Liberal Studies Major Madeline Jacyszn Presents Positive Visual Climate Storytelling at AIC's Undergraduate Research Symposium

The 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium will take place on April 19th from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm in the Campus Center Auditorium.

Madeline Jacyszn's abstract for her submission to the Undergraduate Research Symposium.  She created the art in these courses: Digital Photography 1 and Cultivating Creativity.

This project would be artistic representations of two examples of positive climate storytelling via an illustration and photographs. The first representation would be of the mass orange peel composting experiment conducted by Princeton ecologists and orange juice manufacturer Del Oro. As requested by the ecologists, Del Oro diverted the food waste from its production to a section of degraded land. When revisited, it was found the land had richer soil and greater vegetation than adjacent land that hadn’t received the orange peels. The second representation would be of the Holyoke Dam and its relationship to the city of Holyoke. It provides Holyoke with its own hydroelectric power and has a fish elevator to alleviate the dam disrupting fish migrating upstream. The goal of both of these representations is to showcase that humanity being more integrated with the environment has positive impacts on the climate.

Trifold Illustration

Three-panel illustration of a section of land in Costa Rica undergoing revitalization in three stages, done using artist pastels. From left to right, the first section showcases the section of land in the first stage as a degraded section of pastureland under a red sunset sky. On the far right, the second section shows the land in the second stage, covered in agricultural waste, specifically orange peels, in an attempt to revitalize it. The third section, the middle, displays that the experiment was successful, with a noticeable increase in the greenery of the area and a hint that other life has also returned to the area with the birds flying in the sky. Pastels were blended with a human hand, due to the cardboard texture of the trifold not lending itself well to the illustration initially.

The process was part of an experiment started in 1997, where two ecologists struck a deal with orange juice manufacturer Del Oro. In exchange for a piece of Del Oro's forested land, it would be allowed to dump its organic waste (orange peels) onto a degraded former pastureland of the conservation area, free of charge. The intention was to see if the mass deposition of agricultural waste would be an effective, low-cost method of tropical forest restoration. Despite legal intervention involving a rival orange juice manufacturer, the site was formally evaluated 15 years later for the effects. What was found was significant differences between the control, or the area that had not been covered in orange peels, and the experimental area. In summary, the experimental area was found to have richer soil, greater tree biomass, higher abundance of tree diversity, and greater canopy cover.

This experiment is significant because it sets a precedent for recycling industrial agricultural waste as a cheaper method for forest restoration, which would in turn not only mitigate habitat loss of animals but also be a cheaper method of carbon sequestration.

Holyoke Dam Photograph

Photograph of the Holyoke Dam, with the city it provides hydroelectric power to seen in the background. The dam is notable because it not only is a source of green energy, but it also has accommodations for the fish of the river such as the Robert E. Barrett Fishway to transport migrating fish whose path is obstructed by the dam. The fishway has since had a modification to transport more fish.

As a resident of Holyoke, I have experienced personal benefits from living in the city powered by the dam. Particularly notable in my recent memory was an incident some years ago around Halloween, when cities in the Western Massachusetts area were hit by a blackout. Holyoke was exempt because the dam provided the city most of its power, and therefore was not affected by what hit the power sources of the other cities. It was a small incident but it stuck in my mind, which in turn made me appreciate what the dam does for the city. That was what inspired this photograph, with the Holyoke dam and Holyoke itself.

Draft Trifold Illustration

Colored draft of the three-panel illustration, done on paper with artist pastels. The scene was sketched out with pencil using images of Costa Rica and pictures of the experiment site as reference, before applying the pastels. Each color of the sky for the three panels was different in order to differentiate them as well as for aesthetic purposes. An early problem that was noted was that the pastels completely covered the pencil guidelines, which made it difficult to color in the illustration according to the sketch. It necessitated tracing over the guidelines with the pastels beforehand so they were still present enough to be used during the coloring stage but did not interfere with the look of the final image.

Another problem was encountered when recreating the draft on the trifold. After a successful sketch and reaching the coloring stage, the differences in texture between the paper used for the draft image and the cardboard of the trifold for the final illustration became evident. The draft image's paper texture, even while blended, lent itself well to a vegetative look for the middle panel, but the texture of the cardboard was too choppy. It had to be blended out with a hand to get full coverage of the pastel on the trifold, but this meant there was no longer any texture. This was attempted to be compensated for with some subtle gradients and a rough outline to simulate treetops.

References for the Orange Peel Experiment: Article and In-Depth Study

Reference for the Holyoke Dam: Info