By Isabella Kazanecki, 06/30/2017.
I leave my home in New York for Delhi in four days and I’ve never been so scared.
I looked back on a statement of purpose that I wrote a month or so back, this morning to remind me of why I am doing this and inspire myself once again. These are my plans and ideas surrounding this adventure thus far:
Goal: Comparative Research Process analyzing the actors and interconnective aspects of ecosystems centralized on the Rivers Ganges and Yamuna.
While studying Ecology, I learned about systems thinking and the worldview of identifying relationships and interconnectivity. In this project I ask, “How can I identify the relationships between a geographical feature (Body of water-Ganges/ Yamuna River) and the life that surrounds it. I will be experimenting with the idea that ecology can be not just limited to nonhuman lifeforms (rivers, vegetation, animals, weather, climate), but include art/expression, ritual, sacrality, tradition, cultural norms (gender roles, customs, hierarchy, daily routines). I intend to explore each of these actors and how they come together to manifest a living breathing ecosystem as well as what these roles mean to inhabitants of the ecosystem.
One important relationship to the Ganges River is the Save Ganga movement. I will speak to activists involved as well as explore what it means now that the Ganga and Yamuna have been granted human rights by the government of Uttarakhan. To accomplish these goals I will use the tools of digital media such as audio, video, and photograph, inclusive survey design, ethnography/ participant observation, and textual research in 5 different locations along the Ganges or Yamuna in Northern India. These tools will help me develop an understanding of how individuals perceive and respond to environmental conditions, as well as how individual responses are linked across space and time through social, economic, cultural/artistic and political institutions. I will first arrive in Delhi, where I will take advantage of the Save Ganga Headquarters and research/ activist centers as well as other cultural institutions. Then, I will carry out the remainder of my study in Rishikesh, Haridwar, Dehradun, and Varanasi, which are all along the Ganges.
No matter what the central construct to a city is, one lives in full awareness of it and it is not just there when you want or need it to be. Whether it be a skyscraper or a river, its presence is intriguing to the functions of an ecosystem, in a broad sense of the word.