Chancellor's Point
Chancellor's Point is the site of my work for the second half of SMP and where I will be continuing work upon my graduation. This 66 acre historic land is only a few miles from campus and is one of the most significant archaeological sites left in Historic St. Mary's City that has not been significantly investigated. In the Image Gallery you will find photographs of both the site and the gallery show that I displayed as a reference to my work off site.
I used the gallery primarily as a meeting point to take people to the site. In the center of the gallery stood a display case that was found on site, the first piece of the renovation project upcoming at Chancellor's Point. Its pair was on site, and we found both in the condition they were found. On the walls of the gallery was a painted chalkboard. Here all of the disciplines at our college were posed the question: What happens when we are left with nothing?
At Chancellor's Point I spoke with teachers, students, whole classes, community members, Historic St. Mary's City staff, and anyone else who wanted to come along, about the nature of the renovation and reprograming project.
At Chancellor's Point we are left with nothing, it is in a state of disrepair. What we can learn is imbeded in this condition. This work is an effort to find a universal human creativity, a condition dependant on our needs, not on our wants. Students and teachers and community members will all have the opportunity at this site to engage with the landscape as the grounding for their academic work. Here we will build our shelters, grow our food, warm our bodies independent of our course of study.
We seek to design a program at Chancellor's Point for physically engaged learning. Similar to study abroad or outdoor education, this site offers a distinct experience from what is offered in the classroom.
Study abroad offers a cultural experience to an exotic "other". Outdoor education removes us from the human world altogether. Here we do both an neither: the exotic "other" is simply our heritage, and the pristine landscape removes us from westernized facilities that even study abroad rarely rejects. Here way may walk to the library and go to the pub, here we may live without walls and windows. Here we may speak a common language around the fire; a discourse about what we need.
My work is not to make beautiful things.
My work is to make the things that allow us to live, learn, and create, while immersed in the beautiful world.