Master of Landscape Architecture Program
Student Name: Kendra Klenz
Project Name: Future Relationships: Plastic-Driven Citizen Science in the Grand Trunk Wetland, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Course: Capstone
Course Instructor: Joseph Favour/Rebecca Krinke
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Plastic: it is within bodies and the fossil record; it is a vector for contaminants and can alter species relationships. Uncontained, plastic often makes its way into waterways: 22 million pounds of plastic enter Lake Michigan each year. At the mouth of the Kinnickinnic River, in the most urbanized watershed in Wisconsin, lies an inlet and wetland, which have been contaminated and reshaped over time through industry and fill. Here, collaborative inquiry (citizen science) is proposed as a method to understand how plastic moves through land, water, and bodies while simultaneously building and complicating a freshwater identity that Milwaukee promotes. Rather than cleanup or mitigation, this project proposes a public approach to testing and seeing plastic as an actor within the landscape.
PROJECT IMAGES
