The 2022 Ecopoesis workshop and gathering was held in the San Francisco Presidio on April 9, 2022 and featured artist and author Jenny Odell as keynote. Following the event, Odell delivered a public talk on Thursday, April 14 at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Odell’s book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy served as the thematic catalyst for the event, challenging us to consider the relationship between climate change and our perception of different scales of time. The workshop participants produced a series of cyanotype prints that experiment with the medium’s time-based qualities as a reflection on tangible ecological change. The intent was to challenge the default “how much time is left” sensibility that characterizes much of climate discourse, and instead explore how thinking across multiple time scales might allow for deeper understandings of the crisis we currently face. Through collective acts of making, the workshop tested creative alternatives of language and imagery that can inspire solidarity.

Following the event, timed to coincide with Odell’s keynote at CCA, enlargements of cyanotypes from the workshop were printed on fabric and installed on the Ecopoesis Dome, a new traveling platform for ecological and climate discourse.

Many thanks to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and Presidio Trust for supporting this event.

Participants, Ecopoesis 2022
Jenny Odell, Artist & Author
Robin Abad Ocubillo, City and County of San Francisco
Amy Balkin, California College of the Arts
Neeraj Bhatia, California College of the Arts
Laura Booth, Presidio Trust
Kate Bickert, Golden Gate Parks Conservancy
Patrick Dowd, Tech Entrepreneur
Alicia Escott, Artist
Chris Falliers, California College of the Arts
Beth Ferguson, University of California, Davis
Lynda Grose, California College of the Arts
Margaret Ikeda, California College of the Arts
Evan Jones, California College of the Arts
Kari Jones, Presidio Trust
Nathan Lynch, California College of the Arts
Janette Kim, California College of the Arts
Adam Marcus, California College of the Arts
Aspen Mays, California College of the Arts
Albert Narath, University of California, SantaCruz
Denise Newman, California College of the Arts
Helen Maria Nugent, California College of the Arts
Damien Raffa, Presidio Trust
Leslie Carol Roberts, California College of the Arts
Camilla Rockefeller, Therapist
Alex Schofield, California College of the Arts
Susan Schartzenberg, Exploratorium Bay Observatory
Mark Seilestad, University of California, San Francisco
Mara Holt Skov, California College of the Arts
Lewis Stringer, Presidio Trust
Matthew Waxman, The Cooper Union

Student Participants, Ecopoesis 2022:
Anise Aiello, BFA
Eman Al-Alami, MFA
Ayse Elif Aydinli, MArch
Jared Elizares, MArch
AnnMarie Giglio, MFA
Saina Gorgani, MArch
Shao-Feng Hsu, MFA
Nivedita Rajendra, MFA
Conrad Scheepers, MArch
Vishakh Hiren Surti, MArch
Stella Zhu, MFA

Credits:
Project Chairs: Leslie Carol Roberts, Adam Marcus, Chris Falliers
Project Manager: Jared Elizares
Textile Fabrication: Anise Aiello
Event Chef: Karen Weber
Photography: Nicholas Bruno, Jared Elizares