Public Talks and WorkSHOPS

Borden’s public speaking and workshops are central to his practice of creating art and design in service of mission-driven outreach, educational program, and community-building around environmental issues..

COMMUNITY NATURE

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HYBRID VIGOR (ART x DESIGN X ECOLOGY)

The Hybrid Vigor talk includes an overview of collaborative projects from the complementary perspectives of art, and design, and addresses the practical challenges of creating and realizing such interdisciplinary projects. Borden shares his research-driven creative process, including challenges and opportunities, and highlights his collaborative approach to environmental communication at the intersection of landscape, creativity, and cultural event. Depending on the audience, Borden’s case study projects can include: Hibernaculum at Boston’s Innovation and Design Building, Hoosic River Expedition in North Adams, Triple Decker Ecology at the Somerville Museum, Hemlock Hospice at the Harvard Forest, and Warming Warning at Harvard University.

Our biggest environmental challenge is not rooted in ecology, but culture. In particular, without a shared ecological awareness, sustainable environmentally-sensitive practice remains out of reach. This talk presents a variety of Borden’s work as practice case studies. Borden’s interdisciplinary work, including his Charles Bullard Fellowship in Forest Research at the Harvard Forest, are contemporary examples of a creative practice focused on communicating ecological issues with an accessible combination of science, art, and design.

Typical length: 1 hour, including up to 20 minutes for discussion

FLAGGING FIELD PLOTS: HIGHS, LOWS, SWAMPS, and Other Hotspots

This professional development talk is geared towards art and design students and recent graduates and uses Borden’s career track as an example for developing an intentional self-directed creative practice. The conversation includes Borden’s initial work in the performing arts, his brief experiment as a corporate landscape designer, his tenure as a feral landscape architect, and his current practice as an independent creative working at the intersection of art, design, and ecology.

Borden walks the audience along a ten-year career path to highlight strategic successes, as well as failures and missteps, that shape his practice philosophy, process, and projects. Borden shares practice tactics, strategies, and victories including exhibitions, public installations, fellowships, grants, and self-made opportunities. Borden also highlights career setbacks and failures including exhibitions, public installations, fellowships, grants, and self-made opportunities. 

The talk is not a one-size-fits-all “how-to” presentation, but a hopeful, yet cautionary, conversation about creative growth and empowerment. 

Typical length: 1 hour, including up to 30 minutes for discussionsus.