For this assignment, I analyzed the arrangements at a swim meet. Lots of arrangements for creating competition, winners and losers, quantifying “better” and “worse,” and creating situations for spectating and being watched.
In thinking about arrangements for my topic, I’m thinking about arrangements within the space of “rewilding” (in quotes because I still don’t know a better name for it, even though it’s tricky) with an eye toward the plant communities.
Hard arrangements:
- physical boundaries between developed land and “rewilded” land
- creating a sense of “other”
- creating a hierarchy of “good plants” and “bad plants”
- physical location of which plants are near which other plants, how close they are to humans and developed land, and what used to be in that space
Soft arrangements
- again, good plants and bad plants
- “native species” and “invasive species”
- arrangements between people and plants
- visitors
- caretakers
- dependencies on humans for planning, seeding, choosing which can stay and go
- arrangements between different plants
- which are dominant
- how are they competing with each other for resources
- how are they interacting with each other when they recognize the same species/different species
- arrangements between plants and animals
- predator and prey — animals preying upon plants
- creating homes for animals and bugs
- allowing this to happen with less human intervention
I’m sure there is a lot more that I’m not thinking about yet!