The Daniels Faculty’s Forestry Graduate Student Association (FGSA) has published the third edition of Guide to Campus Trees, a field guide for trees and shrubs on the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. The guide is both a point of interest for those visiting and walking the campus, and a useful learning tool for incoming forestry grad students from other academic backgrounds.

“There is quite a bit of diversity of tree species on campus, including both native and introduced trees. We included 100 different species of tree and shrub in the guide but there are quite a few more, which makes the area a great spot to learn the basics of dendrology,” said Emmett Snyder, lead for the project, now a graduate of Forestry’s M.F.C. program working at the Daniels Faculty’s Mass Timber Institute. “Plus, the greenspace adds a lot to the campus experience, especially in the spring when the redbuds, cherries, or magnolias are in bloom or in the summer.”

The guide is available for free online, complete with photos, an outline of notable features for each species, and mapped locations for each. It has the effect of making the campus’ greenspace into a practical learning tool, providing a detailed overview of the unique mix of species that define the University. 

“We knew from existing inventories and experience that there was quite a selection of species on campus, but this information was not publicly available,” said Snyder. “We also felt that there was no substitute for experience when it came to learning to identify trees, so we felt that providing a location for each specimen in the guide so readers could go and look at that specific tree was important as there is only so much you can learn from photographs, drawings, and text.”

Production (at large) has been a multi-year effort, with initial photography and mapping being completed in the summer of 2019. The team behind the project made improvements in subsequent editions, leading to the eventual production and distribution of the third edition: “truly a team effort and it would not have been possible without the help of everyone involved,” according to its preface (written by Snyder).

“We took the list of species in the existing inventory and went around campus to find a good specimen,” said Snyder. “Once we did, we photographed it and used the geotag metadata in the photographs to extract coordinates from which we were able to draw maps that show readers where to find the specimen we photographed.”

The third edition of the guide was specifically intended to support tree identification in the winter months, with images that show different seasonal contexts, and tree bark. The book acts well as a written accompaniment to a stroll on the Philosopher’s Walk, Hart House Circle, and the Earth Sciences courtyards.

Download the Guide to Campus Trees

Statement from the Dean's Office

Progress continues at the Daniels Faculty and across the University of Toronto as we prepare for a safe return to campus this fall. For the most recent information, visit the UTogether hub and the Office of the Vice-Provost, Students’ website.

Since my last update on May 31, Ontario is now in step two of the provincial plan to reopen ahead of schedule and the Federal Government announced they are easing quarantine restrictions for fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents. (As restrictions ease, please reference the Vice-Provost's COVID-19 Resources for information related to quarantine accommodation for students.)

This news, combined with the province’s accelerated vaccination plans, is another step in the right direction for our transition to on-campus activities.

U of T also announced that vaccinations will be required for students living in residence. “This requirement, which is endorsed by our local public health authorities, will enable us to give our students the residence experience that they expect – and that is so important to their growth and development – without compromising on their health and safety,” said Sandy Welsh, U of T’s vice-provost, students.

I encourage you to consult Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccination website for information on vaccine eligibility and how to book your first and/or second dose.

At the Daniels Faculty, we continue to monitor public health measures as we prioritize planning for activities that benefit the most from an in-person experience. We will provide another update in July as more information becomes available.

Until then, take good care.

Robert Wright
Interim Dean

James Bird holds many titles: he is a knowledge keeper from the Nehiyawak nation and Dene Nation, a Master of Architecture student at the Daniels Faculty, a member of U of T’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission steering committee, as well as other national honours and awards, and a residential school survivor.

As we reflect on Indigenous History Month, Bird kindly shared snapshots from events with the Lieutenant Governor's Office, as well as film and exhibition recommendations to inspire further learning — not just during one month of the year, but for continued commitment moving forward.

Sunrise Ceremony with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office 

Tune in to TVO on July 1 to see Bird give the Opening Prayer during a Sunrise Ceremony with the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.  

“[A Sunrise Ceremony] is a time to welcome goodness into the world and move our collective intentions to kindness,” said Bird. “In the light of each new day brings a new beginning for the time in the sky for that day, and beyond.” Considering the TRC, and as a residential school survivor, Bird said: “As we move into these difficult times, let us all remember our collective humanity and move gently on Mother Earth.”

Chapel Royal Tobacco Gardens on National Indigenous Peoples Day 

In recognition of National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21, Bird co-hosted a luncheon and tour with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office at The Chapel Royal Tobacco Gardens. The Chapel Royal Tobacco Gardens are part of U of T Massey College where Bird is a junior fellow.  

“We [Indigenous Peoples of Canada] have a direct connection to the Crown through Treaty — it is with the use of sacred tobacco that this relationship is reinforced,” said Bird, who is also the Keeper of the Chapel Royal Gardens as approved by Chief and Council.

In Anishinaabek, The Chapel Royal at Massey College is called Gi-Chi-Twaa Gimaa Kwe Mississauga Anishinaabek AName Amik (The Queen’s Anishinaabek Sacred Place). Three of the Chapels Royal located outside the United Kingdom are located in Ontario. Notably, each of these Canadian chapels is distinguished by an Indigenous affiliation, which demonstrates the direct connection between Indigenous nations and the Crown. Learn more about The Chapel Royal at Massey College here.

Watch From Earth to Sky, a documentary film that profiles the lives of Indigenous architects 

From Earth to Sky, a new TVO Original documentary from director Ron Chapman, profiles the lives and work of accomplished Indigenous architects from across Turtle Island.  Each architect defines their individuality through artistry, and bond in their philosophy of how to protect the planet — including Douglas Cardinal, the 2020-2021 Gehry Chair, and Alfred Waugh, a featured speaker in the Daniels 2021 lecture series, as well as architects Brian Porter, Patrick Stewart, Tammy Eagle Bull, Wanda Dalla Costa, and Daniel Glenn.  

The film culminates as they travel to the Venice Biennale of Architecture to present, for the first time, Indigenous Architecture from North America in a spectacular installation (in which Bird participated).  From Earth to Sky is available to stream for free on TVO.org and the TVO YouTube channel. 

Learn about the history of treaty-making in the “Canada By Treaty” exhibition 

In 2017, Bird partnered with Heidi Bohaker and Laurie Bertram, a pair of U of T history professors, to create "Canada by Treaty: Negotiating Histories," a travelling exhibition that explains Canada's history of treaty-making with Indigenous peoples. The exhibition explains some of the ways Canada has historically failed to live up to the spirit of its treaty obligations — particularly through its residential school policy. 

"On the one hand, the government was signing treaties, but at the same time it was apprehending children and putting them into residential schools," James says. "We have this history of two stories being told: one of agreeing to land settlements, and the other of taking away Indigenous language and culture. It's a story of giving with one hand and taking with the other." 

When pandemic restrictions closed the exhibition early, the Daniels Faculty helped transform the display panels into a website. View the exhibition here: canadabytreaty.cargo.site. 

Photography for the Sunrise Ceremony and Tobacco Gardens events courtesy the Office of the Lieutenant Governor (Joe Segal).

Daniels Faculty community,

It has been the greatest privilege of my career to work for you as dean during this time of immense change within the Daniels Faculty and around the world.

After a year of loss and uncomfortable (and necessary) conversations, we are now emerging into an uncertain future. The challenges that we face today: climate change, inequity, racial injustice, mental health, and the impacts of the pandemic — are not going away.

Yet, during a time when we could have felt stagnant or immobilized, the Daniels community demonstrated great resilience. And you seized the opportunity to enact positive change.

Students, alumni, faculty, and staff called on our institutions and professions to transform, adapt, and evolve — not only to meet a changing world, but to be a part of the solutions ahead.

We went “on air” for final reviews and hosted more than 60 public events with global leaders in our fields. We grew our faculty by welcoming new colleagues in building science, visual art, and forestry – and maintained enrolment numbers across our programs. Faculty and students navigated time zones, oceans of distance, and new ways of learning together. Not only adapting to the circumstances but producing some of the highest-quality work I have ever seen during my 35 years at the Faculty (some of which you can explore in our virtual end-of-year show).

My goal as your interim dean was to engage in a process of self-examination to develop new approaches to professional education that will lead to long-term change. Addressing representation and inclusion at all levels was, and will continue to be, a critical part of this change.

One of the highlights of my time as dean was to welcome Elder Whabagoon as the inaugural First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean. With Elder Whabagoon's guidance, we will find new ways to introduce Indigenous values, knowledge, and languages to our programs and reach out and support Indigenous communities. We also established the position of Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. This critical new role will sit jointly between the Daniels Faculty and U of T’s Division of Human Resources and Equity. The search for this position will recommence under Dean Du’s leadership.

At the beginning of my term, I shared my belief that it is our shared responsibility to create the future that we want. The successes of this past year are a reflection of the collective efforts of students, staff, and faculty. To continue this work we need transparency, dialogue, collegiality, and mutual respect. With these values as our foundation, I know that we can tackle the challenges ahead.

And now it is my pleasure to pass the torch to Dean Du. Her demonstrated skill at research and administration, her extensive professional and academic experience, along with a strong socially conscious design approach, make her the ideal person to lead our school into the future.

Thank you all for pushing me, and the Daniels Faculty, forward. I am proud of what we accomplished together and I look forward to our future.

Stay safe this summer, and I hope to see you all on campus this fall.

Robert Wright
Interim Dean

Photographs by Thai Go. Follow Thai on Instagram @gothaigo.

In recognition of National Indigenous Peoples Day, the Daniels Faculty is excited to announce an upcoming mural for the north façade of the Daniels Building that will be created by an Indigenous artist. 

“Today is National Indigenous Peoples Day – a day for all Canadians to celebrate the heritage and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. However, to truly celebrate Indigenous communities we must commit ourselves to Truth and Reconciliation,” said Interim Dean Robert Wright. “These are not just words but our obligation and direct calls to action. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples have shown us a path, and it is one that we must walk together.” 

This inaugural Indigenous installation at the Daniels Building is intended to address Indigenous Spaces within the University’s response to the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC Steering Committee’s Report, Answering the Call. Wecheehetowin) specifically, Call to Action #2: A strategy for the funding and placement of more Indigenous public art across all three campuses should be developed, in close consultation with local Indigenous communities.

“It is important for our Daniels community to come together as one and expand our listening to the land and to all our relations,” said Elder Whabagoon, the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean. “As we walk this path together, we are gathering new voices to learn new ways of knowing. I am grateful to have the opportunity to share my knowledge and teachings with the Faculty and students.” 

The collaborative process to create the mural is being organized by the Daniels Art Directive (DAD), a student-led art collective, with guidance from Elder Whabagoon, the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean, and supported by the Daniels Faculty’s Office of External Relations and Outreach. An advisory panel of Indigenous members will create the call-for-proposals and then select the artist.

Located at 1 Spadina Crescent, the site is part of the historic Ishpadinaa – one of two historic Indigenous trails in Toronto that were recently recognized with Anishinaabemowin signs. Ishpadinaa is an Ojibwe word that means “a place on a hill.”

This project follows the first installation of a mural on the Daniels Building: the ‘Support Black Designers.’ mural curated by DAD, in collaboration with designers and Daniels alumnae Ashita Parekh and Tolu Alabi, was on view from October 2020 to May 2021.

"The north façade is a window into the Daniels Faculty. As students at this school, we are honoured to support all artists and the messages they want to share," said Michelle Ng on behalf of DAD. "Through community-driven art, we hope to decolonize spaces and create opportunities that will lead to concrete changes for an intersectional, inclusive future."

The call-for-proposals will be announced at the end of June and an information session is scheduled for Tuesday, July 13, 1-2 pm. Mural installation is slated to begin late August – early September 2021.

Indigenous Mural Project logo design by Mariah Meawasige (Makoose).

As we celebrate the Class of 2021, the Daniels Faculty invites you to explore the inaugural (virtual) End-of-Year Show. The End-of-Year Show represents a multi-disciplinary collection of student work in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.

Graduate students, as well as undergraduate students who completed thesis projects, were invited to upload their work and craft their own project pages. Search the show by student name and program, or see a rotating selection of all projects through the home page.

Take me to the End-of-Year Show

The banner image features work from (L-R): 
Jiazhi (Jake) Yin, Landscape Architecture, Advisor: Fadi Masoud
Rishi Tailor, Architecture, Advisor: Adrian Phiffer
Vanessa Wang, Architecture, Advisor: John Shnier
Kurtis Chen, Architecture, Advisors: Mariana Leguia, Angus Laurie
Zainab Wakil, Architectural Studies, Advisor: Jeannie Kim

Statement from the Dean's Office 

Since my last update in March, we have seen promising developments across the province as we prepare for a safe return to campus. If you are a new or returning student, plan for in-person learning and increased on-campus opportunities at the Daniels Faculty this fall. 

On May 28, 2021, the Province of Ontario announced it reached a key milestone in the fight against COVID-19: 65 per cent of eligible Ontarians have now received the vaccine ahead of schedule and the province is now accelerating second dose appointments.  

This is promising news, but it is critical that we continue to do our part: get vaccinated, follow the guidelines, and stay safe this summer. We will provide another update on June 30 when new information is available. 

How is U of T planning for a safe return to campus? 

U of T is closely monitoring the Government of Ontario’s plans for safely re-opening our province. Efforts are underway to prepare for the arrival of new and returning students, including preparation of residences and programs to assist students arriving from outside of Canada. Sandy Welsh, U of T’s vice-provost, students, recently spoke with U of T News about University plans for the fall. 

• International Student Arrival 

• Quarantine Information for Students Entering Canada 

• Residences and Off-campus Housing 

From upgraded building ventilation and air filtration to rapid screenings and vaccination clinics,  read “12 ways U of T is preparing for a safe return to in-person instruction” for details on University-wide safety measures. 

What will fall 2021 look like at the Daniels Faculty? 

Students, faculty, and staff should make appropriate plans to be on campus this September. 

At the Daniels Faculty, we are prioritizing activities that benefit the most from an in-person experience – like undergraduate and graduate studios, on-campus research activities, and student services and workshop access – while maintaining the best practices we have learned from virtual teaching.  

As vaccination rates increase and public health guidelines are updated, we will share more information around physical distancing and capacity limits in the classroom. 

We understand that there will be questions as plans progress this summer. Please reference the related links, including the UTogether hub and the Daniels Faculty COVID-19 FAQs.

Take good care, 
Robert Wright 
Interim Dean 

In Visual Communication 2 (LAN1022), a course taught by assistant professor Fadi Masoud, first-year Master of Landscape Architecture students develop their drawing and visual representation skills by each studying either a colonial fort or an Indigenous burial mound (known as a tumulus). Students draw the topography of their assigned sites, but the work doesn't stop there. The course calls upon them to develop fictional narratives about their forts or tumuli, then illustrate those narratives in ways that show off different atmospheric conditions.

This year's projects can all be viewed in their entirety on the new Forts and Tumuli website. Below, a few highlights.

Emiley Switzer-Martell

Emiley's site was Fort Jackson, a 19th-century fort located near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in southern Louisiana. Emiley imagined a future when climate change has caused the area around the Mississippi River delta to be abandoned by humans, who can no longer live with the region's frequent storms and flooding. The nearby forests have reverted to an almost primeval state. The drawings show a young girl, one of the area's last inhabitants, wandering the terrain. Emiley studied native vegetation in order to add some verisimilitude to the presentation.

Kiran Khurana

Kiran studied Tuzigoot National Monument, an Arizona archaeological site that includes the ruins of a Sinagua pueblo. Visitors to the site can tour the remains of a 110-room village that is believed to have been abandoned centuries before the first European settlers arrived in the Americas. In her research, Kiran discovered that the monument is now an important site for birdwatching. Her drawings show the site transformed into a reserve for those birds. She created a haunting, lonely atmosphere by drawing vast, colourful horizons by hand.

Benson Zou

Benson chose the Prince of Wales Fort, an 18th-century fort in northern Manitoba, originally built by the Hudson's Bay Company to help secure the local fur trade. The fort was handily captured by three French ships in 1782. "It's this majestic looking fortress, but it was actually really easy to take over," Benson says. His drawings reimagine that event from the perspective of an Inuit child who has a premonition of the ships' arrival in a dream. Benson studied paintings of Inuit communities to help him render the scene.

Ying Zheng

Ying's project dealt with Poverty Point, a Louisiana historical site that includes the remains of an ancient Indigenous settlement. The major features of the site are a set of C-shaped ridges and earthen mounds, all of unknown purpose. Yue invented a world in which the residents of modern cities abandon their urban homes and repopulate Poverty Point, so that they can revive the nomadic lifestyle of the site's original inhabitants. Her perspective drawings use a dreamy, ink-drawing style to convey Poverty Point's mysterious nature.

Luis Bendezu

Luis's location is a familiar one to any Toronto dweller: it's Fort York, a colonial-era fortification that still exists as a historic site amid a dense high-rise community to the west of the city's downtown core. As Luis researched the area, he took notice of the controversy surrounding Bill 229, a new piece of provincial legislation, enacted under the auspices of pandemic relief, that weakens the ability of local conservation authorities to block land development. Luis's drawings illustrate a dystopian future where runaway construction has caused Toronto to become overrun with tall towers, leaving Fort York as the last remaining place where Bill 229's opponents can gather and protest. His drawings use a high-contrast colour palette, inspired by comic book art, to highlight the divide between built and unbuilt space.

Yue Wang

Yue studied the Emerald Mound Site, a location in southwestern Mississippi where a few mounds, believed to have been built by Plaquemine Mississippian people between 500 and 1,000 years ago, are preserved. Yue's images attempt to reconstruct what the site might have looked like after the original mound structures fell to ruin, but before the site's Indigenous inhabitants left the area for good. Her axonometric drawings show an Indigenous community living in harmony with local flora and fauna, beside the mounds. Her perspective renderings each highlight a different kind of local wildlife.

Every year, graduating students in the Daniels Faculty's Master of Visual Studies program's studio stream work together on a final exhibition, for which each student creates an original art project. This year, with COVID restrictions making it impossible for the public to visit art galleries, the exhibition has moved online.

Four graduating studio students — Matt Nish-Lapidus, Oscar Alfonso, Sophia Oppel, and Simon Fuh — contributed work to this year's MVS Studio Program Graduating Exhibition. With the exception of Oscar's project, which didn't require physical space, all the works were temporarily installed in the Daniels Building. They were documented by a photographer before being taken down.

All those photos and videos are now on public display on the exhibition's website, visualstudies.net. There will be an online exhibition reception on May 27, starting at 5 p.m. For details, visit the exhibition's event page.

Read on for some information on the four student projects. Or visit the virtual exhibition by clicking the link below.

Take me to the virtual exhibition

Matt Nish-Lapidus

Matt's project, titled A Path, is the embodiment of his thinking about the relationships between computers, language, and mysticism. "The Kabbalah, specifically the kind of language mysticism that comes from it, was part of my research and was a big inspiration for where this work went," he says. "What I was trying to explore with these pieces was a way of thinking about computers — specifically their relationship to language, and language as a kind of poetic act of creation."

DO WHILE TRUE. Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid.

The components of Matt's installation showcase the ways computers can turn words and language into a creative force. One of his works, titled DO WHILE TRUE, consists of a small, black-and-white computer display connected to a tiny computer. Using Logo, a computer programming language that allows users to draw vector graphics with relative ease, he made the display show a looping animation of 10 concentric circles. It's a reference to Ein Sof, a Kabbalah concept related to God's infinite nature.

Halted Moment, Executable. Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Another work, Halted Moment, Executable, is an LED matrix — another type of computer display — embedded in the surface of a table made to resemble the tiled floor of a server room. A few words at a time, the matrix tries to display the complete text of The Secret Miracle, a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. In the story, the titular "miracle" is that a playwright, sentenced to death by the Nazis during World War II, is granted a mystical yearlong stay of execution so that he can finish writing a play.

Like the story's main character, Halted Moment, Executable needs plenty of time to complete its important work. The display is programmed to scramble the story's lines and paragraphs, making them unintelligible. Only once per year, in a seemingly miraculous (but actually preprogrammed and fully automated) occurrence, do all the words appear in the correct order.

Oscar Alfonso

The idea for Oscar's project, No estoy seguro en nuestros nombres / I’m not sure I remember all of our names, sprung from a literal seed — an avocado seed.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, I started growing plants again, which is what I've done habitually, without realizing it, everywhere I've moved," Oscar says. "As I was growing these avocado trees, I started thinking about everybody that I was no longer close to — that I hadn't spoken to in a while, or that I was physically not close to."

Oscar's avocado plants.

Oscar began reaching out to people he knows, or used to know, including close family members, friends, old coworkers, and former lovers. "I wanted to consider relations as being more than the obvious close friends and family," he says.

He sent out a total of 210 messages, each one inviting the recipient to share a story, or a bit of knowledge, with the avocado trees. He asked that the responses be somehow related to one of five avocado-appropriate themes: obsolescence, travel, diaspora, expectation, or stationariness. In return, he received about 85 responses, mostly letters addressed directly to the avocado plants. Some of the responses were less straightforward — for instance, the one from Oscar's five-year-old cousin in Mexico. "He decided to read a children's book that I had gifted him," Oscar says. "But he can't read English, so he's reading this English-language book from memory, in Spanish. He's got the story, but bits are missing."

Left: An avocado plant and children's toys. Right: A portrait of Oscar as a child.

Oscar compiled all the responses into a book. He will complete his project with a live, online reading of that book, at 1 p.m. on June 5. The avocado trees will be present to receive the collected wisdom.

For details on how to join the reading, visit the exhibition's event page.

Sophia Oppel

Sophia was interested in the way surveillance capitalism controls and documents human bodies, rendering them legible. Her project, being both opened up and flattened, makes this type of surveillance visible and literal by borrowing some of the visual and auditory elements of an airport security checkpoint.

The two-way mirror assembly. Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid.

At the centre of her installation is a six-foot-by-six-foot metal frame with two-way mirrors mounted in it — the same kinds of mirrors security officials would use to observe suspects without being observed themselves. Mounted to the mirrors are a series of silicone casts of various objects, arranged as if unloaded into airport security bins. A pair of rear projectors cause the casts to light up in sync with a voiceover, coming from a set of speakers. The disembodied voice makes cheerful-sounding, elliptical comments about surveillance culture ("a transparent body is a disciplined body") and commands the visitor to move around the space. The area is illuminated with Verilux HappyLights, a type of light fixture marketed as a treatment for seasonal affective disorder.

A silicone cast. Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid.

"Sites of capitalist consumption are increasingly equipped with surveillance technologies," Sophia says. "My work is a critique of these things, but it's a complicit critique. The notion of being rendered legible is disturbing, but there's also, at least for me, a desire to be perform legibility and transparency in sites like the airport and in digital networking, where you exchange transparency for access."

"Desire is woven through this. The desire to be transparent is this very insidious thing that many people internalize."

Simon Fuh

"I used to throw parties in my hometown, Regina, Saskatchewan," Simon says. "When I moved to Toronto, I found myself totally immersed in my graduate studies, but also really missing that social aspect. Throwing parties really gave me meaning at that time in my life." For his installation, Memory Theatre, he created an immersive environment intended to give a visitor the somewhat paradoxical feeling of simultaneously being at a party in the present, and recalling a party that happened in the past.

A visitor would see this upon entering the exhibition space. Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid.

The experience begins when a visitor enters a darkened room. (Simon's installation space was the Daniels Building's main hall.) The sounds of rain and footsteps emanate from speakers in the ceiling.

Inside the darkened room is a sculpture — a square, 12-foot-by-12-foot box with a faint greyish light spilling out from one side. On closer inspection, the visitor discovers that the light is coming from an open door in the side of the sculpture.

Inside the sculpture. Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid.

Within the sculpture, the aural landscape changes. The visitor hears a murmured phone conversation between two friends. One friend is telling the other friend, in almost too much detail, how to get to an after-hours club called Checkmate. As the audio recording progresses, a soft, low-register bumping, like the bass from distant dance music, begins to rattle the sculpture's walls. Meanwhile, the description of Checkmate gets more and more specific. A voice describes the bouncer, the music, the mood of the room. The party always remains just out of reach, on the cusp of perception.

For Simon, the work is at least partly a response to the pandemic, which has made the very idea of an after-hours party something of a distant memory — the type of memory one might have to fumble around in the dark to locate. "It's totally a nostalgic project," he says. "But it places the nostalgia in the present tense. We're activating memories from the past as though they're happening right now. That way of enacting memory is a really interesting way of thinking about memory's potential for reinvigorating a future event."

The pandemic-era shift to remote learning forced many Daniels Faculty students to get extra creative with their thesis projects. Milan Nikic, who presented his thesis in fall 2020, was no exception.

He had originally planned to display models for his thesis presentation, but the lack of a physical presentation space made him rethink the way he'd present that work. Instead, he ended up creating a 15-minute short film, titled Raft Islands.

Now, that film has gained Milan some international recognition. It was accepted by the International Architecture Film Festival Barcelona, where it will make its international debut as part of a short-film program on May 13.

"New and creative ways of representing architecture have emerged as a result of this pandemic," Milan says. "I never really explored storytelling and film as a medium before my thesis, but I found it to be a powerful tool to communicate the experience and atmosphere of the built environment. There is a lot you can show with just a simple pan of a camera."

The inspiration for Milan's short film came from a trip he took with his thesis advisor, assistant professor Adrian Phiffer, and the other members of Phiffer's thesis-prep studio. The group visited Tofino, British Columbia and made a stop at Freedom Cove, a giant floating home located off the shore of Vancouver Island.

The home — which is so sprawling and complex that it could be considered more of an artificial island — is an agglomeration of 12 floating platforms, cobbled together from salvaged materials. On top of those platforms is an off-the-grid homestead, complete with a cottage, gardens, dance floor, and artificial beach. The owners, Wayne Adams and Catherine King, are a pair of artists who began building the Freedom Cove complex in 1991. They welcomed the students and showed them around.

"I found it really fascinating to see how these two individuals lived in their environment, and how they managed to be self-sufficient atop this piece of floating infrastructure," Milan says.

He decided to use Freedom Cove as a jumping-off point for an imaginative exercise. His thesis project used film to weave a narrative about a future world where entire communities live on floating barges that are tailored to the needs of inhabitants. "I wanted to tell a story about a fictional future community that was inspired by Freedom Cove," Milan says. "As I was building physical models, a specific architecture evolved out of the necessity for them to actually float on water. I was quite interested in telling a story about how collective life was negotiated amongst individuals. Imagining a community on a floating island was a way to amplify that negotiation."

His film is an impressionistic mixture of water imagery and shots of his scale models. "I wanted the designs to feel like they were attainable to almost everybody, in the spirit of Freedom Cove," he says.

The Raft Islands trailer is embedded above. The International Film Festival Barcelona is not open to viewers outside of Spain, but Milan plans to make his full film available online at the conclusion of the festival.