For a future world with novel ecosystems, diminished in diversity and scope by human action, Gifts of Time, Space & Attention (GTSA) offer speculative objects as tools for exploration into new rituals and practices for healing the land, our more-than-human community, and ourselves.

Invasive plants are a threat to life as we know it. With no 'predators', they will destroy adjacent native plants and their dependents. Biodiversity is a key to our fragile web of life and we as people can help this balance. As a three-year volunteer in a state park, I have used my skills as a designer to control Japanese barberry, including finding many ways to use their bark and berries. I have shared my knowledge extensively and have created environmental allies.

For GTSA's speculative objects, I imagine a world that has undergone a collective paradigm shift where our relationship to the living world looks like caregiving. GTSA is an offering to provoke and/or inspire a shift in perspective, suggesting that what has the power to destroy also has the power to repair.

FASHION|
The future we see uses fashion as a tool to reinforce our commitment to the environment. The speculative clothing pieces change as the wearer changes.

THE BURDEN SUIT is a garment with a built-in compression device that mimics a tree being squeezed. The user can control the pressure and ultimately stop it, by cutting vines on a tree.

THE CATERPILLAR JACKET features perforated areas that users can tear out, gradually creating a unique design. Adorning the hem are caterpillar jewelry pieces, adding a touch of nature-inspired aesthetics.

INVASIVE BARBERRY ACUPUNCTURE PANTS are pre-loaded with ink. When the user has a seed removal session the thorns create a mark and activate pressure points on the body. As the garment visibly alters, it evolves into a valuable artifact.

RITUALS
The future we see includes rituals to honor nature and ourselves.

THE WILDNESS TRANSITION KIT (the Messy Lawn Rake, the Yawnmower, Signage and acclimating exercises) helps homeowners update their beauty standards.

THE SEED HARVESTING KIT (invasive seed removal tools: scraping gloves, adjustable instruments) will be in every home to help gamify environmental stewardship.

A THERAPEUTIC WEIGHTED BLANKET calms the body and restores the land.

GIFTS
The future we see has a culture that shifted its focus from Having to Being. The speculative gifts we propose are all made from invasive plants and provide the recipient with beauty, knowledge and play.

SCULPTURES OF SIGNIFICANCE (S.O.S.) are full of sterilized invasive seeds (tagged with exact number) and are cherished as a 'slow gift' that reflects the time and effort invested in its creation.

INVASIVORIST TRAINING KIT
(microscope, spore kit, field guide, edible invasive cookbook) offers a return to identifying plants and eating them. The user's health benefits, as does the foraging area.

BARBERRY WOOD IS YELLOW! Invasive Stick Game
Unlike plastic toys, our speculative stick game will serve both the imagination by minimalist design and the environment.

CLOSE
As a designer I feel impelled to act. GTSA is the start of a conversation as to what is possible.

For a future world with novel ecosystems, diminished in diversity and scope by human action, Gifts of Time, Space & Attention (GTSA) offer speculative objects as tools for exploration into new rituals and practices for healing the land, our more-than-human community, and ourselves.

GTSA began in 2020 when I was a park volunteer at Gunpowder Falls State Park and enlisted 18 volunteers to remove invasive shrubs. Park rangers assigned me a research area and I found ways to control Japanese barberry (creating prototypes of tools to slow growth without chemicals) and use them (food, dye, medicine). I led educational nature walks and shared what I learned. Through a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, I organized a gallery exhibit of my work and produced an accompanying field guide and cookbook. For the HASTAC conference and Stevenson University's Arts Alive! in 2023, I created a participatory exhibit and developed an invasive plant scavenger hunt. To situate GTSA's realm of focus, know that in 2023, the state of Connecticut reported that 53% of its forest understory was comprised of non-native plants, which crowd out native plants and all life that relies on them. And, according to the U.S. Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, the Northeast is projected to be a hot spot for highly destructive, invasive plants. Since I live in Maryland, examining this assault on our fragile web of life seemed worthy of speculative dreaming to imagine a different eventuality. The world I imagine will have undergone a collective paradigm shift where our relationship to the living world is strong, vibrant, and creative. In response to a crisis of sustainability, we will have moved from paralysis and grief to action; Our activities will resemble caregiving. As designers, our work must reject the human-centric design model and embrace the concept of interbeing with nature. While widespread participation in minimizing the harm from invasive species is based on a hypothetical future, the speculative objects created are based on over 3 years of research and iterative work. While this is my sole project, I use the pronoun 'we' throughout to reflect the spirit of collaboration with many participants. GTSA is an offering to provoke and/or inspire a shift in perspective, suggesting that what has the power to destroy also has the power to repair.

FEARLESS FASHION In our modern era, clothing has become more than a means to cover our skin or regulate our body temperature, it marks us, brands us as members of a certain group by affiliation. In a society where wealth/luxury carry status, the clothes we choose to wear send signals about who we are and what we value. Additionally, second only to oil, textile and apparel manufacturing is the most polluting industry in the world.The hypothetical future we see creates status through clothes that show, literally, how much the wearer cares about the environment- valuing the wild, abundance, flourishing. The speculative clothing pieces we offer change as the wearer changes.

THE BURDEN SUIT In a time when the native trees of the forest are increasingly strangled by invasive vines and their numbers decimated, we imagine a future where people will want to be in solidarity with their community's native trees. We offer the Burden Suit, a garment with a bult-in compression device that mimics a tree being squeezed. The intensity of the pressure can be controlled and ultimately stopped by the user, by making large cutting motions with shears to free a tree from its vines.

CATERPILLAR JACKET While fast fashion offers inexpensive, short-lived social media props made of enduring materials, often oil-based, we offer the all-natural, morphing Caterpillar Jacket. The conceptual garment features perforated areas that invite users to tear out pieces, gradually creating a unique design filled with holes. Adorning the hem are jewelry pieces resembling caterpillars, adding a touch of nature-inspired aesthetics to the overall design.

INVASIVE ACUPUNCTURE PANTS In a world without natural agents to control invasive barberry, a person puts on a pair of Invasive Barberry Acupuncture Pants and heads to the forest to help balance the understory and themselves. While the wearer cuts barberry branches and removes seeds, the pants get scratched by thorns. Each prick activates pressure points on the body while releasing pre-loaded invasive berry ink onto the fabric. As the garment visibly alters, it evolves into a valuable artifact, each scratch a record of a barberry removal session. The garment's unique pattern tells one person's story as part of the collective effort of care.

RITUALS In 2024, patterns in our day favor efficiency and are informed by ease, cost, and desire. Technology has provided quick and simple access to ideas, people and things, but at a steep price—both on an individual and societal level.The future we see puts nature at the forefront. Entire concepts and words are removed from our lexicon, such as 'single use', 'NIMBY', and 'supersized'. In their stead, we offer rituals to honor, cherish, and connect while creating an opportunity to give gifts to the land.

WILDNESS TRANSITION KIT As our yards evolve from chemical-laden, monoculture grass with decorative invasive plants, to nourishing homes for insects, birds, and animals, people will need help transitioning from formerly accepted norms. The traditional 'ideal' lawn arose from a colonial aesthetic of orderly control over a naturally wild and changeable land. The transition kit includes specific tools (the Messy Lawn Rake, the Yawnmower, Signage) and exercises to acclimate the homeowner to a visual mess. Ultimately, the updated idea of beauty will be recognized and reinforced with the sounds, smells and activity inherent in a living, healthy habitat.

SEED HARVESTING KIT In our free time today, gaming, participating in social media, and 'doomscrolling' captivate us, as algorithm engineers use our biological design for our attention and their enrichment. In the future we see, everyone will have an active sense of purpose to care for our planet. Instead of counting steps or following friends' Strava workouts, we will gamify environmental stewardship, for example, we might compete over the number of invasive seeds gathered. The invasive seed harvesting kit includes specialized tools for various size berries and seeds, such as gloves with pockets and scraping edges, adjustable rakes and cone gadgets. This hands -on approach helps the barrier between us and nature fall away, so we can see that what benefits the Earth benefits us, naturally.

THERAPEUTIC WEIGHTED BLANKET AND COMFORT OBJECTS Weighted blankets and heating-pad pouches filled with invasive seeds help heal places and people. The large number of seeds removed from the ecosystem, restore the land and calm the body. The act of creating therapy tools for others also creates agency.

GIFTS People give gifts to one another to acknowledge their affection or affiliation. Thoughtful gifts are based on guesswork- as to what the other person might want. Many givers value the act of giving over the actual item. Even the perfect choice risks losing its charm over time.The future we see has a culture that shifted its focus from Having to Being. Ephemeral gifts are popular, and physical, more permanent gifts, rare. As the health of the land is of paramount importance, gifts always offer some benefit to the Earth. The speculative gifts we propose are all made from invasive plants and provide the recipient with beauty, knowledge and play.

SCULPTURES OF SIGNIFICANCE (S.O.S.) In our hypothetical future, one of the most cherished objects is a 'slow gift' that reflects deep affection for the land, including the time and effort invested by the giver, or, by proxy, the maker, to create each item. These sculptures have hand-sewn designs and are full of sterilized seeds. Each includes a tag showing the numbers of seeds removed that will not be eaten and relocated by birds or animals, preventing further harm.

INVASIVORIST TRAINING KIT Today, Maryland restaurants offer cantaloupe as a 'seasonal' fruit, in winter. Adults order plastic-encased takeout meals and teenagers Doordash fast food. The distance between us as people and our food grows. The Invasivorist Training Kit offers a return to identifying edible plants and creating our own meals. The kit includes a hand lens, spore print kit, identification field guide, and a recipe book for edible invasives. While a user learns pattern recognition and gains self-confidence, their bodies benefit from better nutrition and activity while the forest becomes healthier since invasive plants are being removed, their damage lessened.

BARBERRY WOOD IS YELLOW! GAME MADE OF INVASIVE BARBERRY STICKS
Plastic makes up 90% of the toy industry and toys create a risk to the environment in their design, production, and life cycle. In the future, giving a child a plastic toy will be deeply offensive. Toys like our speculative stick game will serve both the imagination by minimalist design and the environment.

CLOSE In my native Ukraine, I lived close to the land. It seemed natural, obvious, right. In the U.S., with its near total loss of indigenous knowledge, colonial aesthetic, and extractive relationship to nature, as a designer I feel impelled to act. GTSA is the start of a conversation as to what is possible.