Soilshed

East Haddam, CT / Summer 2023 / I-Park Residency / Mapmaking, Environmental Communication, Material Exploration, Soils

“You only change what you understand” 

—Anthony de Mello, 2011

Soilshed is a tufted map of the Narragansett Bay Watershed in Rhode Island. Corresponding colors and textures map soil health and draw relationships between land, shore, and water. It is part of a larger series of ecological communication devices that aims to make landscape systems legible in a tactile and approachable way. 

The land maps healthy and impaired quality riverine systems that flow into Narragansett Bay. Along the shoreline, the three colors represent anticipated sea level rise responses: wetlands and conservation shore, unlikely protection, and likely protection. The aquatic soils map dredged, subtidal habitat beds and complex, silty, and silty sand marine soils. Comprehensively, the map draws relationships between the data to understand the evolving soil landscape of the bay.

The textile map was hand-tufted with recycled cotton and wool and completed during a residency at I-Park in East Haddam, Connecticut (July, 2023). Soilshed was exhibited at Machines with Magnets Gallery in the 10 Years of DesignxRI Show in Fall 2023.

Data Sources: RIDEM, ASA, Jennifer M. Kassakian for EPA

34” x 60”