Designing the Regions
After finishing the base, I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to finding sources. At the same time, I began meeting with CDIL about formatting the website and how to collect and display sources that were primarily digital. In order to give them materials to work with and to finish my collage, I had to wrap up my research. Honestly, I could have collected sources forever–falling down rabbit holes of different viewpoints. I had to stop myself at 60+ sources.
Once the citation list was finalized, I started to pick a few key pieces of writing and images from each region: Native American Tribe’s mission statements, IDFG’s regional descriptions, rancher and hunter perspectives, Sawtooth Pack research, Wood River Wolf Project goals, reintroduction articles around Yellowstone, bounty hunting posters, etc. Furthermore, I collected extra copies of outdoor magazines from the College of Natural Resources (CNR) for images of rangeland. At long last, I could start gluing down focal points!
Actually placing items down was a bit jarring–trying to balance instinctual design with nuance and location accuracy–and I would later learn that haste sometimes has consequences. But initially, creating the regions went well! It all started to feel like it was coming together.
Meanwhile, Montana stood empty. At this point, I wasn’t aiming to collect any more sources about Montana’s wolf policy, but I had stumbled across the IDFG’s timeline of wolf reintroduction in Wyoming, Montana, and Central Idaho.
“Why not include the timeline to lead viewers to the current state of Idaho?” I thought. In theory, this sounded fantastic! I spent a lot of time cutting down the timeline to essential events, which still came out rather long. Determined–maybe even feverish–I began gluing down this summarized history, as you can see in the video.
Now, dear reader, if you doubt my design choice at this point, or feel like the piece gets too busy–you are 100% correct! Remember when I said that haste could have consequences? Well, it did here…after stepping back, getting some sleep, and coming back to the piece the next day, I saw that it would info-whelm viewers. As Heather Houser explains in Infowhelm: Environmental Art and Literature in the Age of Data, infowhelming–providing too much information that overwhelms viewers―is the direct opposite of what ecological art should do. Ecological art should capture the essence of complex issues, conveying them in accessible ways. When I shared the timeline design with other people, their reactions said it all: furrowed brows, pursed lips, and general confusion.
“Oh well,” I thought and carried on outlining. Stepping back again, I felt really disappointed in the end result–everything looked too busy, too heavy, too messy. So as not to repeat my last hasty mistake, I left it alone and returned the next day with a fresh pair of eyes.