Environmental Dialog
The project “Environmental Dialog” is the result of the studio practice portion of an interdisciplinary course “Summer Study Abroad Italy” June 2015 and was a collaborative field experience of site specific installations and performances with City of Science, Second University of Naples (Hybrid Design Lab), Le Nuvole Theater Art and Science and Dedalus Social Cooperative. T
hese projects took place in the post-industrial district and waterfront of Naples, inside the City of Science, where the Interactive Science Museum was before it was destroyed by arsons in March 2013. Since then various initiatives were created to collect funding to rebuild the museum and with National and International support the reconstruction will finally take place. “Environmental Dialog” was an interactive exchange of three parallel events, the first, three site-specific sculptures made from recycled materials remaining from the fire that symbolize land, sea and the possibilities of regeneration; the second installation/design was an assembly of singular materials such as iron, glass, bricks, wood and presented to show the transformative nature of Fire. The final event was a Performance choreographed from oral stories to promote awareness of e n v i r o n m e n t a l issues and give visibility to the tragic stories of migrants approaching Italy from the Mediterranean Sea. This field experience was educationally rich in many ways such as exposing students to an environmental science landscape, introducing ways to work collaboratively on environmental issues and contributing to a cultural discussion that represents diversity and vision.
Senior Adjunct Professor
California College of the Arts
Born in Italy, Mariella Poli lives in San Francisco and is currently a senior adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts. She is an interdisciplinary artist working with installation, which includes photography, video, and film and her work investigates culture, identity, place, and the power of space. Her work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries. She has an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Poli has been teaching interdisciplinary courses in design and fine art at CCA that work collaboratively with Marmara University and BILGI University in Istanbul, Turkey; University IUAV, Venice, Italy; University of Cape Town, South Africa; and Goldsmith College, London. Since 2005, she has been the cocurator of several student exhibitions and catalogues in the United States and internationally.
