The North Woods Project combines emerging media with science storytelling to celebrate URI’s North Woods. Located just across the street from CBLS and Avedisian Hall, the North Woods is often described as “URI’s best kept secret.” While these 300 acres of forest and wetland may go unnoticed by most of URI’s 17,000 students, the majority have walked alongside its entrance on Flagg Road.

The North Woods may be a secret to some, but it is a meaningful place to many students and faculty at the university. Whether it’s an outdoor teaching forest for the Natural Resources Department, a source of creative inspiration for art students, or just a place of solitude, the North Woods has become a fixture of URI’s physical and academic landscapes.

Check out this welcome video directed and produced by Jonathan Thomas (MESM ’22) and DWELL Lab affiliate Joe Ahart (MESM ’24) for The North Woods Project in Spring 2022.

URI’s DWELL Lab is a contributor to this effort, showcasing the North Woods and documenting its important role in the university. DWELL, or Digital Writing Environments, Location, & Localization Lab, is directed by URI’s Dr. Madison Jones and supported by graduate students and other collaborators. The North Woods Project will ultimately be an open-access digital resource that combines augmented reality (AR), web development, and digital mapping to lay the groundwork for an ongoing research and teaching project that celebrates the North Woods through social, ecological, and creative perspectives.

This project hopes to sustain engagement in local communities both within and outside of URI and provide the university community and local residents with a walking tour experience that showcases the important roles that the North Woods play in the community as well as the social and ecological history of the place. The project will also offer important field-based learning experiences for graduate students and document ongoing research in the North Woods by students and faculty at URI.