Seeking to Understand Our Relationship with the Land
Image credit: Cale Wagner
Image credit: Cale Wagner
“Silt is the realization of a small dream held by a handful of graduate students in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning,” write co-editors Lucy Corlett and Olivia Fiol in their letter from the editors for the second volume of Silt. “That dream grew from excited whispers, to a website, to an 8-page spring issue, to what you now hold in your hands. Our second volume establishes Silt as a home for creative work that swirls across physical and digital space.”
Silt is a student publication that was envisioned as a public forum where students of city planning, architecture, and design could share work generated during their studies in the Greater Boston area but which is independent of work produced for traditional academic publications. Silt seeks to archive the dense time of growth associated with the student experience in the Greater Boston area, as well as professional experience beyond. Silt is published in print biannually (each academic semester) with a new theme for each issue and a rolling submission process throughout the year.
The second volume of Silt asks how we understand and reflect our relationship with the land and space that we inhabit on a daily basis? “We asked authors and artists to explore their relationships with the land they inhabit, exploit, pass over, and leave behind,” write Corlett and Fiol, both Master of City Planning candidates. “Our contributors understand and engage with this issue’s theme through distinct lenses and media. The result is something of a printed chorus, a collective voice in twenty parts.”
entwined is comprised of twenty pieces of work, including poetry, prose, photo essays, and original pieces of art. The pieces’ focus, ranging from our relationship with the natural world to politics of the social constructs of nation states and their borders, offer a lens into the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and points of view embodied in the MIT student community. Authors include: Emma Caviness, Max Gruber, Daniela Morales, Sanam Mirzaye Ahmadi, Mahwish Kahlil, Archer Thomas, Manal Zia, Kaede Polkinghorne, Khadija Ghanizada, Isaac Gendler, Lina Bondarenko, Ananth Udupa, Arezo Hakemy, Jake Boeri, Elmo Tumbokon, Hannah (Yu Hang) Leung, Miquel Rossello Xamena, Mica Caine, Isbah Premjee, and Virginia Sun.
The current managing editorial team includes co-creators Lucy Corlett and Olivia Fiol. Executive committee members include: Jake Boeri, Web Farabow, Brooke Jin, Kaede Polkinghorne, Amy Rogin, Dylan Roth, Anna Savino, Mena Mohamed, Mistaya Smith, Archer Thomas, and Cale Wagner.