Fall 2020
use the links below to navigate to a specific project
Project 1 | Prospect and Refuge
Site 1 | Smooth Flow, Still Void
Site 2 | Chaos and Stability in Flux
Site 3 | Solar Interrupted
Project 2 | Black Butte Ranch Interpretive Center
*project currently in progress — website will be updated at the end of semester
PROJECT 1
Site Analysis
Black Butte Ranch is a private plot of land with a rich history. It is situated in southwestern Montana near the intersection of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. Its proximity to Yellowstone National Park, as well as its situation within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, makes this plot of land extremely unique. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem -- which includes Black Butte Ranch -- is influenced by a number of factors today, including its chronological history, social and political location, economy, geographical location, sense of deep time, geology, and ecology. When I was conducting my research prior to our trip to the ranch, one of the things that most stood out to me was this region’s sense of deep time. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the best-preserved, intact ecosystems in the world. This became very apparent to me when we visited the site; Black Butte Ranch was minimally developed, and most of the land we traversed was ungroomed and unaltered by human intervention. This changed how I viewed the site. It framed this historic location as something deserving of preservation, and it gave me a sense of how vast this area’s history is. It made apparent how many systems are present on this site and how far in time these systems reach.
Site Analysis: A Day at Black Butte Ranch
Upon our arrival at Black Butte Ranch, I chose to explore the northern region of the ranch which encompassed a portion of the Gallatin River. After exploring the area, I chose three sites which I thought contained an interesting and diverse intersection of physical and virtual systems. On each site, I constructed a different intervention which served to change the energies of the site in some way. These three sites are marked on the map below.
