The MFA in Collaborative Design welcomes Marina Zurkow as part of the 2013-2014 Graduate Visiting Artist Lecture Series to deliver a lecture entitled, “Portland’s Terroir: Soil, Water, and Life.”

Marina Zurkow makes media works about humans and their relationships to animals, plants and the weather. Crossing multiple disciplines with her practice, Marina Zurkow builds participatory environments that are centered on humans and their relationship to animals, plants and the weather. Recipient of a 2011 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and Research Fellow at PNCA, her latest project is a collaboration with PDX based The Last Attempt at Greatness whose design disruptions explore humans’ relationship with progress, expectations, liminality, and value. Their new project Sampan Super Chai is an examination of Portland’s terroir: collecting, analyzing, and processing the substrate, waters, biota and anthropogenic artifacts of the Willamette and Columbia rivers.  In partnering with scientists and activists, the project will explore new ways to understand the Portland hydroscape. Zurkow will be joined by a panel of regional natural resource / cultural colleagues including Sarah Sentiles, Jim Desmond, Chris D’Arcy and Kevin Kearns.