Jason Dilworth, a faculty member of the Department of Visual Arts and New Media and graphic designer, will be pursuing connections with the natural world during his sabbatical leave.
He notes he has created a practice that uses physical exploration to investigate and explore human relationships within the natural world. Most recently, his work has been done through the collaborative Designers and Forests, which was co-founded with Daniel Bystrom and fellow Fredonia Professor Margaret Urban. Through workshops and events the trio has created tailored experiences for participants to explore, reflect and respond to different forests ecosystems, including projects in the inter-mountain West, in the northern Appalachian woods and in the fjords and interior of rural Iceland.
Mr. Dilworth’s sabbatical work is a continuation of these efforts and began with two artist residencies, one in Neskaupstaður, Iceland, where he worked with Ms. Urban to create an interactive storytelling project Norðotype/Neskaupkóda; and a second residency in Green River, Utah, where he worked as a Frontier Fellow for the community design project Epicenter. Through the community-based design efforts Dilworth is developing new course projects that will better connect Fredonia graphic design students to issues of environmental sustainability and ideas of design for the social good. As the sabbatical research and creative work continues during the spring semester, Dilworth will be focusing on creating publications that tell the stories of these varied projects.
