Affording landscape

Abstract

In line with a new way to look at materials, waste streams, and opportunities to utilize existing processes within our environment, this project examines the potential for developing interspecies relationships, in this case involving the caching behavior of blue jays, to help form landscape. In developing this new relationship, we can take advantage of thousands of years of mutual evolution between jays and tree species. By increasing or effectively turning up one behavior (satiation of blue jays so that they cache more seed) and decreasing another (human behavior of mowing and leaf collection), this seed dispersal method can be guided in urban areas where jay populations are present. Analysis of the urban matrix for key criteria of canopy connectivity and food availability, as well as distance from larger habitat systems, will determine viable planting areas for oak and other large-seeded tree species. On-site factors such as presence of observers and surface treatment can work to encourage this caching behavior in the formation of a new aesthetic. By combining the idea of Jane Bennett’s “thing power” with utilization for use in landscape architecture, we can engage our environment and our imaginations for guided and beneficial outcomes.