Practicing Greenland Inuit Carved Wooden Maps

A trek outdoors inspired our carved wooden map of a rocky waterfall located on the edge of McGill University's campus. Below is a picture of our first attempt to carve out the shape of the rocks that line the waterfall. It made us appreciate the detail and delicate nature of this Inuit tradition.


3 comments:

  1. It's so interesting to see the way you gave attention to the vertical elevation profile of the rocks, and how you used the negative space of the cutaway to chart a very precise profile of this space!

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  2. It was such an interesting experience of how we used our senses. We first eyeballed what we wanted to do. I wonder if this has anything to do with our cultural influence (similar to land surveying? Making measurements by eyeballing things?) We did not have much progress until we walked the path (and counted steps and looked at the rocks' positions in relation to each other)!

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  3. It's very surprising in our contemporary culture to find that we need to do something, with our bodies and all our senses, in a particular place, in order to really learn and understand. But it really is so! I am so impressed by the engagement and concentration everyone brought to these projects, even as they involved ways of learning so different from 'school desk' learning. The looking, the walking, counting steps, and really noticing details about these rocks -- how cool!

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