The "Man-made vs Nature-made Lines" artifact is a prototype to explore how ecological boundaries and First Nations Tribal boundaries have interacted in the past. This artifact explores the overlaps between man-made and naturally occurring geographic boundaries though time by drawing from datasets of First Nations tribes in the Midwest (https://native-land.ca/) and eco-regions of the Great Lakes area. As climate change has become more urgent and its impact more obvious, one wonders how, if in any way, human-made boundaries can be influenced by the organically occurring boundaries that occur within nature. This prototype is the first step to exploring this concept by seeking to answer "Could human reasons for creating geographic demarcations (political, social or cultural) ever overlap with natural geographic separation lines between species of plants, animals, insects?"

This project was developed to address the following hypothesis: "Humans have a history of living as the land and climate dictates". The short answer provided by the prototype is really: "We can't be sure. At least not with this data".

Despite that, the prototype succeeds in creating a physical representation of movement with the area and calls to the viewer's mind an important provocation: "how will people of the future (us), living in harmony with nature, create our boundaries? How can we prototype those?"