanted my focus for the project to be so I actually transformed both of those tables into the seats that you all are sitting on, um, and these seats have, kind of, I’ve intentionally left them as a, kind of, unresolved part of my project because I think that they do have, like, more potential and, I, I, they’re, kind of, like my future question to take with me beyond this project about how to get, how to facilitate collaboration and how to engage people. Next question.

Where do we find duality?

So, over winter break as I, kind of, mentioned before I had this big shift in what I wanted to do with my project away from the table idea, um, and, kind of, towards, the, the mural project and so I spent a lot of time, um, in, at the beginning of the spring semester, kind of, cementing the space figuring out the location which is in front of the food pantry which is also relevant to my, like, thoughts about food, um, and, kind of, just like laying the groundwork for this project, um, but I also have been thinking a lot just about, like, the in-between because I think just with, like, local and non-local food I’ve, kind of, come to the realization that it’s not entirely realistic to always only eat local foods and, so, I think there is an in-between there, um, I think of this space in general as, kind of, an in-between because it’s a meeting point between the Bard community and the, like, wider community as you can even see right now with the community using the swimming pool and also the design of the mural is centered on the Loop-C bus line which is this through-line through, um, the, through, from Tivoli to Poughkeepsie and connecting all the towns along the Hudson river, um, between those two places and it, kind of, is also a resource that, like, both Bard students and, um, community members can use, so, there’s a, there’s a lot of in-betweens with this project and dualities. Next question.

Who do we collaborate with?

So, the mural project was a huge collaboration because a hundred people came and helped paint this mural within a week which I am very proud of because it was an amazing feat and I think something that I’ve just been thinking about this, for the span of this whole project is how to engage, how to make something that’s interesting to people so that they will want to come and participate and I think that this mural project was a really really good way of engaging people because it allowed people to inter-, either interact with a new space or interact with a familiar space in a new way and it really, like, just brought out everyone’s artistic talent which was super super cool and it also, I mean, it, kind of, ties in with the student athlete art show which is part of this exhibit, um, and it, kind of, its leading the way to the mural from this space, um, because it’s, like, it was, honestly the mural, this mural is a showcase of student athlete talent because that was, like, the majority of the people who came to help and I just think it’s really cool because I know when I was on the cross-country team for a brief period that I wasn’t entirely sure of my identity within the Athletic Department and I’ve talked with other student athletes who feel the same way, so, I think this was a super cool collaboration effort both among the, within the Bard community and then also with people from outside the Bard community who came to help paint. Next question.

Why is location important?

So, um, the bowls that you see in front of you were made with clay I dug up from the Bard Farm at an event in Kline about a month ago and another, kind of, question I’ve been thinking about during this project is the role of local and non-local materials, um, just like in the spaces that we’re interacting with and honestly the layers of history within the Bard land that we now, kind of, exist on and contribute to, so, I wanted this event to, with the Bard clay, to be, kind of like, this direct engagement with a very local material and a way for people to, kind of, both realize, like, both engage with the material but also, like, think of memories that it may bring up and so I think just location I mean the location of the mural is also super important in-front of the food pantry in the gym and as I mentioned before it’s also something I’ve been thinking about myself as I’m, like, getting ready to leave this area, like, what the the location, this location means to me and how I’ve contributed to it and interacted with it. Uh, next question.

Was that the last question? Oh, uh

When is food love?

So, one of the through-lines that I wanted to keep from my original thoughts about the tables, um, was the idea of feeding people because I really see food just in general as a big connector because sharing food is really important and it helps facilitate friendship and community and family and, so, I knew that I wanted that to be still a big part of my project, and so, the last two events that I’ve hosted which were, happened last week, both were, kind of, centered around meals and I have some of, like, some examples of what I served at those, so, the first meal was with produce supplied from Kline and I cooked meals from this cookbook, um, which is, like, a radical guide to nutrition using food stamps, um, so, it was, kind of, an exploration of food that’s accessible to all but through a, like, a government supplied system and then the second meal was with mostly foraged foods and I led, or I helped lead a foraging walk, before that, kind of, we gathered the ingredients for the meal and I used these two cookbooks as inspiration and the idea behind that meal was, like, food that’s accessible to all, um, but from the land, but also with, kind of, the knowledge that foraging is, like, a very, kind of, specific thing and not everyone has that knowledge, so, it’s not necessarily accessible to everyone and also that meal did include some of the produce from Kline because I do recognize that it’s not necessarily, or that it’s not always realistic to, like, only eat local food especially when it’s technically part of a capitalist system still because it is still an exchange of goods within a market setting, but, that’s just my opinion, um, and so I really, the table cloth, um, is kind of like the setting for the food and the dishes to be laid upon and it’s was attracts people to the table to come and eat the food and I made this table cloth because I wanted to take the mural that’s on the wall and translate it from, like, this static thing that people can enjoy into something that can be used in a more wider context and in a more, or, like, various ways. Ok, that’s it.