This past year, Abbey developed a deep interest in the complexities of terminal illness and end-of-life experiences. A lack of accessibility to end-of-life healthcare options guided her creative and journalistic investigations. This set the precedent for the project she is now embarking on– a series of photographic audio slideshows exploring the relationship elderly individuals share with climate-related challenges in their personal lives and communities. This project intends to synthesize research, interviews, photo essays, and audio voiceover into intimate portraits of individuals reflecting on the impacts of climate change across their lifetimes. These stories will explore themes of community, aging, climate injustice, and resilience. Abbey hopes to generate meaningful conversations about the value of multigenerational engagement when building out ideas for a healthier and more sustainable future. As she has discovered throughout the past year, unique and rich reflections can be shared by people with an increasingly intimate understanding of mortality.

My project includes installations of multimedia works around an overarching theme that prompts the audience to reflect on their own relationship with nature. How can we live more sustainably with the wildlife around us? How does wildlife displacement caused by pollution, whether that is noise, light, or habitat, create a domino effect rippling down the trophic levels? The project ultimately fundraises for the protection of ecological diversity in Los Angeles, partnering with various organizations to use art, a universal language, as a way to increase sustainable practices. In a walkthrough, the audience sees a transition from disharmonious interactions between humans and nature to successful co-existence. In the end, the audience is given the option to scan a barcode leading to fundraiser details and incentives, similar to the format of a Kickstarter campaign, as well as more ways to become involved through other organizations with the same values. Moving forward, my goal is to narrow the project’s scope to address a more specific issue, such as the impacts of medical waste on the environment.

With climate change increasing both the frequency and severity of natural disasters, federal aid will not be enough to support the recovery of communities across the country. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index, Los Angeles County is the most vulnerable to its natural hazards out of every county in the United States. My film examines the increased impacts of natural disasters, the benefits of community-based resilience, and shares how the audience can become more resilient wherever they are. The world of disaster management is incredibly complex but it can be made more accessible through community initiatives and with the power of storytelling. Compassion is crucial to fighting the climate crisis. By telling informative, humanizing stories, we can create a network of support fueled by connection and resilience.

The Prescribed Burn of a Savanna Oak is a 20 minute eco-anxiety film that centers around when anxiety engulfs a woman as she cares for two children and a home in the path of a wildfire.

Below the Bunker is a photo series documenting the four public golf courses built on retired landfills in Los Angeles county. Golf continues to garner criticism for the resources it consumes, particularly in California where the demand for affordable housing continues to increase and record droughts deplete our water supply. Building a golf course on a retired landfill is a land use conscious strategy to provide golf for the public by repurposing land that is expensive to redevelop for housing or remote from urban centers. These locations can yield sustainability benefits, such as at Industry Hills Golf Course, which uses methane to heat and cool its facilities and effluent to irrigate the courses. However, building on retired landfills is not a perfect solution, and the photographs in Below the Bunker do not represent it as such. These courses can still occupy land in densely populated areas or drive up local housing costs, indicators of socially harmful urban planning. So, is golf just an inefficient use of land and resources that benefits a population of non-diverse, wealthy individuals with ample free time to hit a ball across a lush, sprawling lawn? Does a golf course built upon a retired landfill provide a counter to some of these issues? And lastly, how, or can a socially minded Los Angeles County golfer continue to enjoy the sport while acknowledging the social and environmental impacts?

I wrote my thesis on upcycling: it appears to be a solution in the fashion industry as something that truly can create sustainable garments, but in analyzing its feasibility in the business world, I found that it’s not scalable nor profitable as a means of creating on a larger, mass-produced scale.

As a designer and entrepreneur, this is a problem that I find great interest in. After attempting to start my own brand using upcycling as a means of creation (and realizing that the work put into it would never amount to a living wage because there’s not enough demand for these higher priced clothes) the creative side of me has realized that instead of trying to work around upcycling’s limitations, I should embrace them. So for my project, I’m creating a collection that highlights the craft required to make upcycled clothes, in hopes of inspiring an appreciation for these pieces, inspiring others to learn to mend and upcycle what they already have, and to convince people to support designers who make them. While large corporations may not find ways to make upcycling profitable for them, if more and more designers with large platforms begin to incorporate it into their practice even in small ways, we can begin to tackle the amount of waste that the fashion industry creates.

The collection is inspired by equestrian/horse motifs, which attempts to create a nostalgic element that would encourage the practice of holding on to clothes and passing them down. Horse themes are inherently sentimental to many, thus and would incite an emotional connection to the clothes. Equestrian inspiration is also often used associated with luxury, and in attempting to elevate the practice of upcycling in the eyes of the consumer, such a theme does well. The pieces are uniquely tied to this motif with the intent of being distinctive but not kitschy. The materials used are all second hand, deadstock, or vintage, and include: scrap leather swatches that are excess from the footwear industry, vintage trims and laces, as well as a linen tablecloth handed down to me from my grandmother.

While the majority cannot support an industry where upcycled clothes are created for the masses, the wealthy can. Therefore, we just must convince them that these pieces are desirable. This is the intention of Elevate.

Emotion House is an installation project, meant to serve as a cathartic space for people to express their feelings in a communal environment, encouraging self expression, vulnerability and emotional well being through sustainable environmental practices. It will be built in the back of the new USC Peace Garden, which is a cooperative gardening space that shares the project's values. The space itself will consist of one main room and 3 smaller rooms, all designated to a specific emotional release - Rage, Joy and Love. The space will be stationed to have ongoing, self led activities. There will be workshops held in the space, to learn how to actively incorporate sustainable practices into our daily lives. Emotion House will serve as a “home” where people can come and practice both emotional and environmental sustainability in a communal, safe way.

This project is a call to our personal reconnection with nature, in the form of an outdoor classical music concert featuring original compositions from USC music students and a guided meditation. Throughout the event, the audience will find various ensembles scattered throughout a large natural landscape, and will be able to walk through live performances of existing and original classical compositions, guiding their own experience. A group meditation will be held as a space for personal reflection and acceptance of our present role as humans on this earth.

In June 2022, Geosyntec, OLIN, and Gehry Partners, LLP published the Los Angeles River Master Plan, a 500+ page document that outlines a framework for potential development within the Los Angeles riverbed. The Master Plan envisions a different future for the river: one that still manages flood risk while also providing essential recreational resources for surrounding communities. On a single page dedicated to cultural assets along the river, the Master Plan states, “In order to realize a 51-mile arts and culture corridor for the LA River and to understand where gaps in these assets are, a methodology should be developed for the inclusive mapping of arts and culture adjacent to the river” (LARMP, 65). In response to this call to action, Leslie Dinkin, Hannah Flynn, and Nina Weithorn, partnered with Camille Shooshani, filmmaker and USC alum, plan to walk the entire Los Angeles River. The 51-mile five-day excursion will document and index the Los Angeles River’s current conditions with a particular focus on arts, culture, human access and experience of an ecological industrial landscape through mapping, photography, film, and narrative ethnography.

Once the core backbone of an extensive riparian ecosystem, the Los Angeles River is at an important crossroads with multiple entities and stakeholders considering its future and rethinking its current outdated single-solutionist condition, as identified by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in their LA River Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study (also known as the ARBOR study) (2015). Objectives in the ARBOR study include habitat restoration, neighborhood connectivity, and increased recreation, which would be invaluable to the communities adjacent to the river. Still, in its current industrial state, through both ecological and human adaptation, the concrete waterway is a Los Angeles landmark in its own right, host to countless public and underground art events and installations, each serving as a site or moment of human resistance in a landscape designed to keep people out.

How do we combat nihilism when our environmental landscape rapidly descends toward a harrowing future? How do we remain hopeful when all efforts of activism seem to be in vain toward a losing battle against unfettered free-market capitalism? And perhaps, the question is should we remain hopeful? My photo series seeks to address all these questions by combining seemingly antithetical concepts: fantasy and photorealism. Through this photo series, I am trying to combat hopelessness by stimulating creativity and whimsy. Let us flirt with escapism, daring to imagine the most fanciful environmental future. In returning from the world of the imaginative, how shall we maintain virtues of curiosity and perseverance in interacting with our environmental landscape for the better?

Kai UnEarthed (kaiunearthed.com) is a video game about young people in the future going through a coming-of-age ceremony to become wildtenders, people who help Earth heal from climate change. The game is set in the reclaimed ruins of youth jails and toxic waste sites that are healing through mycoremediation and other forms of symbiosis. Players guide the main character Kai as they face their anxieties, fall in love with their crush, and learn about their ancestors - including players themselves. To complete the coming-of-age ceremony, Kai must decipher artifacts left behind by people alive today. The game comes with an analog journal with its own minigames and reflective writing and art prompts. It features queer, non-binary, Black, and indigenous characters. The project emerged from abolitionist movements against a toxic youth jail in Seattle, and it is informed by Afrofuturist aesthetics and psychological research. It is a collaboration between Matthew Coopilton (formerly Hamilton), Olivia Peace, and Claire Hu, with Kaitlin Bonfiglio (KB) and Devonte $errano contributing music and sound design. It has been supported by USC professors Brendesha Tynes, Andreas Kratky, and Tracy Fullerton. It is also part of an emerging Abolitionist Gaming Network and has been featured in workshops hosted by the USC Abolition group as well as international conferences.

The project aims to help young people overcome despair about climate change by collectively imagining a future worth building and fighting for. Young peoples’ critical imagination is curtailed by apocalyptic news stories conveyed through social media algorithms that capitalize on sensationalism; many of them conclude that it is too late to do anything about climate change. We aim to counter this with a playful vision of a future where Earth is thriving, where characters in the game are looking back on people alive today and asking what we did or did not do to make that new reality possible.

A text-based prototype of the game can be played at kaiunearthed.itch.io. We also have a playable version of the full video game that is getting close to release but still needs some polishing and minor debugging. Screenshots from that prototype and a short film showing a player interacting with it can be found at kaiunearthed.com. We have invited people in their teens and early 20s, mostly Black and queer folks, to play the prototype. They found it engaging, and it helped some of them imagine taking action; one player said it helped them imagine how to connect Black liberation movements and ecological movements around climate change. They also gave us excellent feedback about what we can do to enhance the player experience.

We will use the Arts and Climate Collective grant funding to implement that feedback as we finish and release the game. Matthew will also seek additional funding to expand their critical game literacies research, incorporating Kai UnEarthed and other abolitionist worldbuilding games into critical game jams where young people use game design to prototype futures rooted in climate justice.

Ryu and a crew of ragtag filmmakers have an eccentric goal: sending the longest heliograph message in human history. While summiting the largest mountains in Hawaii equipped with custom mirrors, they must battle the elements to send a coded message over 200 miles. Why you ask? To be the best in history. The film makers are telling this story in an hour long documentary titled “A Long Reflection.” The original record was set in 1805 when a group of surveyors in Colorado and Utah sent a message 183 miles. Today, this will be significantly more difficult to accomplish due to the increased pollution, decreasing the visibility. The documentary will feature interviews with NASA scientists and climate change experts, describing our effects on the planet and the effects of climate change.

The Fruits of our Labor is a 10-minute-long short film with family at its center. Inspired by the very real consequences of climate change that we are already facing, this story is a wake-up call with a beating heart that focuses on emphasizing the fact that although the present is bleak and scary, if we join hands with one another, the future can be bright. It tells the story of Jana and the tree in her backyard that provides fruit for her family’s infamous dessert. As her father grows ill due to worsening pollution, Jana turns to the tree to try to save him. But when the tree’s health becomes jeopardized due to local forest fires, she must figure out a solution to save both her father and the tree - quickly.

A creative documentary exploring the damaging impacts of microplastics on the environment and human health. Researchers have found evidence that due to plastic overconsumption and lack of waste oversight, there are microplastics in our air, food, and water. Everyday, we breathe microplastics, we drink microplastics, and we eat microplastics. Previously we were unaware of the impact of this “Plasticene” but now evidence is emerging that microplastics are affecting our immune systems and may be contributing to the rise of autoimmune conditions. The same microplastics that are wreaking havoc on our ecosystems are also wreaking havoc inside our bodies. Bringing a personal lens to the subject, I want to investigate the connection between hurting the planet and hurting ourselves.

This is a series of oil paintings that mimic a zoom-in viewing perspective. Starting with how the past experiences construct my perception of swamp in the first painting, a strange and mysterious natural landscape, each painting experiments with different methods while zooming in on a corner of the swamp. Inspired by David Hockney's collage artworks, the illusion of space brought by the dislocated perspective makes me think of the impact of one's past experience on present feelings. Just like the twisted branches in the swamp remind me of the form of a stream, the cascading vegetation evokes the impression of terraces fields. Under the influence of literature, movies, and other media, the swamp was given a sense of danger and sinking; but with the study of biology and anthropology courses, new experiences awakened in me a new definition of the meaning of the swamp. The way people perceive the world is based on the association of things that bring similar feelings when faced with something new, and this way of thinking determines the attitude and perspective we adopt to see the world.

Understanding our individual responses pushed me to consider the countless, independent organisms within, so, I picked the left corner of “Looking at the Swamp” and zoomed in to create “Entering the Swamp” and then “Inside the Swamp.” I experimented with painting an oil painting like a collage, giving it more of a sense of motion than a complete landscape in “Looking at the Swamp”. Inspired by the method of screen printing plates, I carved various patterns in my paper sculpture and then permeated the ink through engraved plates to my painting in “Entering the Swamp.” For “Inside the Swamp”, I got the inspiration from Chunk Close and painted the zoomed-in snake with grid patterns.

Nature is sometimes “unfamiliar” to us because we are isolated in the city. But once we enter nature, we can discover the inextricable connection we have with nature as an individual. This emotional resonance will help us better understand the meaning of nature to our existence and inspire a deep-seated reverence and love for nature. I try to use this series of paintings to provoke people to rethink the relationship between individuals and nature, and to call on people living in the city to try to find their own position in nature. The lack of experiences in nature leads to a break in our emotional connection with it. We need this kind of thinking to value that human beings originate from nature, have always existed in nature, and will eventually return to nature. Nature is not an opposing object, but a vast, diverse, dynamic being that embraces our existence and deserves to be revered.

“Mud Kin: Mapping (contested) spaces of belonging” is an investigatory research mapping project on unearthing adobe, earthen and land-based projects as an indigenous and Latinx-led agent of transnational activism, creative belonging, knowledge-building, and indigenous resistance and preservation models along the Southwest U.S / Mexico borderland region. This participatory research empathetically documents and contextualizes the ongoing relationships, artistic participatory strategies, and issues of gentrification, capitalistic, and settler colonial tensions of indigenous and Latinx communities residing in the Southwest borderland space occupying indigenous spaces of belonging and dissonance. As a native Tejana and born and raised in the El Paso and greater West Texas rural area, my personal / family relationships to the borderland will be a guiding narrative for this project, as well as discussing the complexities of borderland natives facilitating these land-based projects and earthen-based activations. Adobe and earthen materials are an artistic thread supporting the overall narrative as a form of documenting the legacies of queer, indigenous, and BIPOC land-based, ecological interventions in participatory and experimental art strategies of land-back initiatives documented throughout the Southwest. The comprehensive “Activating adobe'' collective research project will take two forms - digital and a short-term interactive exhibition presented at USC Mateo Gallery in July 2023. The ongoing online land-based and adobe mapping project will present a first series of interactive short interviews of 10 Latinx and indigenous artists and land-based activists residing in LA and broader Southwest. The map will be featured in the exhibition alongside works of the participating artists.