Bridging Culture and Nature, a visual and informative online journal, is a collection of images created by students and professors from various backgrounds, fields, and experiences. Each one of us relates to the natural world in our own unique way; ergo each artist was given the independence to choose whichever aspect of the environment to display in his or her work. Because of this, the journal encompasses a wide range of ideas, from the sanctity of nature, to buying second hand goods, to redesigning systems. In creating this journal we hope that people begin to consider their own relationship to the natural world, how each of us can use our own agency to make a dent in solving the environmental crisis, and the role of art and design in this process. The inspiration for the journal came from Steve Lambert’s P.E.A.K. (Public Energy Art Kit) newspaper (http://www.energy-reality.org/art/), which was displayed in a fall 2014 Gallatin Galleries show, “Another Green World.” The first issue of Bridging Nature and Culture, the entirety of which appears on Confluence, was created as a final project in Jim Tolisano’s Interdisciplinary Seminar of the same name.

—Taylor Brock & Haley Gaston, December 2014

“Leave No Trace” by Haley Gaston

“Central Waste Park” by Taylor Brock

“Water and Oil” by Nicole Schenkman

“The Bauhaus Timeline” by Timoth Husson and Rayne Holm

“The Mountain” by Nicole Shaub

“Agbogbloshie” by Andrew Harvey and Sabine Teyssier

“What’s the Difference?” by Kristina Sokourenko

“Yams” by Robert Clinton

“UNNLEASH” by Rayne Holm

“The Noble, The Splendid, The Terrifying” by John Belknap

“New [Found] Life” by Dorothy Lam

“LIFExCYCLE” by Professor Natalie Jeremijenko

“Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned” by Gallatin Professors Peder Anker, Louise Harpman, and Mitchell Joachim