On Sustaining

Issue 5.2

Letter from the Editor

8 March 2021

The Process editorial board welcomes new and returning readers to Issue 5.2, On Sustaining. Sustainability has been a buzzword of environmentalism for decades, but after a year of unremitting pandemic, environmental and human disasters, remarkable activism, breakneck medical research, and the compounding destruction of ecological systems around the world, we are confronted afresh with the importance of sustainability—and the challenges of sustaining. How do we form movements that can endure beyond us? How do we know when not to sustain—to let go, adapt, grieve, or find something new? What does it mean to create something sustainable, to live in a sustainable way, to sustain ourselves and our communities in times of hardship? 

The undergraduate work featured in this issue considers sustainability in relation to traumatic disasters, marine ecologies, and built environments. But all three of the authors in this issue approach sustainability as a method for engaging with complex, interconnected systems, “ecologies” in a broadly encompassing sense. In “Burning Down the Santa Cruz Mountains,” Trevor Cambron recounts evacuating his home during the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire, interweaving personal experience with a reflection on the fragile, entangled factors surrounding wildfires, forest management, and human communities within and part of forest ecosystems. Nikki Ma’s series of Instagram posts, “Ocean Acidification: Effects on Marine Life and Ecosystems,” explores an ecological disaster that for many of us is far less visible than the destruction of wildfires sweeping through towns—but which is also having a devastating impact, and which also demands a multitude of solutions. And in “Neri Oxman and the Anthropocene,” Ella Rosenblatt examines the “material ecology” of designer Neri Oxman, which reimagines how humans build and interact with their environments. Rosenblatt’s essay makes explicit a question that threads together all three pieces in this issue: how can a deepening awareness of ecological systems transform our understanding of human and nonhuman relationships? 

As we are confronted with multiple, intersecting crises, we are also confronted with the need for solutions that account for the complex ways that systems function and interact. The work in this issue provides examples of the creative possibilities and difficulties of finding these solutions. We hope that this work sparks conversations, and we invite you to read the call for papers for our next issue, On Remoteness. We look forward to your submissions!

Sincerely,

The Process Editors

Burning Down the Santa Cruz Mountains: My Escape from One of the Most Destructive Wildfires in California’s History

Trevor Cambron

Cambron’s personal experience of evacuating the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire illuminates the necessity for a fundamental shift in our understanding of wildfire risk. By analyzing studies on fire policy, fire-safe building practices, wildfire history, and barriers to risk mitigation actions, this piece makes the argument that wildfire policy must comprehensively address ignition sources, fire spread, and human vulnerability. With Californian fire seasons only expected to become more destructive in the future, such a shift has the potential to save more lives, homes, and land.

Keywords: Wildfire risk mitigation, CZU Lightning Complex Fire, comprehensive fire policy, wildfire in California

Ocean Acidification: Effects on Marine Life and Ecosystems

Nikki Ma

In this Instagram campaign, Nikki Ma argues that ocean acidification is a critical issue affecting biodiversity loss around the world. Ma asks us to understand the current situation of our oceans and why it is crucial that we take action immediately.

Keywords: ocean acidification, carbon emissions, marine ecosystems

Neri Oxman and the Anthropocene

Ella Rosenblatt

Rosenblatt traces the history of ecologically-conscious, systems-based design back to 1970s speculative and critical design in Italy and the United States, as well as eco- and systems- based art. She draws on the work of Rosi Braidotti, Kathryn Yusoff, and Donna Haraway to argue that Neri Oxman’s Aguahoja subverts consumerist, object-driven design, traditional notions of human-nonhuman relationships, and extractive logics surrounding material to effectively concretize utopian, speculative ideas in her “material ecology” work.

Keywords: design, material, ecology, anthropocene