On the green

Last Friday's sunshine brought students to the quads to read, throw frisbees, nap—and to play mini-golf. In the southeast corner, Green Campus Initiative had set up a golf course made of mostly recycled materials. Curated by the artistic collective Material Exchange, the course included nine holes built by local artists and organizations.

Green Campus Initiative member April Morton, '08, said the group coordinated the event as "a fun thing for Earth Week." The course was also thought-provoking: many of the holes were designed as social commentary. In the first hole, for instance, made by students at Hyde Park Academy with help from the artistic group Puppet Posse Collective, multiple ramps led to a single opening in a recycled PC tower. According to the accompanying placard, the hole, titled "Learn the Hard Way," was meant to be "a critique of public education," forcing golfers to compete for success available through only one path. Michael Dinges's (MFA'05) creation, titled "Every Process Creates Disorder," included a giant trashbag-tornado hovering over a cluster of tiny houses on the green. It was meant to suggest society's "rampant, ill-conceived, and perhaps unsustainable development."

Some holes provided more frustration than reflection. "Quarter Pipe," by Matthew Dupont, consisted of a concave ramp leading to a hole about four feet off the ground. The placard said par was three, but students bogeyed and double bogeyed. "I got it for the first time today," Morton remarked. It had taken her all week.

Jenny Fisher, '07

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Photos (left to right): Hole three presents an extreme challenge; a student attempts "The Quarter Pipe"; multiple entrances lead to one hole in "Learn the Hard Way."

April 23, 2007