Crowdsourcing A Backyard Almanac: What is Nature to Darien?
Paulson Initiative Intern 2019-20
Inspired by the Paulson Summer Internship Backyard Nature Almanac Project, a compilation of the ecology I learned about my town on my own, along with the past Paulson Intern Hannah Cho’s project: Favorite Places at Wellesley Podcast; my project is crowdsourcing residents and visitors favorite elements of nature in Darien and curating the resulting almanac on Instagram: NatureinDarien. (I had originally hoped to program a game focusing on climate and nature change in Darien, inspired by Webrangers (U.S. National Park Service), to go along with the crowdsourced backyard almanac, but that will have to be a future endeavor.)
I started by writing a letter which I then distributed around town. I reached out to family and friends to fill out my survey: Nature in Darien: What's Your Favorite Part?. The survey collects a person’s favorite element of nature in Darien. Then in the final week of the internship, I vetted the responses and selected eight to post on Instagram. As a student who took computer science classes this year focused on data privacy and data capitalism, I made sure to ask for permission to post the response and how to identify the person, if at all. I wanted this project to connect me with people in a new way and to bring people together through nature. I hoped to inspire people to go outside very locally just as the Paulson Internship has for me. While the Quarantine has kept most of us inside and unable to travel, there’s much to see and explore that’s within your own town, backyard or just outside your window.
Going forward, people who have been to Darien (living, working, visiting) can fill out the form since the form is still open (I never put a deadline). The participants can view @NatureinDarien to see what others have said. Those without an affiliation to Darien can also check it out and could find inspiration to look around at nature in their own neighborhoods or recall nature from where they grew up. Ultimately, I hope people end up turning off their phones, computers, tvs and going outside.
Nature in Darien Poster Presentation
Collaborators:
Residents and Visitors of Darien, CT
Dr. Suzanne Landridge
Bindu Nicholson ‘16
Kayli Hattley ‘22, Lily Herold ‘22, Mika Taka-Anderson ‘22,Ruvimbo “Miracle” Taanarwo ‘23, Phoebe Shea Pérez ‘23