We’re making final preparations to live on the island for several weeks and the idea of Sisu keeps coming to mind. The descendants of Finnish immigrants in the Keweenaw know what we’re talking about. For the next several weeks we’ll be three miles offshore and at the mercy of the elements, exposed to the will of the lake as we go about our business. We’ll do our best to send updates of our work and life on the island but aren’t sure if that is a luxury we will have.
“The literal meaning of sisu is equivalent in English to "having guts”, and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu. It is similar to equanimity, except the forbearance of sisu has a grimmer quality of stress management than the latter.“
If you’re unfamiliar with the idea read up some more on it here. It is a nice part of the Finnish culture and is strong in the Copper Country.
84% of the fresh water in North America is contained in the great lakes. Only the polar ice caps contain more. If you zoom in on this photo you can see Rabbit Island–it is the small speck of land just east of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The scale of Lake Superior is incredible. Its fish, water quality, winds, waves, ice, snow and folklore isolate and dwarf the island’s 91 acres. Rabbit Island is as fine a place as any to witness the changing temperament of this amazing body of water.
Jaymi Heimbuch from TreeHugger.com wrote a really nice piece about the project today. It is an understatement to say we were really excited when we saw Rabbit Island on the front page! Countless people saw this piece and many offers for support and collaboration have resulted. Thanks to everyone who emailed.
What can we say… we got Gizmodo’d. 120,000 people have viewed this post and counting.
Viki Lorraine wrote a great article about the island and many of the ideas brewing.
A green blog from Santiago, Chile covered the story. Fantastico!
“Design will save the world."
A great blog about midwestern musicians edited by Steven Michael Holmes out of Houghton, Michigan. It was great meeting you Steven. I’m sure this this summer was the beginning of many interesting musical collaborations.
Josh Spear picked up our story a few days ago. He’s a really interesting guy with a well-curated website that covers a wide range of emerging content. Thanks Josh. Perhaps we can work together in the future.
Under/current is a biannual magazine that showcases work across fashion, art, music, photography, film and poetry. We’re excited to have our project featured.
The Great Lakes Echo is a publication fostering and serving a news community defined by proximity to and interest in the environment of the Great Lakes watershed. Many thanks to Laura Fosmire for the really nice interview and story. She was the first to write about our project. Update: her follow-up piece written after our successful Kickstarter funding is here.
WBEZ 91.5 re-ran the story written by Laura Fosmire in the Great Lakes Echo. The story ended up being the second most recommended by readers.
Jennifer Guerra from the Michigan NPR station called and we did a short interview which aired last week. There may be a feature length story in the works…
Our project is mentioned about halfway down the page.
Renee Prusi wrote an excellent story that goes into the backstory of the island a bit and Rob’s historical and ancestral ties to the region. There is also this column.
Gothamist we love you. But in this article you unfortunately missed the meat and potatoes of what are trying to do. What can we say. Any press is good press, right?
It is an honor to be in the Village Voice.
Notcot is a cool little arts publication.
There is a little bit of pottymouth in the title of the blog (warning!). But satire, after all, is the signature of this humorous blog that many Brooklynites follow. The article by the author Mike is satirical but respects the intent of the project. Thanks F’d. We appreciate that you walked a fine line here and had a sense of our idea which is primarily preservation and secondarily creative. We sometimes even miss living in the Slope.
The Nauru Project is and ongoing artists’ collaboration based around the gathering of information on the South Pacific Island of Nauru, the world’s smallest island nation.
A cool piece by a young woman who came across our story and blogged about it herself. Thanks!
A blog about photography + art + sometimes music
Crowd sourced journalism.
Helen is our amazing illustrator and this is her blog post about the drawing she did for us. She captured the spirit of Rabbit Island perfectly! We can’t stop looking at it and our eyes keep moving around in circles trying to take everything in… the fish, the rocks, the trees, the eagles.
Newsweek emailed us and wrote a little blurb about the island in the July 11th print edition. Newsweek!
Nice to be noted by our neighbors to the north, eh.
Renee Prusi, a reporter from the Mining Journal newspaper in Marquette, Michigan, wrote a piece about Rabbit Island in today’s paper. Many thanks Renee.
Here is an excerpt:
“Rabbit Island, some 91 acres, is located between L’Anse and the Keweenaw Peninsula or Big Bay and the Keweenaw, Gorski explained.
“Given my heritage, my ties to the local community, my family’s history, (the island) tied in perfectly.
“My grandfather called it Rabbit Island. That’s the main reason (for the name). On the map, it is Traverse Island but many locals call it Rabbit Island as it is adjacent to Rabbit Bay on the Keweenaw. I like the way it sounded and that my grandfather knew it as such, so I went with it. I think it sounds nice. That is it in a nutshell. There are also rabbits out there.
The full article can be read here.
Gothamist picked up the Rabbit Island story today and ran it with quite a zinging headline. While we appreciate the press (thanks Gothamist!), the sensational title is misleading as is the context of the story. We do not want to recreate a Mini Manhattan! Our intention is, of course, the opposite of this but alas such nuance was lost in translation. Please see our blog for more about where we are coming from. We are simply fascinated by Manhattan, given that it was in the relatively recent past a wilderness island, and feel comfortable drawing comparisons for the sake of contrast. That’s all. We wish to learn from the past as we look to the future.
The Village Voice also ran a piece with a moderate case of headline hyperbole, though the article is degrees friendlier towards our intent, if slightly sarcastic. Many thanks V.V. We’re ok with Bon Iver too.
Needless to say we learned a LOT about web PR today and regret slightly the tack chosen by the internet. We hope our project gets covered by others who are interested and still very much appreciate any support. Many people have emailed post-Gothamist with serious offers of collaboration and we are super excited about this potential. The U.P. is a beautiful place. Thanks.
Check out our new Kickstarter Project. We’re pretty excited about the potential of bringing international artists, designers and thinkers to the northern Michigan woods. We’ve made some cool gifts for project backers (photography, Rabbit Island tee shirts, totes, art, etc.) and appreciate any support you can lend, financial or social. Help us spread the word!
Rabbit Island Artist Residency
Nice article in Design Observe titled “A Short History of Camping”. Rabbit Island will stand in contrast to “camping” in America as illustrated. ‘Perennial Frontier’ might be more like it: a few settlers, some eagles and the hardships and joys of the woods.