raw film, shorts, interviews, illustrations
Cohort 23-25
Quoi Alexander
Bonnie Carr
Susanna-Mei Casuncad
Mark Hester
Lucy Mitchell
Sherry Perrault
Ines Quinones Fabregas
Kristen Robb
Marcell Csillag
Olga Glagoleva
During their first year at MARD, students gain extensive knowledge, explore various methods, and engage with regenerative processes through the lens of design, ecology, and anthropology. One key element in that is fieldwork, which serves as an immersive, place-based research method.
Fieldwork encourages students to step beyond theoretical thinking and projection, immersing themselves in real-world interactions, observations, and relationship-building. It deepens their understanding of ecosystems by moving from an external perspective to an embedded one—learning, listening, connecting, and collaborating within the context they study. Equipped with design, ecological, and anthropological methods, students seek new entry points for understanding and working as part of living systems.
Students explore their local biosphere or select a research area that challenges their understanding of whole systems, needs, responses and stakeholders. This process expands their ecological knowledge literacy and contributes to the development of new knowledge, understanding the whole systems relations, needs and expertise in place.
Fieldwork is designed to be an immersive experience, pushing students beyond their comfort zones. They participate in daily activities, map the macro, meso, and micro layers of their research, and collaborate with local communities and networks. The goal is not to "helicopter in" and validate preconceived ideas but to engage deeply—standing in the mud, being present, learning from the lived experience of place, and navigating the research process while mapping their findings.