Date of Award
Spring 5-15-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Film and Media Studies
First Advisor
Andrew Demirjian
Second Advisor
Veronique Bernard
Academic Program Adviser
Andrew Lund
Abstract
The Collaborative Urban Resilience Banquet (The C.U.R.B.) is an interdisciplinary art project consisting of citizen science experiments, community events, and social media storytelling that collectively examine critical issues of environmental, social, and food-based justice as we face oncoming climate crisis. The project explores lessons learned about/with/from Brooklyn's feral edible plant and animal species, many of whom have long and complicated relationships with humanity. Artist Candace Thompson of The C.U.R.B. forages and processes these beings into food and medicine, and conducts DIY remediation experiments with them in an attempt to mitigate any contamination found therein. She shares her fndings via an Instagram handle and at a series of community meals made from these foraged foods. Overall this project seeks to reconnect urbanites with the (un)natural world that surrounds us. The weedy beings who survive and thrive in human wastelands can serve as resilience role models, teaching us to be better global citizens and better neighbors. The C.U.R.B. postulates that there may still be time for us to eat one another away from the brink of extinction.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Candace B., "The Collaborative Urban Resilience Banquet, or @the_c_u_r_b" (2020). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/606