Restless: is an ongoing multi-format media and performance collaboration by Chelsey Blanke and Helen J. Bullard with the aim of celebrating Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes region,
through sharing stories about its culture and history, and the ways people are connected to it.
The project began as an experiment.
In the fall of 2014, limnologist Dr. Stephen Carpenter and artist Laurie Beth Clark, both professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received a grant from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). The grant would support an interdisciplinary collaboration between graduate students in the arts and sciences around a theme loosely related to ecological resilience. Their exact topic of focus was for them to determine.
So that was how we met. Helen was pursuing a PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences focused on the horseshoe crab and, Chelsey, a Master's Degree in Freshwater and Marine Science studying Great Lakes food webs. Through our shared interests in water and aquatic life, we almost immediately decided we wanted our project to be about Lake Michigan.
Ever since, we've been investigating and collecting stories in various ways. We've taken trips to state parks along the Lake's shore, visited museums, libraries, and archives, stumbled upon kite festivals, read books, and had endless conversations. We realized another major aspect of what we wanted to convey was the way Lake Michigan has brought us together. We've developed what we're sure will be a life-long friendship as a result of it, and we're sure others have had similar relationships inspired by it, relationships to it, or just great experiences on or around it (Or maybe even terrifying ones! We're sure there's a spectrum to this!).
Those are the stories we want to share, creating a dialogue around what it means to live near Lake Michigan and in the Midwest in general (just because Lake Michigan was our focus, doesn't mean we aren't acknowledging Superior and the others! And all our inland lakes to be sure!), and celebrating this treasured place.
through sharing stories about its culture and history, and the ways people are connected to it.
The project began as an experiment.
In the fall of 2014, limnologist Dr. Stephen Carpenter and artist Laurie Beth Clark, both professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received a grant from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). The grant would support an interdisciplinary collaboration between graduate students in the arts and sciences around a theme loosely related to ecological resilience. Their exact topic of focus was for them to determine.
So that was how we met. Helen was pursuing a PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences focused on the horseshoe crab and, Chelsey, a Master's Degree in Freshwater and Marine Science studying Great Lakes food webs. Through our shared interests in water and aquatic life, we almost immediately decided we wanted our project to be about Lake Michigan.
Ever since, we've been investigating and collecting stories in various ways. We've taken trips to state parks along the Lake's shore, visited museums, libraries, and archives, stumbled upon kite festivals, read books, and had endless conversations. We realized another major aspect of what we wanted to convey was the way Lake Michigan has brought us together. We've developed what we're sure will be a life-long friendship as a result of it, and we're sure others have had similar relationships inspired by it, relationships to it, or just great experiences on or around it (Or maybe even terrifying ones! We're sure there's a spectrum to this!).
Those are the stories we want to share, creating a dialogue around what it means to live near Lake Michigan and in the Midwest in general (just because Lake Michigan was our focus, doesn't mean we aren't acknowledging Superior and the others! And all our inland lakes to be sure!), and celebrating this treasured place.
Our research was supported through WARF funding up until June of 2017. You can read more about the grant in this Edge Effects article. Additional support was provided by the UW Center for Limnology, Art Department, Zoology Department, Centre for Culture, History and Environment (CHE), and the Robert F. & Jean E. Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies. We intend for it to be an ongoing effort on our own time. We'd also like to thank our dear friend Scott Larson (pictured in the forest above), who has supported us from the start and joined us on many of our travels.
