Did You Know ? Alumni Maci Nelson ,The Landscape Nerd Podcast.
Masters in Landscape Architecture
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
Alumni Maci Nelson
Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of education and record keeping. It is a captivating and immersive experience that has the ability to change a person’s perception, even for a moment. Telling a story can immerse someone into an experience that is entirely someone else’s but they are left with emotions that they can connect to. In terms of landscape, storytelling can help connect people outside of landscape architecture to our profession, or better yet, feel a part of our working process or, feel a part of the story.
Storytelling can inspire people to learn more about their landscapes and the complex systems that are involved. New experiences through stories open up our world to more ideas and to others who have heard the same stories. Landscapes invite designers and non-designers from all backgrounds to share their stories and insights. More stories offer more opportunities for designers to connect and become informed. Storytelling invites other disciplines to understand the roles that landscape architects have in the environment. Landscape stories allow our discipline to communicate with everyone else.
I use storytelling skills to communicate with a variety of different audiences. I enjoy encouraging people to use their stories and to collaborate with others to inform the design and the built environment. Currently, I host a landscape podcast, The Landscape Nerd, as a way to reach out to people who are curious about outdoor environments and how they are constructed. The podcast can bring awareness to different design styles and cultures. The episodes titled ‘African American Gardens’ highlights the history and design elements that make up this signature landscape. This is the podcast’s most popular episode. Also, the podcast can take a popular topic and relate it to landscape architecture. In a recent episode, listeners voted to learn more about moss. I was able to talk about how moss relates to many fields of study, including ecology, agriculture, and design.
