Faculty Information
The Horticulture Center is a focal point for interdisciplinary research and study as well as demonstration site allowing community observation. The Center can be used as a laboratory for classes in diverse disciplines and collaborative endeavors. The Outdoor Classroom is available upon request for faculty who wish to bring the students to the Center.
Ruth K. Burke
DOMESTIC REWILDING
"The Illinois iteration of Domestic Rewilding serves as a Living Land Acknowledgement. The land on which the work, the Illinois State University Horticulture Center (ISUHC), and the cities of Normal-Bloomington reside is the ancestral land of Indigenous peoples, most recently the Kickapoo and Miami tribes. This land was once a prairie, and these communities once lived and thrived here.
The project reflects wider concerns around interspecies relationships, eco-social-engagement, and sustainable systems restoration."
The Horticulture Center has set aside one acre for this project and looks forward to collaborating for the next seven to ten years with Ruth Burke and Dr. Shannon Epplett. The project ultimately reestablishes prairie that will remain for educational purposes and for posterity.
Assistant Professor of Video & Coordinator, Visiting Artist Program (she/they)
https://finearts.illinoisstate.edu/events-activities/visiting-artists/
Wonsook Kim School of Art | Illinois State University
https://finearts.illinoisstate.edu/art-studios/video/
Interdisciplinary Artist
www.ruthkburke.com
info@ruthkburke.com
Jason Reblando
GARDEN SHED CAMERA OBSCURA
A camera obscura, Latin for "dark chamber," is a small, darkened room that admits light through a tiny hole in a wall on one end of the room that allows an inverted mirror image to be projected onto the opposite wall. Camera obscuras predate the invention of photography and have been used as a tool of creativity and inquiry to study the behavior of light. They are essential to our understanding of optics and photography. A common and simple type of camera obscura is a pinhole camera, and while camera obscuras are often made out of objects as small as shoeboxes, they can exist in various shapes and sizes, such as this garden shed. This public art project at the ISU Horticulture Center is a unique way to engage with our Central Illinois landscape.
Many thanks to John Tulley for designing and constructing the base that allows the camera obscura to rotate. Support received from Gwen and Ted Crowley Endowment Fund, Wonsook Kim School of Art.
1. STEP INSIDE
2. CLOSE DOOR
3. MOVE APERTURE SLIDER TO 8mm
4. WAIT FOR EYES TO ADJUST & ENJOY THE PROJECTION!
Please rotate shed SLOWLY to point shed to different scenes.
Assistant Professor (he/him/his)
Photography
Fulbright Program Student Advisor
Society for Photographic Education Board Member
Wonsook Kim School of Art, CVA 202B
Illinois State University
Jason Reblando
GARDEN SHED CAMERA OBSCURA
A camera obscura, Latin for "dark chamber," is a small, darkened room that admits light through a tiny hole in a wall on one end of the room that allows an inverted mirror image to be projected onto the opposite wall. Camera obscuras predate the invention of photography and have been used as a tool of creativity and inquiry to study the behavior of light. They are essential to our understanding of optics and photography. A common and simple type of camera obscura is a pinhole camera, and while camera obscuras are often made out of objects as small as shoeboxes, they can exist in various shapes and sizes, such as this garden shed. This public art project at the ISU Horticulture Center is a unique way to engage with our Central Illinois landscape.
Many thanks to John Tulley for designing and constructing the base that allows the camera obscura to rotate. Support received from Gwen and Ted Crowley Endowment Fund, Wonsook Kim School of Art.
1. STEP INSIDE
2. CLOSE DOOR
3. MOVE APERTURE SLIDER TO 8mm
4. WAIT FOR EYES TO ADJUST & ENJOY THE PROJECTION!
Please rotate shed SLOWLY to point shed to different scenes.
Assistant Professor (he/him/his)
Photography
Fulbright Program Student Advisor
Society for Photographic Education Board Member
Wonsook Kim School of Art, CVA 202B
Illinois State University
John Sedbrook, Nicholas Heller, Bill Perry, Rob Rhykerd
Pennycress domestication and development as a winter-annual oilseed crop.
Similar to the conversion of rapeseed to Canola, wild field pennycress is being domesticated at ISU to be launched as a new crop. Dr. Sedbrook and team have been working to: 1) improve the germplasm's growth traits, shatter resistance, and oil profile, 2) reduce fiber and glucosinolate content, and 3) detail the environmental advantages pennycress provides. Pennycress functions as a cover crop ecologically, fitting between soybeans and corn in Illinois cropping systems and also provides pollinators with nectar early in the spring. The ISU Horticulture Center has been an integral part of the domestication process as a home to the genetics nursery and a number of agronomic trials comparing top lines as well as studying planting dates and seed treatments.
John C. Sedbrook, PhD
Professor of Genetics
School of Biological Sciences
Illinois State University
jcsedbr@ilstu.edu
Phone: (309) 438-3374
Fax: (309) 438-3722
Bill Perry, PhD
Professor of Ecology
309-438-8160
wlperry@ilstu.edu
Nicholas Heller, PhD
Assistant Professor of Crop Sciences
Illinois State University – Dept. of Agriculture
Ropp Agriculture Building 146
njhelle@ilstu.edu
(309) 438-8095
Rob Rhykerd, PhD
Professor of Soil Science
309-438-8550
rrhyker@ilstu.edu
