Entangled Meal
Clay harvesting and processing, woodworking, vermicompost, growing from seed, soil, worms, seeds, water, sunlight, love. Garden maintained by other students in the class. Truly a collaborative project.
2025
In Sara Black’s Knowledge Lab: Entanglements course, we investigated the entanglements between humans and the natural world, working collaboratively to design and fabricate furniture, tableware, and a site for a meal to take place. Every design considers the non-human organisms that also inhabit the space, such as birds and worms. We built a table from reclaimed wood, a wattle fence with willow branches, and we planted a garden that would continue to flourish and feed the community through the growing season. We harvested and processed clay at Oxbow, which we used to make the vessels we ate from. We foraged for food in Forest Park, grew mushrooms, and prepared our meal together. Built into the structure of the table are two bins for the vermicompost. Inspired by the enmeshment of ecological systems, we designed the space as a site of cohabitation, and a few students have continued to maintain the garden, which is now a flourishing food forest.