The Tzintzuntzan landscape habitat
restoration, originally conceived as a landscape as/of sound,
resulted from investigations during my residency at Centro
Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras (CMMAS) in
2010. Serious on-site investigations of sound and
landscapes soon bring one to realize that sounds are linked to
habitat, and as students of Ecology know, habitat is entwined
with ecosystem structures and functions - with landforms,
moisture, light, temperature, wind and water as well as the
interacting flora and fauna of food webs. On my first
visit to the Tzintzuntzan national archaeological site I
brought a guidebook that breezily informed me that the
onomatopoetic Purépecha word, "Tzintzuntzan,"
means "place of the hummingbirds" and advised me not
to expect to find hummingbirds there now. While I was at
Tzintzuntzan, the evocative name merged with the site's
magnificence to kindle my imagination and engender an idea:
Tzintzuntzan could be designed so that hummingbirds
repopulated it thus transforming and enlivening the acoustic
environment. Past and current connections between nature
and culture also would thus be revealed and renewed.
Through CMMAS director Rodrigo Sigal, I
met Dr. Roberto Lindig-Cisneros, a professor and restoration
ecologist at Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y
Sustentabilidad (IIES) at the Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM) Morelia campus. After a short meeting we embarked
on the project together. Images here document some of the
work.that has ensued. It has included an introductory
brochure, site analyses, research and graphic compilations of
relevant bird and plant species, planting design, seed
collection and propagation, planting and construction.
Much of thias work has been in conjuction with the
Instituto Naccional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH), the
agency that manages the site.
