12-Month Faculty Research Fellow
Jane Wolff (MLA with distinction, Harvard University, 1992) is Professor of Landscape Architecture and the recipient of the 2022 Margolese National Design for Living Prize. Her activist research draws on her education in landscape architecture and documentary filmmaking; it uses drawing, writing, walks, and public installations to decipher and represent the web of relationships, processes, and stories that shape the everyday landscapes of the Anthropocene.
Fellowship Research Project—Absence: An Operational Definition
This project will explore absence through a paradox: water permeates Toronto, and yet most Torontonians don’t perceive its continuous passage through our everyday lives and landscapes. Water’s disappearance from view contributes to an absence of collective awareness about our own roles in the ecosystem, and the absence of awareness becomes an absence of agency as the city and its citizens—face urgent pressures for change. To speak to these gaps, I will use the JHI fellowship for the research and creation of a tool for landscape literacy: a field guide to Toronto’s water, the landscape relationships it supports, and the planning questions it raises.