{"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.14288\/1.0448791":{"http:\/\/vivoweb.org\/ontology\/core#departmentOrSchool":[{"value":"Applied Science, Faculty of","type":"literal","lang":"en"},{"value":"Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/dataProvider":[{"value":"DSpace","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"https:\/\/open.library.ubc.ca\/terms#degreeCampus":[{"value":"UBCV","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/creator":[{"value":"Boehm, Odessa","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/issued":[{"value":"2025-05-07T23:09:43Z","type":"literal","lang":"en"},{"value":"2025-05-02","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/description":[{"value":"In animate worlds, many layers of existence are accepted and allowed to persist and intertwine, as everything\u2014from the earth, inanimate objects, plants, and celestial bodies\u2014is allowed its own enigmatic existence as other beings. What can we learn from this perspective of treating everything as alive and intertwined in conscious conversation? What does it mean to be \u201calive\u201d in an interconnected and interdependent world? And how can this perspective of a fully \u201calive\u201d world translate itself into our architecture?\r\n\r\nBy diving deeper into this question of what it means to be \u201calive,\u201d can other ways of being be understood, uncovered, and seen as equally valid in their experience and expression? This is a voyage into the realms of what our current frameworks have neatly defined as our \u201cother\u201d and proposes novel ways of interrelating and entering into conversation with the non-human elements that exist among us. This work will propose new methods for architectural site engagement that seek to honour and foster a deep respect for the agency of our world\u2019s \u201cothers\u201d by journeying through the senses, honouring the embodied experience, and employing heightened perceptual attunement. This approach aims to create space\u2014a gap\u2014that can be offered to the non-human and left to be filled in and exist on its own terms.","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/aggregatedCHO":[{"value":"https:\/\/circle.library.ubc.ca\/rest\/handle\/2429\/91042?expand=metadata","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2009\/08\/skos-reference\/skos.html#note":[{"value":"ODESSA BOEHMDiploma of Architectural Technology, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, 2015Bachelor of Architecture, Carleton University, 2021Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture\u2019 in The Faculty of Graduate Studies, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Architecture ProgramCommittee Members:Joanne Gates (Chair)Catherine KingRichard IsaacMay 2025 \u00a9An animate architecture: an architecture that attunes, listens, and moves in embodied relationship with the more-than-human world. iiiABSTRACTIn animate worlds, many layers of existence are accepted and allowed to persist and intertwine, as everything\u2014from the earth, inanimate objects, plants, and celestial bodies\u2014is allowed its own enigmatic existence as other beings. What can we learn from this perspective of treating everything as alive and intertwined in conscious conversation? What does it mean to be \u201calive\u201d in an interconnected and interdependent world? And how can this perspective of a fully \u201calive\u201d world translate itself into our architecture?By diving deeper into this question of what it means to be \u201calive,\u201d can other ways of being be understood, uncovered, and seen as equally valid in their experience and expression? This is a voyage into the realms of what our current frameworks have neatly defined as our \u201cother\u201d and proposes novel ways of interrelating and entering into conversation with the non-human elements that exist among us. This work will propose new methods for architectural site engagement that seek to honour and foster a deep respect for the agency of our world\u2019s \u201cothers\u201d by journeying through the senses, honouring the embodied experience, and employing heightened perceptual attunement. This approach aims to create space\u2014a gap\u2014that can be offered to the non-human and left to be filled in and exist on its own terms.INTRODUCTION PAGEAbstract.......................................................iiiTable Of Contents........................................vList Of  Figures.............................................viMedia List....................................................xiAcknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x i iIntention.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiiiDedication... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v Thesis Statement........................................xvi1. Into The Chasm........................................12. Within .....................................................193. Spiralled Eyes, Liminal Realms.............334. The Spiralled Chasm...............................58Endnotes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115Bibliography...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119TABLE OF CONTENTSvLIST OF FIGURESviiviFigure 1.  Collaged Photo of Self with Eyes Open within Musqueam Park. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 2.  Photo of My Mother Breastfeeding My Brother. Photo from family album, photographed by my Father, circa 1998.Figure 3.  Photo of My Grandmother with My Dad and Auntie. Photo from family album, photographer unknown, circa 1961.Figure 4.  In-Site Musqueam Park Photos and Sketch Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 5.  Into the Chasm - Site Photo, Hand Drawn Note, and Sketch Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 6.  The Spiral Nebula in Ursa Major: A Typical Spiral Nebula. n.d. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24798224.Figure 7.  David Gregory and Debbie Marshall. Virus, TEM. n.d. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24714617.Figure 8.  A Mule. Etching. January 1, 1810. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24846480.Figure 9.  Leonardo da Vinci. Study of a Man According to Vitruvius (Vitruvian Man). ca. 1485\u20131490. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.18117172.Figure 10.  Ernst Haeckel. The Evolution of Man. 1887. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24743213.Figure 11.  Albrecht D\u00fcrer. The Sun and the Moon. n.d. The Illustrated Bartsch. Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.12388495.Figure 12.  Cullenphotos. Totem Bears. Stock photo, iStock, uploaded August 22, 2009. https:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/photo\/totem-bears-gm91629330-10260645.Figure 13.  BirdImages. Totem Pole in Victoria, B.C. Stock photo, iStock, uploaded January 31, 2007. https:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/photo\/totem-pole-in-victoria-b-c-gm125564957-2812647.Figure 14.  Hans Isaacson. A Mountain Range with a Few Trees in the Foreground. Photo, Unsplash, published April 11, 2024. https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/EPwXHIImsUU.Figure 15.  Hans Isaacson. A Scenic View of a Mountain Range. Photo, Unsplash, published April 10, 2024. https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/AcpMp_eOhHU.Figure 16.  Piece of Rock with Fossil Marks. n.d. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24795952.   Figure 17.  Loonger. Dinosaur Fossil, Medium Triassic. Stock photo, iStock, uploaded April 27, 2011. https:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/photo\/dinosaur-fossil-medium-triassic-gm121132233-16360083.gm121132233-16360083.FrontCovervvxvi-xviixviii-xix233345567899LIST OF FIGURESFigure 18.  Brandon Stoll. Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado, USA. Photo, Unsplash, published November 18, 2024. https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/a-close-up-of-a-rock-wall-with-a-bird-perched-on-top-of-it-cHwWi1xFurw.Figure 19.  FlySnow. Fossilized Fishes. Stock photo, iStock, uploaded June 14, 2010. https:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/photo\/fossilized-fishes-gm176833300-13230714.Figure 20.  Mug. ca. 1800\u20131825. Porcelain. The Cleveland Museum of Art. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.35671426.Figure 21.  Mug \u2013 Broken. A.D. 400\u2013750 or later. Ceramic. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.15362263.Figure 22.  Atom Drawing Study. Hand drawing by the author, 2025.Figure 23.  Earth as Seen from the Moon. 1969. Visual Arts Legacy Collection, Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.13877539.Figure 24.  Earth Surface. n.d. Visual Arts Legacy Collection, Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.13881194.Figure 25.  Spiders: Webs (Close-Up 1). n.d. Visual Arts Legacy Collection, Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.13876443.Figure 26.  Spiders: Webs (Close-Up 2). n.d. Visual Arts Legacy Collection, Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.13876443.Figure 27.  Within - Site Photo, Hand Drawn Note and Sketch Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 28.  Fridolin M\u00fcller. Oskar Schlemmer Und Die Abstrakte B\u00fchne. 1961. Museum of Modern Art. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.14646121.Figure 29.  Perceptual Awareness. Hand drawing. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 30.  Squanquerillo, Costantino, and Martelli. Proportions of the Female Body. Lithograph, ca. 1840. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24832047.Figure 31.  Site Engagement. Hand drawing. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 32.  Musqueam Nation Home. Photograph by the author, 2025.Figure 33.  Dunbar-Southlands Home. Photograph by the author, 2025. Figure 34.  Annotated Google Earth image of West Vancouver. Google Earth, accessed November 4, 2024. https:\/\/earth.google.com. Annotations by the author, 2025.Figure 35.  Annotated Google Earth image of Dunbar-Southlands. Google Earth, accessed November 4, 2024. https:\/\/earth.google.com. Annotations by the author, 2025.Figure 36.  Annotated Google Earth image of Musqueam Park. Google Earth, accessed November 4, 2024. https:\/\/earth.google.com. Annotations by the author, 2025.10101111121314151617-182121-2222232626272829LIST OF FIGURESviiiFigure 37.  Annotated Google Earth image of Musqueam Park - Close-Up. Google Earth, accessed November 4, 2024. https:\/\/earth.google.com. Annotations by the author, 2025.Figure 38.  Spiralled Eyes, Liminal Realms. Site photo, hand drawn note, and sketch collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 39.  Receptive, Perception. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 40.  Experiment Location. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 41.  Site Plan of Musqueam Park. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 42.  Heron Vision. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 43.  Eyes Open 1. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 44.  Spot in the Sky - 1. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 45.  Spot in the Sky - 2. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 46.  Eyes Closed 1. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 47.  Moon Gaze. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 48.  Eyes Open 2. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 49.  Eyes Closed 2. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 50.  Takeaways. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 51.  Body Perception. Hand drawing. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 52.  It Starts With My Body. Collaged video stills. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 53.  Wombspace. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 54.  Knitted Bones. Video still. Created by the author, 2025. Figure 55. Musqueam Memory Map. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 56. The Line. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 57. Cedar. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 58. Houses, Houses. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 59. Cobblestone Steps. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 60. Soundscape. Collaged video stills. Created by the author, 2025.3031-32343537-3839-404143-4445-4647-4849-505153-5455-56576364666769-727375-767780ixLIST OF FIGURESFigure 61. Moon-morph. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 62. The Animate Realm. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 63. The Living Blueprint. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 64. Evolutions. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 65. Womb of the Earth. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 66. Milk and Seashells. Collaged video stills. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 67. Leaf Whispers. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 68. Weaving 1. Photograph of woven process work. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 69. Weaving 2. Photograph of woven process work. Created by the author, 2025. Figure 70. Forest Clearing Axonometric. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 71. Forest Clearing Photos. Spread of annotated site photographs. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 72. Periwinkle Ivy. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 73. Oregon Grape. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 74. The Spiralled Chasm: Arrival. Photograph of the  Spiralled Chasm in site.  Created by the author, 2025.Figure 75. The Spiralled Chasm: Final Weave. Photograph of the Spiralled Chasm  in site.  Created by the author, 2025.Figure 76. The Spiralled Chasm: Knealing Entry. Photograph of the Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 77. The Spiralled Chasm: In Stillness. Photograph of the Spiralled Chasm in site.  Created by the author, 2025.Figure 78. The Spiralled Chasm: Woven Realms. Photograph of the Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 79. The Spiralled Chasm: Star Shroud. Photograph of the Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 80.  The Spiralled Chasm: Petal Peepholes. Photograph of the Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.818485-8687899293959697-9899-100101102103-104105-106107-108109-110111-112113-114115-116xi\u201c2024.12.15 - 4:23pm - Eyes Open (1 hour) - Part 1,\u201d audio recording by author, Musqueam Park, December 18, 2024.\u201c2024.12.15 - 4:23pm - Eyes Open (1 hour) - Part 2,\u201d audio recording by author, Edmonton, December 18, 2024.\u201c2024.12.15 - 5:27pm - Eyes Closed (30 minutes),\u201d audio recording by author, Musqueam Park, December 18, 2024.\u201c2024.12.15 - 6:05pm - Moon Gaze (30 minutes),\u201d audio recording by author, Musqueam Park, December 18, 2024.\u201c2024.12.16 - 8:03am - Eyes Open (1 hour)\u201d audio recording by author, Musqueam Park, December 17, 2024.\u201c2024.12.16 - 9:10am - Eyes Closed (1 hour),\u201d audio recording by author, Musqueam Park, December 17, 2024.Available at the following link: https:\/\/drive.google.com\/drive\/folders\/1nhqOqXViQ3NCsQP1FBKcF9NVGm0fb1ia?usp=share_linkVideo 1.  The Spiralled Chasm. Video by author.   Published on YouTube, April 2025.   https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Knyp7KORQ7o.RECORDING LISTVIDEO LISTxiiTo my friends, my light, my laughter, and my strength and that this journey was never mine alone.Acknowledgment DEDICATIONABSTRACTThick wet leaves cover the earth. Lightly piled upon one another, with air filling the gaps between. They squish together as I sit down. Settling in for dark to fall. They are a reminder of the summer freshness, hot long days and abundant green, and a mark that this period of still, chilling, dormancy is temporary. The clucking of sparrows creates a disjointed rhythm in the air with spots of spotted towhee trills, cutting in and breaking up their pace. The drone of an airplane overhead fills my ears as worm eaten leaves catch my eye. I wonder if the worms enjoyed their meal. Preferential treatment. Top cluster of leaves. Amidst the tangled web of forest groundcover the sunlit sky peaks through the shadowy tree columns, poking its way through the gaps in the ivy cloud that has formed itself by snaking up the tree trunks. Frosty blue. Fade White. Fade Orange. Horizon. Car noise hums in the distance. Someone honks. Overhead two yellow leaves quiver and cling to their branches despite their surroundings a naked barren web. Breeze on neck. Chill down spine. Curled older leaves hang and wave at me, capturing more movement with their twisted and dry xiiiINTENTION 2024.10.16vxivINTENTION 2024.10.16xDEDICATIONFigure 3. (below) Photo of My Grandmother with My Dad and Auntie. Photographer unknown, circa 1961. From the family album.Figure 2. (left) Photo of My Mother Breastfeeding My Brother. Photograph by the author\u2019s father, circa 1998. From the family album.vThrough heightened sensory attunement, reciprocal listening, and honoring the embodied experience, can pathways open and reveal an architecture fully conscious in its alive interconnectivity, in conversation, and in participatory relationship with its surroundings.xviTHESIS STATEMENT:Figure 4. (full spread) In-Site Musqueam Park Photos and Sketch Collage. Created by the author, 2024.xvii2Our current dictionary definition of what it means to be \u201calive\u201d states that it is \u2018of a person, animal, or plant\u2014living, not dead,\u2019 with its Old English origins meaning \u2018in life.\u20191 Science has further framed and neatly outlined its own checklist for the definition of what it means to be \u2018alive,\u2019 through its eight characteristics of life: cellular organization, metabolism, homeostasis, hereditary, growth, response to stimuli, reproduction, and adaptation\/evolution.2Although this construct allows for the neat organization of what it means to be alive, it fails to reflect the dynamic interconnectivity and the richness of the entangled world we exist within. By adhering to this narrow classification of aliveness, the very construct of what it means to be alive is systematically laced with implicit bias, labeling what it means to be alive by the very essence of our being. This gate-keeping of aliveness reinforces the notion that humans\u2014and, to a lesser extent, plants, and animals\u2014are the distinct definition of what it means to be \u2018alive.\u2019 This human-centric lens disregards the EVERYTHING AS ALIVEintricate web of processes that sustain life, as if forgetting that our very existence depends on these systems, while labeling everything else as abiotic and therefore \u2018non-living components.\u2019 3When realizing the narrowness of our definition of what we consider to be alive, these concepts begin to quickly untangle, hierarchies collapse, and we find ourselves not on top, but amidst a living world of all things in relation to one another and enmeshed within the entangled web of life.By taking a closer look at the inconsistencies within the scientific definition, Indigenous animate worlds, inanimate objects, and the self-organizing chaos of the earth, can worlds filled with alive things be uncovered, recognized, and appreciated in their own redefinition of what it means to be alive. It is through this recognition of an alive and animate world that new pathways for engaging with an alive world, and designing an \u2018alive\u2019 and animate architecture, can be traversed and explored.Figure 5. (previous spread)Into the Chasm - Site Photo, Hand-Drawn Note, and Sketch Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 6. The Spiral Nebula in Ursa Major: A Typical Spiral Nebula. n.d. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24798224.Entering into the space between ourselves and the fully alive world we exist within...3When looking closer at the scientific definition of what it means to be alive, does it begins to unravel in its inconsistencies. For example mules, which are unable to reproduce and do not meet the criteria for the definition of an \u2018alive\u2019 organism, are widely accepted and considered to be alive.4 Additionally, there is much debate on the topic of viruses, since they require a host to replicate and metabolize and do not do this independently.5 However, by that logic, are humans truly any different? We, too, require the Earth for our very survival, dependent on it much like a virus is dependent on its host. It almost seems that this framework actively excludes and accepts things into the definition with implicit bias, perpetuating and reinforcing a hierarchical way of thinking that positions humans, animals, and plants as superior forms of life. This framework failing to capture the true interconnected reality of life in all forms. DEFINING LIFEFigure 7. David Gregory and Debbie Marshall. Virus, TEM. n.d. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24714617.Figure 9. A Mule. Etching. January 1, 1810. Welcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24846480.Figure 8. Leonardo da Vinci. Study of a Man According to Vitruvius (Vitruvian Man). ca. 1485\u20131490. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.18117172.1 INTO THE CHASM4This separation of humans from other natural phenomena is deeply entrenched in our scientific frameworks and is further perpetuated through overarching schools of Western thought and religion. Visual representations, such as The Great Chain of Being and Ernst Haeckel's Pedigree of Man, exemplify these hierarchical structures and philosophical frameworks that shape and underlie our perception of the world. 6 7 Both drawings organize life and matter into linear, hierarchical structures, positioning humans at the pinnacle of both spiritual and evolutionary constructs. Furthermore, the Vitruvian Man, a visual interpretation of Vitruvius\u2019s Ten Books on Architecture, emphasizes a human-centered approach, calling for an architecture scaled to the natural proportions of the human body.8Val Plumwood further unpacks these hierarchical systems through her concept of hyperseparation, critically examining the hegemonic frameworks that divide humans from nature, highlighting how we deny our dependency on the natural world and foster a false sense of independence and deny our role within a fully natural world.9 She describes how we see things as either fully human-made or fully natural, and fail to recognize their enmeshment, interconnectivity, and overlap. Additionally, she critiques human-centric views of nature, arguing that we overlook nature's own independent agency and the active role of non-human forces in shaping the landscape, advocating for a world that recognizes plants, animals, and nature as co-creators alongside humans.10 Only by recognizing and dissolving these built hierarchical frameworks, can we then begin to reimagine the future and design in more ecologically attuned ways that allow for, hold space, and honour life in all forms.HIERARCHIES & HYPERSEPARATIONFigure 10. Ernst Haeckel. The Evolution of Man. 1887. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24743213.Animate worlds, where animals talk, rivers listen, and celestial bodies like the sun and moon come alive are integral to many Indigenous cultures within North America and across the world.11 Although not uniform, the belief in animism manifests globally, and this way of seeing persists as the foundational philosophy and core belief of Indigenous cultures. This philosophy highlights everything as being personified, participatory, and part of an intertwined conversation and relationship with one another. This personification extends to animals, plants, and elements that Western thought has traditionally classified as \u2018inanimate,\u2019 such as rocks and mountains Through this personification, everything is recognized as having its own enigmatic essence, agency, and existence in a non-hierarchical way. Everything is recognized as being equally valid in its existence and as part of an intertwined living biosphere.Indigenous knowledge has evolved over millennia, navigating a relationship with the natural world to survive and flourish.12 Although often discredited due to its enmeshment with spiritual beliefs, it harbors ancient knowledge and sophisticated ways of navigating, understanding, and existing within the environment.13 This knowledge predates modern Western science by tens of thousands of years and modern science is only beginning to catch up and prove what Indigenous cultures have long perceived innately.14ANIMATE WORLDS5Figure 11. Albrecht D\u00fcrer. The Sun and the Moon. n.d. The Illustrated Bartsch. Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.12388495.Figure 12. Cullenphotos. Totem Bears. Stock photo, iStock, uploaded August 22, 2009. https:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/photo\/totem-bears-gm91629330-10260645.1 INTO THE CHASMFor example, plants have long been considered non-sentient by the scientific community.15 However, with modern advancements in technology, it has now been discovered that plants communicate through their root systems via mycorrhizal networks, \u2018see\u2019 by using specialized photoreceptors that detect their environment, \u2018hear\u2019 by sensing vibrations, and \u2018smell\u2019 through recognizing and responding to chemical compounds in the air.16 Furthermore, plants can learn and store memory through biochemical, electrical, and epigenetic mechanisms.17 Despite lacking a central nervous system like animals, plants have been proven to exhibit and respond to their environment and even retain information over time.These scientific discoveries disrupt the hierarchical understandings of the world, and transport us into worlds where other sensing forms exist and experience the world in ways beyond our perception. It also calls into question what other hidden understandings of our world are innately built into the very fabric of animism. Would ancient cultures truly have been able to flourish if these animistic sensibilities were purely a fantasy, illusion, or fallacy? 18 The pattern suggests the opposite, and that animism and the belief in the animation of their surroundings may have been key to navigating and ensuring their survival at a high level of advancement\u2014without relying on the technology that we have now come to depend on in modern-day. 6Figure 13. BirdImages. Totem Pole in Victoria, B.C. Stock photo, iStock, uploaded January 31, 2007. https:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/photo\/totem-pole-in-victoria-b-c-gm125564957-2812647.7This extension of personifying the fabric of our surroundings is the gateway to entering into a relationship with the non-human world. As David Abram describes:\u201cif we speak of things as inert or inanimate objects, we deny their ability to actively engage and interact with us\u2014we foreclose their capacity to reciprocate our attentions, to draw us into silent dialogue, to inform and instruct us.\u201d 19 This highlights how segregating our world into what we consider to be \u2018alive\u2019 and \u2018unalive\u2019 or inanimate directly denies our ability to engage and enter into relationships with certain elements of our world, casting them out and othering them.Can restructuring what we consider to be \u2018alive\u2019 change how we perceive the world? How would this change how we design, engage, and interact with inanimate things? Are inanimate things, in fact, alive? Should we include the concept of \u2018alive\u2019 to consider and encompass all things? What would this mean? And how could redefining our understanding of \u2018alive\u2019 to include all matter change our relationship with the the built environment?Figure 14. Hans Isaacson. A Mountain Range with a Few Trees in the Foreground. Photo, Unsplash, published April 11, 2024. https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/EPwXHIImsUU.1 INTO THE CHASM8Figure 15. Hans Isaacson. A Scenic View of a Mountain Range. Photo, Unsplash, published April 10, 2024. https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/AcpMp_eOhHU.INANIMATE THINGSWhen we take a closer look at inanimate objects, we begin to uncover the life within them. From rocks to mugs, these objects start to reveal a life of their own. Moreover, with an ecologically evolving mindset, we are already striving to design inanimate things with a full life-cycle in mind\u2014from creation to eventual decomposition.20Rocks, for instance, often perceived as static and unmoving, reveal a dynamic story when viewed through an expanded frame of time: a life cycle of transformations, subtle movements, and the capacity to harbor memories. Rocks exhibit a life cycle through what is commonly known as the rock cycle.21 They are \u2018birthed\u2019 from molten magma, then undergo a series of transformations through cooling, weathering, erosion, heat, pressure, compaction, and cementation, forming either igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary rocks, or sediments. Additionally, rocks are constantly moving and interacting with their environment, albeit at timescales that are difficult for humans to perceive. This movement occurs through plate tectonics, erosion, weathering, and their transportation by a plethora of organisms.22 They also hold time within their layers, as if storing memories that aid us in understanding ancient life through fossils, preserving Earth's biological and geological history.This logic of understanding how rocks harbor a life cycle and memory can be applied to the objects we create and fill our \u2018human\u2019 worlds with. Take a mug, for example. Its life-cycle starts from raw organic materials, then extracted, shaped, and transformed through manual or industrial methods, fired and glazed, to eventually become part of our everyday rituals. Over time, the mug may chip, crack, or become worn, acquiring physical imprints of its life\u2014a visual history of use and transformation. Eventually, it 9Figure 16. Piece of Rock with Fossil Marks. n.d.. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24795952.Figure 17. Loonger. Dinosaur Fossil, Medium Triassic. Stock photo, iStock, uploaded April 27, 2011. https:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/photo\/dinosaur-fossil-medium-triassic-gm121132233-16360083.1 INTO THE CHASMFigure 19. FlySnow. Fossilized Fishes. Stock photo, iStock, uploaded June 14, 2010. https:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/photo\/fossilized-fishes-gm176833300-13230714.Figure 18. Brandon Stoll. Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado, USA. Photo, Unsplash, published November 18, 2024. https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/a-close-up-of-a-rock-wall-with-a-bird-perched-on-top-of-it-cHwWi1xFurw.1011may be discarded, allowing it to gradually decompose back into its mineral components, returning to the Earth from which it came.The mug exhibits movement not only in its creation but also in its journey across trade networks, from factories to homes. It continues this movement through daily use, traveling from cupboards to dishwashers and back again, becoming part of intimate, repetitive rituals that connect us to the material world. As humans, we often form relationships with these objects, encoding them with meaning\u2014memories of a person, a moment, or a feeling. The scratches, stains, and dents they gather become tangible records of their existence and interaction with us, embodying both a memory and transformation.Through this lens, we can begin to see how rocks and mugs are not so different, existing with lives of their own within the microcosm of a bio-organic world. A world where nothing is static. The perceived boundaries of our definition of \u2018life\u2019 fall even further when we consider that everything we touch, interact with, or engage with is made from the same material: particles whirling and dancing in ceaseless vibration.23 We draw lines between the human world and the natural world, and between ourselves and inanimate things. However, we are all made up of the same material that creates all things on Earth. This interconnectedness of matter highlights the many ways we aim to segregate and divide ourselves from other things in order to preserve our own superiority. However, if you look close enough\u2014down to the subatomic level\u2014you would see that humans, mugs, and rocks are fundamentally made from the same substance: particles vibrating in space.Figure 20. Mug. ca. 1800\u20131825. Porcelain. The Cleveland Museum of Art. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.35671426.Figure 21. Mug \u2013 Broken. A.D. 400\u2013750 or later. Ceramic. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.15362263.1 INTO THE CHASMThe Law of Conservation of Mass tells us that matter is never created nor destroyed\u2014it simply changes form.24 From the atoms in a rock, a mug, or our own human bodies, the matter that makes up our entire world is born from the same stardust that has created the planets, stars, and galaxies.25 This understanding underscores the unity of all things within our biosphere and breaks down what we would conventionally deem as \u201cnatural\u201d and \u201cman-made,\u201d showcasing how everything is inherently part of the natural world due to its origins in matter. Everything is made from organic matter despite mechanization and industrialization obscuring these origins. Even the most synthetic-seeming objects are derived from nature and will eventually return to the Earth over time.By recognizing the similarities between ourselves and the inanimate, we can trace pathways and break down the barriers we have constructed, revealing that all matter exists within an alive, vibrating world\u2014a dynamic and interconnected system where everything is alive in its own way, formed from and existing within the ever-living, changing, and transforming fabric of natural matter.12Figure 22. Atom Drawing Study. Hand drawing by the author, 2025.SELF-ORGANIZING CHAOSAlthough often overlooked and pushed to the frayed edges of our consciousness, it is essential to remember the unity of all matter, despite our perception of separateness. Recognizing this interconnection reveals how we are part of an intertwined and interdependent web, woven into a dynamic relationship with everything around ourselves. We exist as part of a living, breathing, beating world, and any notion that perpetuates our separateness is merely an illusion.The Earth itself can be understood as a giant living organism, a concept proposed by James Lovelock\u2019s Gaia Hypothesis.26 This hypothesis suggests that the Earth operates as a self-regulating, interconnected system that mirrors many functions we use to define living organisms. While not \u2018alive\u2019 in the traditional sense, the Earth exhibits processes that align with the criteria biologists use to define life: energy transformation, maintenance of balance, growth-like changes, reactions to external forces, cycles of regeneration, and the capacity for adaptation.27 Metaphorically, it even demonstrates reproduction as it regenerates and renews itself.13Ferris Jabr describes this perspective, stating:\u201cWhen we\u2019re looking at the planet, we see life-like qualities, things that resemble the characteristics of the organism, which is the most familiar life form to us. But it is not exactly the same. It is still genuinely alive, in my opinion, but is not exactly an organism.\u201d 28This perspective allows us to see the Earth not merely as a static entity but as a vibrant, interconnected whole. It re-frames our understanding of the world as inherently and completely \u2018alive\u2019\u2014a dynamic network where every element, from the wind, water, and rain to the plants and minerals, contribute as equally valid life components. Every single thing on Earth made from the Earth itself, and animated as part of its whole, as living matter in motion.29 All things existing in ongoing, participatory relationship with one another, collectively sustaining the greater system of life on Earth.Figure 23. Earth as Seen from the Moon. 1969. Visual Arts Legacy Collection, Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.13877539.1 INTO THE CHASM14Figure 24. Earth Surface. n.d. Visual Arts Legacy Collection, Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.13881194.\u201cMany things in our universe have very high degrees of animation. Far from declating that animism is superstitious or unscientific, modern Western science affirms that animism is a scientifically accurate and sophisticated way of understanding nature. Our universe is ultimately an ocean of entangled quantum bits of information...So perhaps the ultimate scientific definition of animism is this: all the complexity of our universe emerges from the self-organization of entagled qubits\u201d- Eric Steinhart 30  ALIVE ARCHITECTURE REALITIES1 INTO THE CHASM15When looking closer at the scientific definition of \u2018alive,\u2019 we can see how it fails us as a humanity, disregarding the inherent alive quality in all things. These frameworks and definitions contribute to the hyperseparation and human-exceptionalism around us, and are reflected within our built environment as we divide things into human-made or \u2018natural.\u2019 When adopting an animate approach that acknowledges the life in all matter within a living, interconnected world, can we then begin to let this guide its design. How, then, can architecture, a seemingly inanimate object, reflect and emphasize this quality of a world made entirely of living, animated matter? How do we engage with it, as each thing, from plants to animals to objects, has its own inherent agency as living beings? How can we listen, learn, and allow them to participate in the design process? And how can we design architecture to usher in this acknowledgment of the fully alive and animate world we live in...Figure 25. Spiders: Webs (Close-Up 1). n.d. Visual Arts Legacy Collection, Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.13876443.16Figure 26. Spiders: Webs (Close-Up 2). n.d. Visual Arts Legacy Collection, Artstor. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.13876443.Figure 27. (previous page) Within - Site Photo, Hand-Drawn Note, and Sketch Collage.Created by the author, 2024.My body and senses as a bridgeinto other realms of existence. Only when adopting the perception of a fully alive and animate world, do we then allow the enigmatic existence of the other to exist as an equally divine participant in the construction and concept of our world. Existing with its own agency, form, and sensory experience that is incomprehensible to us as humans. Denying things their aliveness directly denies our ability to engage with them. Only by seeing everything as part of an interlaced and enmeshed world can we open doorways into a participatory relationship with those that we deem to be \u201cOur animal senses are neither deceptive nor untrustworthy; they are our access to the cosmos. Bodily perception provides our most intimate entry into a primary order of reality that can be disparaged or dismissed only at our peril. Far from offering an untrustworthy account of things, our senses disclose an ever-shifting reality that is not amenable to any finished account, an enigmatic and encompassing field of relationships to which we can only apprentice ourselves.\u201d - David Abram 31  our others: plants, animals, inanimate objects, the elements, architecture, and essentially all matter.How then do we communicate, learn, and allow the knowledge of the other to come through? How can we hold space and allow for the multiplicities of agency that exist within a fully alive world? And how do we let all things contribute to its design, directly learning from our others without imprinting our own constructs and logical perceptions onto them? 20David Abram suggests that humans enter into participatory relationships with other things through sensory, bodily contact, and direct interaction.32 Furthermore, Abram emphasizes that humans are inseparable from what they perceive and are, in turn, perceived by the surrounding earth, plants, and animals. A two-sided perception. This understanding highlights how our bodies, their placement and the senses become a bridge into perceiving the realms of our forgotten relationship with the all-encompassing earth. He continues to describe how the phenomenological experience of how we perceive our world is, in fact, a truer reflection of our experience within the world than that described by science. He explains how: \u201c The sciences consistently overlook our ordinary, everyday experience of the world around us. Our direct experience is necessarily subjective, necessarily relative to our position or place in the midst of things, to our particular desires, tastes, and concerns. The everyday world in which we hunger and make love is hardly the mathematically determined \u201cobject\u201d toward which the sciences direct themselves.\u201d33This description highlights the reality of our direct perception\u2014a reality entangled with messy internal dialogues, emotion, and augmented through relationships steeped with feeling. It is through this understanding that direct contact, sensuous immersion, and an honouring of the animate senses be prioritized within this research methodology. Site-based, routine interaction and engagement will lead the way as space is held through heightened perception and presence for our world\u2019s \u2018others,\u2019 honouring what comes through as their communication.THE BODY, SENSES & DIRECT INTEGRATIONFigure 28. Fridolin M\u00fcller. Oskar Schlemmer Und Die Abstrakte B\u00fchne. 1961. Museum of Modern Art. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.14646121.21 22WITHIN 2Figure 30. Squanquerillo, Costantino, and Martelli. Proportions of the Female Body. Lithograph, ca. 1840. Wellcome Collection. https:\/\/jstor.org\/stable\/community.24832047.Figure 29. (full page) Perceptual Awareness. Hand drawing. Created by the author, 2024.It is through these understandings that a new method for architectural site engagement can be proposed in a way that honours the agency and aliveness of our interconnected world. Current architectural practices prioritize site visits, however the site is usually only visited once with the conditions analyzed formulaically through Google Earth, photos, sun and wind path diagrams, and maps of their urban surroundings. Although these methods are valid and necessary for the design process, they never fully allow the space for the site to speak for itself, honouring its agency and inherent aliveness. Additionally, when on-site, photos are snapped constantly, trying to capture as much information as possible within an allotted period of time, never offering the site the same state of presence or reciprocal listening we would offer a friend if we were meeting them for coffee. We privilege community engagement; however, never leave the same space for the non-human elements within our world to engage with us.What happens when we hold the space, offering reciprocal listening and presence to the site in its own right and agency? How do we begin? What would come forth? This is an attempt to bridge the chasm that currently exists between ourselves and our non-human counterparts through reciprocal listening, attunement, presence, and space. SITE ENGAGEMENTFigure 31. (page spread) Site Engagement. Hand drawing. Created by the author, 2024.232  WITHIN241. Direct & Routine Contact with the Site2. Heightened Listening, Presence, Receptivity, and Attunement3. Honouring theEmodied ExperienceMETHODOLOGYIt was crucial to select a site that was accessible for consistent visits, allowing for a relationship to deepen and build over time. Musqueam Park became the natural choice, given its proximity to my home and its role as a familiar part of my running trail. After a full year in this neighborhood, I have witnessed the seasonal shifts of Musqueam Park, memorizing its path with my body and senses\u2014and, in a way, the park has reciprocally come to know me. Musqueam Park also serves as a physical and symbolic bridge between the Indigenous Musqueam Nation and the affluent Southlands neighborhood. The Southlands, with its extravagant homes, sprawling properties, and horseback riders, exists as a kind of self-contained enclave of wealth, whiteness, and privilege. This intersection between neighbourhoods is starkly felt within the urban landscape and the park acts as a bridge space where people from both neighbourhoods come to enjoy the outdoors. The park is a bridge between both Indigenous and settler colonialism and, in this way, a catalyst for creating understanding, two-eyed seeing, and communication between demographics. Being part Cree on my mother\u2019s side, I feel the intersection of Indigenous knowledge and Western philosophies within myself, and Musqueam Park becomes a perfect expression of this internal and external duality, fostering connection and communication between both of these worlds.SITE: MUSQUEAM PARK25VISITS SINCE STARTING ENGAGEMENT: September 21st, 2024September 23th, 2024October 12th, 2024October 14th, 2024 October 21st, 2024November 2nd, 2024November 4th, 2024November 5th, 2024November 9th, 2024November 5th, 2024November 25, 2024*December 4th, 2024December 15th, 2024*December 16th, 2024*December 17th, 2024December 18th, 2024January 15, 2025January 22, 2025January 25, 2025January 26, 2025January 27, 2025January 29, 2025February 4, 2025February 9, 2025February 10, 2025February 13, 2025February 17, 2025March 22, 2025March 25, 2025 April 7, 2025April 18, 2025* Key Engagement SessionVISITS PRIOR:50TOTAL VISITS: 8126Figure 32. (top) Musqueam Nation Home. Photograph by the author, 2025.Figure 33. (bottom) Dunbar-Southlands Home. Photograph by the author, 2025.WITHIN 2M U S Q U E A MP A R KPACIFICSPIRIT PARKUBCMUSQUEAMNATIONDUNBAR - SOUTHLANDSDUNBARSPANISH BANKSBEACHKITSILANOBEACHWRECKBEACHFRASER RIVERSTRAIT OFGEORGIABURRARDINLETWEST POINT GREYKITSILANO27SITE: MUSQUEAM PARKThese two maps situate Musqueam Park within the broader spatial fabric of Vancouver. Figure 35 traces the running trail commonly used to access the park, revealing how the site is interwoven with local activities such as fishing, horseback riding, and golfing. This route offers valuable insight into the neighborhood\u2019s rhythms and relationships, deepening an understanding of the park\u2019s connection to its context and community dynamics.Figure 34. Annotated Google Earth image of West Vancouver. Google Earth. Accessed November 4, 2024. https:\/\/earth.google.com. Annotations by the author.SW MARINE DRIVEFRASER RIVERSAVE-ONFOODSMUSQUEAM NATIONPOINT GREY GOLF+ COUNTRY CLUBMUSQUEAM GOLF +LEARNING ACADEMYDEERINGISLANDHOME41st Ave.IONA ISLANDSW Marine DriveBlenheim Street28WITHIN 2Figure 35. Annotated Google Earth image of Dunbar-Southlands, Google Earth. Accessed November 4, 2024. https:\/\/earth.google.com. Annotations by the author.M U S Q U E A MP A R KDUNBAR - SOUTHLANDSSITE: MUSQUEAM PARK29M U S Q U E A MP A R K49th StreetSoccer FieldSW MARINE DRIVEHum Lum Sum DriveMUSQUEAMNATIONSOUTHLANDS50th StreetFigure 37. (top) Annotated Google Earth image of Musqueam Park - Close-Up. Google Earth. Accessed November 4, 2024. https:\/\/earth.google.com. Annotations by the author.WITHIN 23049th StreetSoccer FieldHum Lum Sum DriveSOUTHLANDS50th StreetCHOSEN SITESite EngagementLocationM U S Q U E A MP A R KFigure 36. (page left) Annotated Google Earth image of Musqueam Park. Google Earth. Accessed November 4, 2024. https:\/\/earth.google.com. Annotations by the author.Unveiling other receptive, perceptive realities. This next portion of this work is an exploration of what can be garnered when we listen, attune, and honour our embodied senses when in positional relationship to the others of our world. By sitting within the forest in a receptive, perceptive state with eyes both open and closed, this work prioritizes embodied experience and is left raw and unfiltered. It is not meant to be fully understood, scientifically dissected, or rationalized, as emotion, anecdotal experience, and feelings are given full priority. It recounts one experience\u2014a vision experienced in the woods after sitting with a regularly visited tree with my eyes closed on November 25th, 2024, around 2:30pm\u2014and then further structures a sensory experiment into two sessions that took place on December 15th, around sunset at 4:23pm, and December 16th, around sunrise at 8:03am. These sessions were structured into two-hour periods where I would sit with the same tree\u2014one hour with my eyes open, noting everything I perceived, and the other attempted hour sitting with my eyes closed.This experiment, for me, has been transcendental as it transported me through petal portals and into worlds of dancing herons, and morphing moons. This is my account of my journey into the woods, attempting to learn, listen, and communicate with the \u2018others\u2019 of our world\u2014entering with questions and often leaving with more.34Figure 39. (page spread) Receptive, Perception. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 38. (previous page spread) Spiralled Eyes, Liminal Realms. Site photo, hand-drawn note, and sketch collage, created by the author, 2024.353  SPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMSFigure 40. Experiment Location. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.ENGAGEMENT SESSION PAGENovember 25th, 2024 - 2:30 pm 35-36Eyes Closed (20 minutes)December 15th, 2024 - 4:23 pm 37-46Eyes Open (1 hour)Eyes Closed (30 minutes)Moon Gaze (30 minutes)December 16th, 2024 - 8:03 am 47-50Eyes Open (1 hour)Eyes Closed (1 hour)EXPERIMENT OUTLINEThe next section is accompanied by audio recordings to provide a more immersive sensory experience. All of these recordings have been recorded within the site at times similar to their experiential descriptions. The only recording not made within the site is the \u20182024.12.15 - 4:23 pm - Eyes Open (1 hour) - Part 2\u2019 recording, as this footage was lost. Additionally, the November 25th, 2024, experience currently exists without a recording.All of these recordings have been left in their raw format:https:\/\/drive.google.com\/drive\/folders\/1nhqOqXViQ3NCsQP1FBKcF9NVGm0fb1ia?usp=share_link36SITE PLANThis site plan illustrates the layered, immersive experience of navigating the selected single block of Musqueam Park, mapping both the location, journey, and the imagery encountered along the way.Figure 41. Site Plan of Musqueam Park. Created by the author, 2025.38SPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMS 3NOVEMBER 25, 2024 - 2:30 pmeyes closed - 20 minutes(NO RECORDING)SPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMS 340413  SPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMSFigure 43 . Eyes Open 1. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 42. (previous page spread) Heron Vision. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.DECEMBER 15, 2024 - 4:23 pm(eyes open - 1 hour)42Thick, wet leaves cover the earth. Lightly piled upon one another, with air filling the gaps between. They squish together as I sit down, settling in for dark to fall. They are a reminder of the summer freshness, hot, long days and abundant green, and a mark that this period of still, chilling dormancy is temporary. The clucking of sparrows creates a disjointed rhythm in the air, with spots of spotted towhee trills cutting in and breaking up their pace. The drone of an airplane overhead fills my ears as worm-eaten leaves catch my eye. I wonder if the worms enjoyed their meal. Preferential treatment. Top cluster of leaves.Amidst the tangled web of forest groundcover, the sunlit sky peaks through the shadowy tree columns, poking its way through the gaps in the ivy cloud that has formed itself by snaking up the tree trunks. Frosty blue. Fade white. Fade orange. Horizon. Car noise hums in the distance. Someone honks.Overhead, two yellow leaves quiver and cling to their branches despite their surroundings: a naked, barren web. Breeze on neck. Chill down spine. Curled, older leaves hang and wave at me, capturing more movement with their twisted and dry contours.A soft breeze moves through the forest, creating cascading whispers of leaves in motion. A communal, subtle noise of branches and leaves shifting, resettling, and brushing up against one another at the whim of the wind. A lesson on going with the flow. A bug crawls across my page. Slow spiral. Gone.Car noise, honk.Dog bark\u2014once. Two times. Once again. No bird noise.The soft glow of a house on 49 Street peaks through the trees, coaxing and promising warmth and shelter. A pair of birds fly through the air above the treetops, trilling as they streak past. Some taller tree trunks sway quietly in the breeze, their tops unsheltered from the wind. A chill creeps up my knees as the glow from the house in the distance seems to expand. Three dog barks.A pink haze starts to glow from the sky as ducks quack, and a bird I don\u2019t recognize lets out a call. A siren starts to wail as I check the time. 30 minutes. The sound of the siren cuts into the air with waves, sharp zigzags, and BB gun noises. The porch light of the house flicks on and off as the siren continues on. With the siren still wailing, the coyotes in the distance chime in. The people from the house leave, and their car rumbles off their driveway. The sky is now a dark blue and pink. The forest settles as cracks encircle me. The drone of cars in the distance, a stabilizing constant.RECORDING: 2024.12.15 - 4:23pm - Eyes Open (1 hour) - Part 1.m4aFigure 47. (page 45-46)  Moon Gaze. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 46. (page 43-44) Eyes Closed 1. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 45. (page 41-42)  Spot in the Sky - 2. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 44. (page 39- 40) Spot in the Sky - 1. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.DECEMBER 15, 2024 - 4:23 pmeyes open - 1 hourRECORDING: 2024.12.15 - 4:23pm - Eyes Open (1 hour) - Part 2.m4aSPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMS 344DECEMBER 15, 2024 - 4:23 pmeyes open - 1 hourRECORDING: 2024.12.15 - 4:23pm - Eyes Open (1 hour) - Part 2.m4aSPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMS 346DECEMBER 15, 2024 - 5:27 pmeyes closed - 30 minutesSPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMS 3RECORDING: 2024.12.15 - 5:27pm - Eyes Closed (30 minutes).m4a4849DECEMBER 15, 2024 - 6:05 pmmoon gaze - 30 minutesRECORDING: 2024.12.15 - 6:05pm - Moon Gaze (30 minutes).m4aSPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMS 3513  SPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMSFigure 49. (page 49-50) Eyes Closed 2. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.Figure 48. Eyes Open 2. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.DECEMBER 16, 2024 - 8:03 am(eyes open - 1 hour)52The rain leaves tiny pinpricks of cold on my face as the speckled pattern of rain surrounds me. Water droplets blur my pen lines, and I realize I need to shelter my bag and book with my umbrella. Cocooned in my rain jacket, I watch as a water droplet expands on the tree branch beside me, eventually falling and disappearing into the earth.The once air-pocketed ground cover is now downtrodden with the weight of the water, with green, glistening ivy leaves poking their way through the swirled accumulation of brown and yellow decay. Two crows fly overhead, cawing as they move, the rain pattern increasing into a constant applause. No speckle, back to speckle. Sky fade\u2014dark blue, white-gray.I\u2019m thankful for my umbrella, as the rain droplets bounce off scattered leaves around me, randomly hitting and ricocheting the leaves into motion. A bird chips two times as rain droplets cling to a fully bare sapling. Time check\u201412 minutes\u2026 and an uncomfortable feeling starts to set in. Crows call and fly overhead as the distant car noise begins to increase. Single crow call. Single bird chirp.I scribble in my sheltered notebook: \u201ccommunal noise, pitter patter, multiple things bouncing and echoing,\u201d before another crow call reaches my ears. I wonder about the name for the plant with the spiky stems that has multiple small offshoots around me and take note of the dead leaves that hang tangled within the fully green foliage of a couple of trees. The green ferns around me seem fluffier\u2026 probably enjoying the rain. I, however, am not. I can feel the cold of the bark of the tree I sit with start to seep through my rain jacket, and I wonder if it can feel my heat in return. I spot a cluster of red berries hanging about five meters in front of me. Holly. It\u2019s holly.I spot the bits of blown dead leaves in the barren branches decorating the exposed trees like a weird winter fashion. Time check\u201433 minutes\u2014and I allow myself to settle into the discomfort. Airplane overhead.Contracting into myself, I notice the patterns of the tree I sit with and attempt to doodle the abstract texture of her leaf bark: seafoam green with black line specks, parts of curled skin. Kobular leaf bud clusters holding the promise of spring. I peer through her branches, and I get lost in a sea of ivy leaves and draw the tiny little root spikes that poke from the ivy stems. The chatter of a golden-crowned kinglet increases into a constant buzz, mixing with the melody of the rain. I shake the droplets off my umbrella and jacket as the cold starts to reach my skin. Hot breath, tummy growl, granola bar. Slow drop.Green moss creeps up the base of some trees and not others\u2026 it seems the ivy, too, has a preference in trees. More chirping. Airplane. Construction noise\u2026 footsteps?A man finds me with his dog. I explain that I\u2019m an artist doing a sensory experiment\u2014the easiest explanation, really. A very nice man. A very nice dog. Slight unease.I notice a sprig of lichen on a branch, hear my first dog bark, and my timer going off. I breathe a sigh of relief and close my eyes.RECORDING: 2024.12.16 - 8:03am - Eyes Open (1 hour).m4aDECEMBER 16, 2024 - 9:10 ameyes closed - 1 hourRECORDING: 2024.12.16 - 9:10am - Eyes Closed (1 hour).m4a543  SPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMS55The experiences that took place for me throughout this experiment highlights the intimacy and understanding that can be built with our direct surroundings when we privilege an immersive, sensory, embodied relationship. The things that are conveyed to us through this honouring of our senses can be profound, helpful, and lead to a greater understanding of a fully alive world.  Through the eyes-open experiences, I was led into intimate ways of knowing the decay of fall by sitting directly within the forest ground-cover and experiencing its transformations from wet to dry\u2014the imperfect, messy process of it all\u2014as dead leaves were strewn everywhere. It also revealed how different non-human elements had preferences, such as the worms choosing what leaves to eat, and ivy deciding which trees to climb. Similarly, it helped me capture moments when different animals became active, such as the sparrows, and spotted-towhee creating noises at different times of day compared to when I would hear dog barks. Even the simple things that we inherently experience and understand became fuller in my awareness and receptivity to them, such as the sky transitioning from light to day and its effects on transforming the environment around me. Additionally, it unveiled to me how the things we perceive and inanimate begin to move with heightened perceptual awareness, with stars dancing and the moon morphing.Motion, sound, and shadow were highlighted as unifying emeshing elements, with the wind and rain activating motion, the interplay of varying noises, and everything merging together in shadow once darkness fell. 56TAKEAWAYSFigure 50. (full page spread) Takeaways. Collage. Created by the author, 2024.With my eyes closed, things got stranger, as I captured ephemeral imprints that formulated themselves on the insides of my eyelids. The initial heron vision spoke to me of how dance is integral to relating to the natural world through pure movement and provided clarity on a process that I was initially struggling to piece together. I had been looking for ways to include dance as part of my site engagement due to the embodied concept that this work entailed, along with being a trained dancer and a contemporary improvisational hobbyist.Through this vision, the notion of embodied learning became clear, and these pathways opened and clicked for me. The lotus flower vision, with lit tendrils and portalling petals, spoke to me of an architecture that could embody these spiritual imprints: the portal representing the journey, and the flower, the final destination. The last vision, I believe, to be a personal message, unrelated to my design work, and will be left to exist for interpretation and as a full part of this experiment. A quick walk through the site would not have allowed me to immerse and capture these ephemeral moments or access these altered states of perceptual awareness. This process  allowed me to realize that our bodies are not atop a hierarchical chain of being but instead act as portals into accessing the multitude of interconnected life and entanglement that we exist within. When we honour our embodied experience, we can enter and access the realms of all living beings. Although these experiences are personal and difficult to prove, they serve as an invitation\u2014for others to try for themselves and witness what might arise when we offer deep stillness and presence to a space.Science alone will not change our philosophy and our approach to our environment, and in a world that is currently amidst a global climate crisis more is needed to alter our perception and relationship with it. Although highly novel and exploratory,  this work highlights how embodied presence, heightened sensory attunement, reciprocal listening, and in body contact can reveal methods towards engaging the non-human.Bridging the chasm between ourselves and our non-human counterparts and opening pathways towards an architecture in conscious conversation with its surroundings...TAKEAWAYS573  SPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMSFigure 51. Body Perception. Hand drawing. Created by the author, 2024.a liminal space of whispering leaves, chattering creatures, and the return of our animate selves.58In The Spiralled Chasm, architecture ceases to be a product, a tool, or a site of control. It instead breathes as a living organism: built from the body, its cycles, its memories, rituals, and the relationships that stem from it. In a discipline dominated by masculine pedagogy that seeks to keep the land at arms reach, dominate, flatten, and master, The Spiralled Chasm is a straight refusal. A revolt against the frameworks that aim to distance the body from the landscape, remove and sanitize emotion and feeling from its processes and work in linear rationalized logics. Here the body is instead honoured, as the site of relationship, kinship, and co-existence. The body is worked through as a method of madness in all its messy imperfection of feeling, bone, blood, and the full sensory experience. In this space linear logic is surrendered for rhythmic spiralling time and instead builds through cycle, repetition, the seasons and decay. Here architecture is reclaimed as wombspace. A space of spiral and spirit. Relationship and ritual. Offering a feminist decolonial future through its processes, methods, and form of becoming. WOMBSPACE FUTURES:A site of body, relationship, and becomingThis work refuses to flatten both the body and the land into sanitized, easily digestible versions. Instead, it offers both in their rawness, honouring their multiplicity, depth, ephemerality, and continuous transformation. Engaging both as methods of learning, process, and creation. The body is worked through as a site of feeling, emotion, memory, and grief and the land a site of sensation, evolution, weathering, and rebirth. Through this radical acceptance, the agency of both the body and the land is honoured, not as objects, but instead as living sources of knowledge. Here, both are allowed in their entirety.The agency of the land is honoured through deep immersion, with experiences allowed to guide and the body honoured through the centering of senses and feelings, rather than logic and rationalization.Within traditional architectural canon, the human body has been used as the measure of all things, epitomized by Michelangelo\u2019s Vitruvian Man, which calls for architecture to be scaled to the divine proportions of the (male) body.34 This work resists that paradigm and re-centers the female body, not as perfect, nor as central, but as relational, imperfect, and cyclical.60The Spiralled Chasm lives within these imperfections, within the chaos of its evolution, and in its duality of growth and degradation. This work re-centers what architecture has lost and flips the narrative of mind over matter, to its own alternate paradigm, of matter over mind. This work is decolonial and disruptive in its processes, as it does not center typical research methodologies, but instead chooses to learn directly from site based engagement and sensory immersion. Allowing in-body learning, and direct contact with the land to contribute to the design evolution of the built form, learning from kinship, participatory relationship, and communion with the land. Plant matter was worked with, tested, trialed, and sculpted, not against. The natural forms shaped its design, dictating curves, sizes, shapes, and colours. Due to this release of control, the form now takes on a life of its own, changing and morphing with the rain, the elements and time, never settling into one morphology. This shifting quality is a part of its nature. The change welcomed, as imperfection and transformation are allowed to settle in.This centering of relationship and working with not above, deconstructs the traditional hierarchies that traditional architectural practice is used to working from with control over materiality, form, and colour. These were surrendered to the process of working with the site, welcoming its disruption to the vision and allowing it to dictate. The Spiralled Chasm exists within spiralled time: the cyclical time of the moon phases, the seasons, and the shedding of the uterine lining. It is not linear, suiting masculist methods of productivity, continual forward motion, and permanence. Instead, it builds its own timescale, one of ritual, repetition, and dwelling within the flux.In its refusal to conform, The Spiralled Chasm offers a new way forward \u2014 one in which the body, site, and their kinship are centered. This work proposes a de-flattening, a wrinkling, where emotion, cycles, transformation, and imperfection are woven back into architectural frameworks. It asks architecture to feel. To bleed. To be in body and to build from relationship. Temporality honoured, chaos welcomed, as architectural practice unlearns and re-establishes itself as a living and active participant in the animate world.59This work offers a decolonial feminist future, rooted in emotional truth, cyclical rhythms, embodied knowledge, and the entanglement of it all. Honouring these modes of existence as valid ways of knowing, building, and being. This is the wombspace future; a place of pulse, spiral structure, and where the body is never left behind. The following section features a spoken word story accompanied by visual imagery. The narrative was compiled into an animated video, from which some of the visuals are drawn. This video was projected onto the floor and became the stage for a live contemporary improvisational dance performance during the final presentation. The full projection video can be viewed at the following link:https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Knyp7KORQ7o626163It starts with my body. My own bundled bag of bones and flesh that seems to belong to everyone but myself. A feminine form and a point of contention for the rest of society. Created within my mothers womb it ebs and flows with the seasons, bleeding with a cyclical rhythm and a drumbeat of emotion in a state of constant flux. It exists within logical rational frameworks when everything is calling me to see the magic, the unexplainable, and enter into the chaos of the unknown in all its beauty.My body holds the scars of the wounds inflicted on my mother. As her own culture was suffocated from her, stripped with reckless abandon and shunned into silence.  I am left piecing together the puzzle of lost culture and finding fragments where I can as I try to reconnect. My body is a battlefield, but I\u2019m learning to honour her, salve my wounds and reknit my own bones.64ACT 1: The BodyA landscape of emotion, memory, and grief THE SPIRALLED CHASM 4Figure 52. (left) It Starts With My Body. Collage of video stills. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 53. (top) Wombspace. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.My body holds the scars of the wounds inflicted on my mother. As her own culture was suffocated from her, stripped with reckless abandon and shunned into silence.  I am left piecing together the puzzle of lost culture and finding fragments where I can as I try to reconnect. My body is a battlefield, but I\u2019m learning to honour her, salve my wounds and reknit my own bones.4  THE SPIRALLED CHASM65My body is a battlefield, but I\u2019m learning to honour her, salve my wounds and reknit my own bones.Figure 54. Knitted Bones. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.THE SPIRALLED CHASM 468I run to feel my own strength, filling my lungs with air gifted by the trees, my feet hitting steadily on the pavement. A creature of habit, I always take the same route, straying only occasionally. The route holds a familiarity and a comfort I have memorized with my body, learning every curve and noticing every state and seasonal shift. Out from my house tucked behind an archway of trees, past the construction site and its ever-changing array of materials and debris, past the metal gates that blackberries sometimes grow through, and bending my knees to catch the rebound of the steady slope down to the water.The hum of cars and buses awaits me at the intersection as I impatiently wait for the light to turn. Walk sign. Go. I blur past the houses until I hit the second set of lights and admire the large row of trees towering above me across the street. My patience now extends, knowing I\u2019m about to enter into my favourite world\u2014a place where creatures roam and intermingle amongst the houses, and where nature becomes unruly in her design.The concrete path turns to soil as water fills the ditch on my right\u2014a spontaneous habitat where ducks flock and herons wade. Horses walk the streets, and the houses grow in size, intermixed with stables. I dodge the spots of horse manure on the road like my own personal obstacle course. Right turn. Horse stable parking. Left turn. Large construction site. Mansion. And I make it to the riverfront. With deep breaths I steady my breathing, through tree tunnels, along the pathway sandwiched between the water and the golf course. Across the wooden bridge and past the stormwater pond where I once watched a heron hunt. The sun dances along the water, and I take note of the tide level. It breathes in with the moon and out when she disappears. These cycles echo within the confines of my own body, as I too enter periods of reclusion. I look out to see if I can catch any sea lion heads bobbing in the water\u2014a rare occurrence, but you never know. Sign with an arrow. People fishing. Right turn.I now enter the bridge space, with greenery scaling the fences on either side of me, the houses on my left becoming more humble, marked by increasing signs of life left astray in the yards. ACT 2: The SiteEmbodied realities and perceptual truthsFigure 55. (left) Musqueam Memory Map. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 56. (page 67-70) The Line. Created by the author, 2025.This is the invisible line that exists between Dunbar-Southlands and Musqueam Nation. 4  THE SPIRALLED CHASM70This line, too, is drawn within my own body, navigating the fracture of my Cree identity and whiteness. 4  THE SPIRALLED CHASMI walk this line... 72...on a constant tightrope....never fitting completely within either one...A large cedar trunk greets me as I enter the park. My vision fills with green as I am dwarfed by the trees. I feel my smallness. I take in their textures as they reach to the sky\u2014each tree with its own expression of knobby limbs and curved spines. Water consistently steeps the soil on my left, and on my right, clearings and spontaneous water pools peek through the columns of tree trunks. This part of my run is only a block long, but it is what I have come to see\u2014the peak of my journey\u2014and I start back up the steady slope home.THE SPIRALLED CHASM 474Figure 57. Cedar. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 58. (next spread) Houses, Houses. Created by the author, 2025.Houses. 4  THE SPIRALLED CHASM Houses. 76I note my favourites. More houses. I round the corner, and I can see the tree archway that conceals yet marks my house. I jump up the cobblestone steps, wind through the meandering path that cuts through the front garden, and open the door. Home.THE SPIRALLED CHASM 478Figure 59. Cobblestone Steps. Created by the author, 2025.It starts with my body. As I start to slow down, I no longer speed through that tunnel of green, but instead I stop my music, surrender my senses, and offer my full attention, presence, and time as I enter her. I start to sit with trees; I ask them first if I can sit with them before cuddling up at their base. I close my eyes and let the darkness envelop me, transporting me into a place where time bends and my senses expand. When I leave, I always say thank you.It was within these moments of stillness where I first saw something with my eyes closed. It started as shapes and colours forming behind my eyes until they exposed into a picture of a heron (page 39 - 40). I relaxed, held my focus, and the image got clearer. I tunneled into the heron\u2019s eye and then saw it fly across my vision with steady beats of its wings. It also started to dance. The image then shifted to two eyes blinking and peering back at me from inside the skins of my own eyelids. Slow blinks.ACT 3: Body in SiteI plan two intentional site-engagement visits at sunrise and sunset, two hours each\u2014one hour with my eyes open, notating everything I see, sense, and hear with full presence, and one hour attempted with my eyes closed.With my eyes open, I experienced the visceral decay of the forest ground cover in all its imperfection, noticed the preferences of the worms, ferns, and ivy, and listened to the consistent cacophony of animal calls and imprints overlaid against our own clamor of car noise, airplanes, and construction. It led me to notice how the forest animates and chatters with the wind and the rain, and how everything blends together in darkness and shadow. It revealed how the ordinary becomes rich with meaning through awareness, time, and presence\u2014and how my body instinctively synced, echoed, and entwined itself with the shifting rhythms of the environment. It also led me into intimate interactions with things we deem inanimate, such as celestial objects miles and miles away...4  THE SPIRALLED CHASM79Figure 60. Soundscape. Collaged video stills. Created by the author, 2025.I start to get bored, and my eyes start to fixate on a star hung in the sky, framed by tree limbs (page 43 - 46). The star seems to dance and move as I try to sharpen my focus, evading me. As I try to hold focus... everything else shifts out, and my vision starts to oscillate between the star and the imprint of the forest foliage on my vision\u2014now a kaleidoscope of netted black and blue...On the same night, with my eyes closed, I saw an animal sauntering away with a glowing light emanating from it (page 47 - 48), spiralling flowers with lit tendrils, and was tunneled through a portal of pink petals with spiralled red and green tulips awaiting at the end.Interrupting my eye-closed experience was the light of the full moon tapping me on my shoulder and staring at me through the bushes (page 49 - 50), her form morphing into various animals and imagery as the tree branches were cast upon her moonlight...THE SPIRALLED CHASM 482Figure 61. Moon-morph. Created by the author, 2025.Strange\u2026 strange, beautiful, known and unknown things\u2026 as I\u2019m tunneled down a rabbit hole I did not know I would fall. As worlds of living, shifting shadows open, fractal webs and spinning flowers usher me in\u2026 to a place where morphing moons spoke with their light. It was as if I had stepped through a doorway into another world\u2014one of living, transforming, and chattering matter, eager to reveal, to show, and to speak through their movement. Leaving me questioning, head spinning, and suspended somewhere blurred between reality and a dream.I\u2019ve now come to realize that worlds exist between, accessed through the slight of eye; that you can see with eyes closed, through doorways within; and that all things come together in motion, sound, and shadow.I now live in an animate world, where every object, plant, animal, insect, and element are alive in their own inherent right, essence, and beauty\u2014as alive, animated matter and form. Every moment is an opportunity to engage, interact, and hold space. I now say hello to the water and make eyes with the textured eye spots on the barks of trees. I know they see me, recognize me, and have mapped my contours to the same intimacy\u2014from my scent to my sound, to my shadow and motion.ACT 4: The Animate Realm4  THE SPIRALLED CHASM83Figure 62. The Animate Realm. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 63. The Living Blueprint. Created by the author, 2025.ACT 5: The Living BlueprintI study her blueprint for creation, as I will not put anything inside of her that does not follow her design. I map her geometry of golden ratios, triangles, angles, and numbers that access the infinite. Fractal webs, and spirals\u2014so many spirals. From our galaxy, to our orbital loops, to the arrangement of seeds, leaves, growth patterns, and to the vortex of my own heart\u2026 This is the starting point.First with a decagon, mimicking petal arrangements, the forms of our own DNA, and the sound waves that ripple through our eardrums. Then layer the lute of Pythagoras, a self-similar recursive geometry of interlocking pentagrams, reaching indefinitely in both directions\u2026 I then carve out petal patterns from these outlines, their curvatures echoing the sacred structure of the seed of life: the geometry of creation, early embryos, and becoming\u2026 I then weave colours and patterns in spiral formation, looping throughout with inward and outward expansion, creating a kaleidoscope of spiralling colour and space.THE SPIRALLED CHASM 488Figure 64. Evolutions. Created by the author, 2025.Her base geometry is inspired by the sweat lodge, a sacred Indigenous structure made from flexible saplings covered with blankets and animal hides and heated with steam poured over hot grandfather rocks. They are places of purification, healing, and connection with spirit, the self, ancestors, and the land\u2026 They are the wombs of the earth and places to be born again\u2026 Here, the stones are not heated but instead anchoring, the space not enclosed but instead connecting\u2026 This is the roadmap. However, if she does not want to conform, I will not force her. I welcome her input and will adjust to her chaos.THE SPIRALLED CHASM 490Figure 65. Womb of the Earth. Created by the author, 2025.ACT 6: Gather, Weave, BecomeI start to work with her bearings, the twigs, branches, and plant matter she offers. However, I will not reap her when I gather her fruits. I offer her milk, carried in a jar from home, and some of my favourite seashells collected from the beach as offerings. I cannot repair or reverse the damage that has been done, but I will respect her when I take things. If she does not want to give, I will yield.I gather rocks from the river\u2019s edge and am followed home by the full moon, her glow a silent form of support. I collect cedar branches from five dead cedar trees from my forest clearing, and while walking home, find myself at an impasse: eyes locked with a coyote. On my way down to site, I catch pieces of poems, spot a heron\u2026 and she encircles me.It sends ripples through my heart, and I swear they know me.4  THE SPIRALLED CHASM91Figure 66. Milk and Seashells.  Collaged video stills. Created by the author, 2025.I am gifted red osier dogwood\u2014the plant of bloodlines, ancestors, and rebirth. I gather quaking aspen saplings, the trees grown from kinship and interdependence, and their leaves a reminder to listen deeper\u2026THE SPIRALLED CHASM 494Figure 67. Leaf Whispers. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.I gather ivy from my site and weave it into spiralled rope, an active act of reclamation and reweaving.I gather, I weave. I gather, I weave\u2026 and she begins to take form...4  THE SPIRALLED CHASM95Figure 68. Weaving 1. Photograph of woven process work. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 69. Weaving 2. Photograph of woven process work. Created by the author, 2025.FOREST CLEARING AXONOMETRICAxonometric showing the forest clearing and the clusters of trees and planting surrounding the nestled forest pavillion.Figure 70. Forest Clearing Axonometric. Created by the author, 2025.98SPIRALLED EYES LIMINAL REALMS 3ACT 7: You BodyIt starts with your body. Through a portal of ever transforming greenery. To a forest clearing where two options of paths await your choice. Choose to weave through the quaking aspens or greet the Oregon grape. Gently navigate the array of sticks across the ivy and periwinkle carpet and you\u2019ll find her cradled beneath twisted garry oak arms. Here, she spins her fractal web of tangled spiralling colour, woven from plant matter, and grown with and in over time. She morphs with the shadows, seasons, and sunlight of her surroundings offering a place of cradled stillness, spiraled time and altered seeing. Enter her space. Sit for as long as you need and let me know what you see. I have fallen completely into her arms and maybe you will too. 99Figure 71. Forest Clearing Photos. Spread of annotated site photographs. Created by the author, 2025.100THE SPIRALLED CHASM 4101Figure 72. Periwinkle Ivy. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.102THE SPIRALLED CHASM 4Figure 73. Oregan Grape. Video still. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 74. (page 101 - 102) The Spiralled Chasm: Arrival. Photograph of the  Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 75. (page 103 - 104) The Spiralled Chasm: Final Weave. Photograph of the  Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 76. (page 105 - 106) The Spiralled Chasm: Knealing Entry. Photograph of the  Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 77. (page 107 - 108) The Spiralled Chasm: In Stillness. Photograph of the  Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 78. (page 109 - 110) The Spiralled Chasm: Woven Realms. Photograph of the  Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 79. (page 111 -112) The Spiralled Chasm: Star Shroud. Photograph of the  Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.Figure 80. (page 113 -114) The Spiralled Chasm: Petal Peepholes. Photograph of the  Spiralled Chasm in site. Created by the author, 2025.104106108110112114116ENDNOTES1 Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. \u201calive,\u201d accessed December 29, 2024, https:\/\/www.oed.com\/dictio-nary\/alive_adj?tab=factsheet#7017522.2\t Scientific\tprinciples\tof\tlife:\tEldon\tD.\tEnger,\tFrederick\tC.\tRoss,\tand\tDavid\tB.\tBailey,\tConcepts in Biology, 12th ed., McGraw-Hill International Edition (Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2007), 12\u201313.3\t Scientific\tprinciples\tof\tlife:\tEldon\tD.\tEnger,\tFrederick\tC.\tRoss,\tand\tDavid\tB.\tBailey,\tConcepts in Biology, 12th ed., McGraw-Hill International Edition (Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2007), 12\u2013134 NCDNADay Blog, \u201cAre Mules Alive? What NASA Has to Say May Surprise You,\u201d NCDNADay Blog, December 4, 2023, https:\/\/ncdnadayblog.org\/2023\/12\/04\/are-mules-alive-what-nasa-has-to-say-may-sur-prise-you\/.5 Luis P. Villarreal, \u201cAre Viruses Alive?\u201d Scientific American 291, no. 6 (2004): 102, http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/26060805.6 David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (New York: Pantheon Books, 2010), 47.7 Malte C. Ebach and Raymond S. Tangney, Biogeography in a Changing World (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2006), 13.8 Eva Perez de Vega, \u201cThe Architecture of (Hu)man Exceptionalism. Redrawing our Relationships to Other Species,\u201d in Design for Inclusivity, ed. Mohamed Mostafa, Robert Baumeister, Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, and Martin Tamke, UIA 2023, Sustainable Development Goals Series (Cham: Springer, 2023), 669, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-031-36302-3_49.9 Val Plumwood, \u201cThe Concept of a Cultural Landscape,\u201d in Ethics and the Environment: New Per-spectives, ed. Lorraine Shannon (London: Routledge, 2005), 128.10 Val Plumwood, \u201cThe Concept of a Cultural Landscape,\u201d in Ethics and the Environment: New Per-spectives, ed. Lorraine Shannon (London: Routledge, 2005), 13511 Katherine Swancutt, \u201cAnimism,\u201d Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology (2019), 1-3.12 David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 44.13\t Milica\tKo\u010dovi\u0107\tDe\tSanto,\tSt\u00e9phanie\tEileen\tDomptail,\tand\tJennifer\tHirsch,\t\u201cHow\tCulture\tand\tWorldviews Shape Development and Our Environment,\u201d in Degrowth Decolonization and Development (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 2023), 119.14 George Nicholas, \u201cIt\u2019s Taken Thousands of Years, but Western Science Is Finally Catching Up to Traditional Knowledge,\u201d The Conversation, February 14, 2018, https:\/\/theconversation.com\/its-taken-thousands-of-years-but-western-science-is-finally-catching-up-to-traditional-knowledge-90291.15 G. Boyno and S. Demir, \u201cPlant-Mycorrhiza Communication and Mycorrhizae in Inter-Plant Communication,\u201d Symbiosis 86 (2022): 155, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s13199-022-00837-0.16 Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses: Updated and Expanded Edition (New\tYork:\tScientific\tAmerican\t\/\tFarrar,\tStraus\tand\tGiroux,\t2017).17 M. Thellier and U. L\u00fcttge, \u201cPlant Memory: A Tentative Model,\u201d Plant Biology 15, no. 1 (2013): 10, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/j.1438-8677.2012.00674.x.117ENDNOTES18 David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 4419 David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 7120 Heavy Industry, \u201cLife Cycle Design,\u201d Heavy Industry Blog, accessed December 31, 2024, https:\/\/www.heavy-industry.co.uk\/blog\/life-cycle-design.21 Muhammad Nawaz, Farha Sattar, and Sandeep Narayan Kundu, \u201cMinerals and Rock-Forming Processes,\u201d in Sustainable Energy and Environment, ed. Sandeep Narayan Kundu and Muhammad Nawaz, 1st ed. (CRC Press, 2020), 40\u201341.22 Muhammad Nawaz, Farha Sattar, and Sandeep Narayan Kundu, \u201cMinerals and Rock-Forming Processes,\u201d in Sustainable Energy and Environment, ed. Sandeep Narayan Kundu and Muhammad Nawaz, 1st ed. (CRC Press, 2020), 43\u201345, 62.23\t Scientific\tprinciples\tof\tlife:\tEldon\tD.\tEnger,\tFrederick\tC.\tRoss,\tand\tDavid\tB.\tBailey,\tConcepts in Biology, 12th ed., McGraw-Hill International Edition (Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2007), 24.24\t Scientific\tprinciples\tof\tlife:\tEldon\tD.\tEnger,\tFrederick\tC.\tRoss,\tand\tDavid\tB.\tBailey, Concepts in Biology, 12th ed., McGraw-Hill International Edition (Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2007), 2525 E. van den Heuvel, \u201cWe Are Made of Stardust; Timescales of the Universe and of Life,\u201d in The Amazing Unity of the Universe, Astronomers\u2019 Universe (Springer, Cham, 2016), 187, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-319-23543-1_11.26 Ferris Jabr, \u201cGaia and the Science of Becoming Earth,\u201d Vox, March 23, 2023, https:\/\/www.vox.com\/climate\/24118151\/gaia-hypothesis-ferris-jabr-book-becoming-earth.27 Jabr, Ferris. \u201cOur Planet is just as Alive as we are.\u201d The New York Times, 2019.28 Ferris Jabr, \u201cGaia and the Science of Becoming Earth,\u201d Vox, March 23, 2023, https:\/\/www.vox.com\/climate\/24118151\/gaia-hypothesis-ferris-jabr-book-becoming-earth.29 Ferris Jabr, \u201cGaia and the Science of Becoming Earth,\u201d Vox, March 23, 2023, https:\/\/www.vox.com\/climate\/24118151\/gaia-hypothesis-ferris-jabr-book-becoming-earth.30\t Eric\tSteinhart,\t\u201cScientific\tAnimism,\u201d\tin\tAnimism and Philosophy of Religion, ed. Tiddy Smith (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 2023), 249\u2013250.31 David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 307.32 David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 71.33 David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World, 1st ed. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1996), 32.34 Eva Perez de Vega, \u201cThe Architecture of (Hu)man Exceptionalism. Redrawing our Relationships to Other Species,\u201d in Design for Inclusivity, ed. Mohamed Mostafa, Robert Baumeister, Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, and Martin Tamke, UIA 2023, Sustainable Development Goals Series (Cham: Springer, 2023), 669, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-031-36302-3_49. 118BIBLIOGRAPHY119CATEGORY 1: NATURE PHILOSOPHY + ANIMISMAbraham, Johnny. People of the Land: Legends of the Four Host First Nations. Penticton, BC: Theytus Books, 2009.Abram, David. Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 2010.Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1996. Deer, Jemma and ProQuest (Firm). Radical Animism: Reading for the End of the World. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021; 2020. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5040\/9781350111189.George Nicholas. \u201cIt\u2019s Taken Thousands of Years, but Western Science Is Finally Catching Up to Traditional Knowledge.\u201d The Conversation, February 14, 2018. https:\/\/theconversation.com\/its-taken-thousands-of-years-but-western-science-is-finally-catching-up-to-traditional-knowledge-90291.Katherine Swancutt. \u201cAnimism.\u201d Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2019.Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013. Accessed September 11, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central.Plumwood, Val. \u201cThe Concept of a Cultural Landscape: Nature, Culture, and Agency in the Land.\u201d Ethics and the Environment 11, no. 2 (Fall 2006): 115\u2013150. https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/scholarly-journals\/concept-cultural-landscape-nature-culture-agency\/docview\/200815649\/se-2.Steinhart, Eric. \u201cScientific Animism.\u201d In Animism and Philosophy of Religion, edited by Tiddy Smith. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 2023.Van\tHorn,\tGavin,\tRobin\tWall\tKimmerer,\tand\tJohn\tHausdoerffer,\teds.\tKinship: Belonging in a World of Relations. Chicago: Center for Humans and Nature, 2021.CATEGORY 2: ARCHITECTUREAntonelli, Paola, Anna Burckhardt, Emily Hall, Jennifer Liese, Neri Oxman, and Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). The Neri Oxman Material Ecology Catalogue. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2020.Beesley, Philip, and Sarah Bonnemaison, eds. On Growth and Form: Organic Architecture and Beyond. Halifax: TUNS Press, 2008.Crowe, Norman. Nature and the Idea of a Man-Made World. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995.Kretzer, Manuel, and Ludger Hovestadt. Alive: Advancements in Adaptive Architecture. Vol. 8. Basel: Birkh\u00e4user, 2014.Thompson, D\u2019Arcy Wentworth. On Growth and Form. Cambridge University Press, 2014.Watson, Julia. Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism. Cologne: Taschen, 2019.120BIBLIOGRAPHYCATEGORY 3: BIOLOGYEldon D. Enger, Frederick C. Ross, and David B. Bailey. Concepts in Biology. 12th ed. McGraw-Hill International Edition. Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2007.Ferris Jabr. \u201cOur Planet is Just as Alive as We Are.\u201d The New York Times, April 20, 2019.E. van den Heuvel. \u201cWe Are Made of Stardust; Timescales of the Universe and of Life.\u201d In The Amazing Unity of the Universe, Astronomers\u2019 Universe. Springer, Cham, 2016. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-319-23543-1_11.Hans-Peter D\u00fcrr, Fritz Albert Popp, Wolfram Schommers. What is Life?: Scientific Approaches and Philosophical Positions.\tWorld\tScientific,\t2002.James Lovelock. Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.James Lovelock. The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988.James E. Lovelock & Lynn Margulis. \u201cAtmospheric Homeostasis by and for the Biosphere: The Gaia Hypothesis.\u201d Tellus, 26:1-2 (1974): 2-10. DOI: 10.3402\/tellusa.v26i1-2.9731.Luis P. Villarreal. \u201cAre Viruses Alive?\u201d Scientific American 291, no. 6 (2004): 102. http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/26060805.Simon, Eric J. Campbell. Essential Biology with Physiology. 6th ed. New York: Pearson, 2019.CATEGORY 4: FEMINIST FUTURESBarros da Gama, B\u00e1rbara Monteiro de. 2020. \u201cCaliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation.\u201d Investigaci\u00f3n y Desarrollo 27 (1): 265-278.Grosz, Elizabeth. 1994. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Haraway, Donna Jeanne, and e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection 2016. 2016. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. 1st ed. Durham: Duke University Press. doi:10.1215\/9780822373780.Lorde, Audre. 2021. \u201cUses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.\u201d In Mouths of Rain, edited by Briona Simone Jones, 11: The New Press.","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/hasType":[{"value":"Graduating Project","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/isShownAt":[{"value":"10.14288\/1.0448791","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/language":[{"value":"eng","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"https:\/\/open.library.ubc.ca\/terms#peerReviewStatus":[{"value":"Unreviewed","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/www.europeana.eu\/schemas\/edm\/provider":[{"value":"Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/rights":[{"value":"Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International","type":"literal","lang":"*"}],"https:\/\/open.library.ubc.ca\/terms#rightsURI":[{"value":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/","type":"literal","lang":"*"}],"https:\/\/open.library.ubc.ca\/terms#scholarLevel":[{"value":"Graduate","type":"literal","lang":"en"}],"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/terms\/isPartOf":[{"value":"University of British Columbia. 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