GEOLOGIC METANOIA: MATERIAL DOMESTICATION FROM THE AWESOME TO THE MUNDANE

2023 Howland TRAVEL FELLOWSHIP EXHIBITION
FRI, APR 5 – WED, APR 24, 2024

GALLERY TALK & RECEPTION 
MON, APR 15, 2024
5PM
CAMPBELL Salon Walls & NAUG LOUNGE

For their 2023 Howland Travel Fellowship, UVA landscape architecture graduate students Sophie Maffie and Marissa Walrath traveled to public landscapes across the United States to document and investigate the transformative power of rocks. Going to places like Yosemite National Park, the Raymond Granite Quarry, and the West Elk Mountains of Colorado, the team questioned what is lost and gained through extracting, processing, transporting, and designing with geologic materials.

As a geological and social investigation, Geologic Metanoia embraces the active power of rocks to influence thought, action, and experience. The conflicting human relationship with rock, one that venerates them in one instance and ignores them in another, leads to a design process that relies on domestication. This exhibition dives into the concept of material domestication by hybridizing landscape architecture and earth science through the coupling of geospatial and cultural histories. 

Faculty Advisor: Bradley Cantrell

Bios

Sophie Maffie is a third year Master of Landscape Architecture candidate at the University of Virginia. With an interdisciplinary background in Geology and Latin American Studies, she is passionate about designing public spaces that reflect geographic identity and cultural heritage. As co-editor of LUNCH 18, Sophie is determined to encourage cross-disciplinary conversations about social equity, indigenous environmental thought, and ecological justice within the built environment.
 

Marissa Walrath is a third year Master of Landscape Architecture candidate at the University of Virginia. With a BS in Geology from the University of Florida, her love for the natural environment is rooted in empathy and a desire to closely observe and experience systems. Her interests include designing radically with rock, using landscape as a storytelling medium, and fostering environmental curiosity, love, and stewardship through education and resilient design.

Supported by the Benjamin C. Howland endowment.