“Gentlemen, why in heaven’s name this haste? You have time enough. Ages and ages lie before you. Why sacrifice the present to the future, fancying that you will be happier when your fields teem with wealth and your cities with people? In Europe we have cities wealthier and more populous than yours, and we are not happy. You dream of your posterity; but your posterity will look back to yours as the golden age, and envy those who first burst into this silent, splendid nature, who first lifted up their axes upon these tall trees, and lined these waters with busy wharves. Why, then, seek to complete in a few decades what the other nations of the world took thousands of years over in the older continents? Why, in your hurry to subdue and utilize nature, squander her splendid gifts? Why hasten the advent of that threatening day when the vacant spaces of the continent shall all have been filled, and the poverty or discontent of the older States shall find no outlet? You have opportunities such as mankind has never had before, and may never have again. Your work is great and noble; it is done for a future longer and vaster than our conceptions can embrace. Why not make its outlines and beginnings worthy of these destinies, the thought of which gilds your hopes and elevates your purposes?”
-Lord James Bryce, 1911, excerpted from The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
Igor Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite - 7. Vivo
Pulcinella was an important turning point in Stravinsky’s career as it led him into the so-called “neo-classical” style which was to dominate his output for the next several decades. This accompanied a concomitant movement in American ballet that stands unrivaled even today in it’s simplicity and elegance. Perhaps this example will prove an inspiration for something spare and lasting in the Keweenaw woods. Perhaps the best classical music is akin to a functional ecosystem and cannot be improved upon, only enjoyed.
The entire composition is found here.
Announcing the Rabbit Island Artist-in-Residence Andrew Ranville:
“We hope to encourage sculptors, composers or poets to create the unexpected and to turn ecological issues into aesthetic ones. And by creating encounters and collaboration between artists and specialists in all fields, from farmers and artisans to biologists, zoologists, botanists, etc, it is hoped to foster creativity and a more enhanced understanding of the mechanisms of a specific locality and of the frailty and resilience of nature.”
–Gertrud Købke Sutton explaining the aims of the Tranekær International Centre for Art and Nature
(TICKON) on the island of Langeland, Denmark.
While the locale may be different, Suttonʼs description closely outlines the jump-off point for what we hope to explore on Rabbit Island. As we continue to live in a world where overpopulation, pollution, climate change and dwindling resources shape and change our interaction with our environment, art and ecology are being forced closer together. Since the Land Art movement of the 1960s, a growing number of artists and other creative practitioners have focused their work on – and in – the natural environment.
An important question we ask today is how do we live sustainably in our physical surroundings? Do we make art that considers from concept, to material, to realization, how it will interact and exist in the environment? Do we create something that gives to nature, or that takes away?
There will be a place where those questions can be engaged head-on. In a wild, remote location where one will be forced to interact with nature in a very raw and direct way. Rabbit Island is that place. A forested island of over 90 acres located in the largest freshwater lake in the world–-what better place to experience unspoiled nature and truly challenge an artist?
I have the honor and privilege to be the first artist-in-residence on Rabbit Island. While I plan to document and engage with the island through my own artistic practice, my main goal will be to help build the facilities that will enable future artist residents. Once a studio and cabin are constructed, an official artist residency program will be established. Artists from around the world will then be invited to take part in this unique project. By engaging with a number fields outside of art, and collaborating directly with the environment, the artists and Rabbit Island together can then evolve not as a project, but a symbol for something greater, and in time, possibly a movement in itself.
-Andrew Ranville, MFA
Slade School of Fine Art; London, England
The Keweenaw Land Trust, partner and custodian of the Rabbit Island consevation easement, forwarded an interesting biodiversity report jointly published in August, 2010, by the US and Canadian governments titled Islands of Life: A Biodiversity and Conservation Atlas of Great Lakes Islands. What a nice surprise. The report is a professionally organized multinational effort between a few big hitters in the conservation world: the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. It offers general information on the state of Great Lakes island ecosystems as well as specific detail regarding each and every biologically important island in the watershed. According to the biodiversity ranking criteria Rabbit Island is ranked as the second most important island in terms of biodiversity in the Keweenaw Peninsula region of Lake Superior due to its location, unique habitat for rare migratory birds and rocky underwater spawning grounds for native Lake Superior fish. A fine distinction.
From a global perspective freshwater islands are themselves very rare and those that have been left undeveloped and un-subdivided, remaining in their native state, are real gems. Fresh water in general is scarce as well. Consider this: fresh water represents only three percent of the Earth’s water and about two-thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps, while the remaining third is mostly underground. In all visible surface freshwater represents a mere 1.3% of the total fresh water on Earth, and the majority of this is contained within the Great Lakes. Rabbit Island is blessed to be surrounded by Lake Superior, the largest and purest of these mighty bodies of water.
The report is very well done and quite specific, offering a wealth of information. Overviews can be found at both The Nature Conservancy’s website, nature.org, and it’s Canadian sibling site, natureconservancy.ca, and the full report can be found by clicking the above link and then downloading the .PDF file. Specific information regarding Rabbit Island (aka “Traverse Island” in the report) is found on page 62. The Introduction is worth a read too.
California Stars – Billy Bragg & Wilco
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
-Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, John Donne, 1624
Mr. Donne’s writes that we are all in this thing together; connected, communal by definition, sharing our experiences as a group of people impossibly intertwined. No doubt.
Historically the imagery of remote islands repeatedly proves itself to be a powerful symbol lending inspiration to art and literature. (Mr. Donne’s quote, for example, went on to inspire Hemingway’s famous novel about the Spanish Civil War). It will be interesting to see the symbolism of Rabbit Island develop as human nature and wilderness evolve together on a 91 acre rise of land in the middle of Lake Superior (with full rear view of 400 years of American frontier experience in hindsight).
The 2011 Rabbit Island Summer Games:
+ Kayak Race (Circumnavigation)
+ Surf Comp
+ Wood Chopping
+ Point-to-Point Swim
+ Log Roll (Coed)
+ Rock Skip
+ Island Marathon (five laps)
+ Laser Sailing Regatta
+ Rabbit Hunt
Rabbit Island’s ecosystem has persisted without experiencing subdivision, forestry or industry and retains objective characteristics conducive to well-controlled study of nature. In light of this historical circumstance science will be supported on the island in any subdivision under the broad umbrella of science–biology, botany, forestry, ornithology, ecology, geology, sustainability, etc.
Following in the footsteps of other regional wilderness areas–Huron Mountain Club Wildlife Foundation, Isle Royal National Park Research, Apostle Islands–the new Rabbit Island Science Foundation will encourage in-depth study of the natural systems of the Lake Superior terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Goals include broadening the understanding of natural cycles in the native lake environment, defining the influence of human activity and industrial byproduct on nature, and paying homage to the American frontier experience. Rabbit Island will provide a unique setting for researchers to perform serious scientific inquiry.
Researchers from local institutions including Michigan Technological University, Northern Michigan University, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and other interested institutions are encouraged to submit proposals. Cataloging the natural data of Rabbit Island is central to the understanding of the island’s natural cycles over large spans of time. Scientific research is encouraged for its own sake.
Examples of possible research topics include (but are not limited to):
+ The annual measurement of Mercury found within various size classes of native Traverse Island strain Lake Superior lake trout.
+ The effect of annual air temperature on breeding success of the Rabbit Island blue heron colony.
+ Water quality pre and post-Keweenaw stamp sand remediation efforts.
+ The life cycle and habits of the resident island bald eagles.
+ Lake Superior island forest composition and succession in the absence of large browsing mammals and climax community definition.
+ Genetic diversity specifics of native Rabbit Island lake trout populations.
+ Annual Lake Superior water level and relationship to regional climate.
+ Population dynamics of competing nesting gulls and cormorants over several generations.
Research access will be provided to the island with little bureaucracy in the hopes of encouraging scientific discourse and the systematic knowledge of the natural world gained through observation and experimentation. Multi-year proposals will be entertained as will projects of short duration.
In all cases proposals should have scientific merit and be based on sound scientific reasoning. Priority will be given to projects according to the following broad standards:
+ Use of the unique and unusual features of the island ecosystem in study design is encouraged.
+ Studies addressing the merits and consequences of climate change or other large-scale environmental change are encouraged.
+ Projects potentially leading to long-term research with funding will be looked upon favorably. (We can’t afford to fund this ourselves at this point).
All projects will be considered and researchers should not hesitate to inquire!
Contact Rob Gorski at rob@rabbit-island.org for further information.