Growing up around the world with a endlessly-moving family, Josh lived in a reality requiring constant vulnerability towards new environments. Through his trials of breaking beyond the bubble of comfort, Josh developed a little bit of a knack towards exploring those frontiers in an acclimatization towards discomfort. This familiarization with changing environments developed a curiosity to understand both the natural and artificial world that surround him
In exploring the natural world that surrounds him, Josh enjoys embarking on Hiking or Backpacking trips with friends in areas spanning the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. There's an inherent beauty and mystique of the great outdoors that only can truly be appreciated at its greatest when the distractions are reduced to a minimum. As such, Josh's natural excursions are oftentimes minimalist, with only the bare necessities brought along in a bag or backpack. He lived off a 25lb backpack for 7-days in the Eagle Cap Wilderness traversing a 50 mile loop whilst summiting Eagle Cap. As an Eagle Scout, his years of practice with tools and knowledge for survival and exploration prepare him for any type of excursion.
In addition to exploring the natural world by foot, Josh also does so by bike, boat, or car. In less-than-minimalist excursions, Josh takes interest in the journey itself that is traveled. He has biked the entirety of 73 mile Trail of the Coeur D'Alene's westward and eastward, and a 140 mile solo-adventure from New Haven, CT to Boston, MA. By boat, he's kayaked between the San Juan islands and rowed offshore of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. His father and him drove a 4,600 mile loop from San Francisco to Mexico City and back on an ecological/sociocultural research trip.
As seen through these journeys, the exploration of the natural world oftentimes intertwines itself with the artificial world. Human-made pathways and structures line the avenues from which we enter the natural world. As such, Josh more recently has taken an interest in the unnatural structures and sociocultural relations of the artificial world. In exploring the artificial world around him, Josh takes on the perspective of an outsider but attempts to assimilate into the newfound bubble that he is exposed to.
In the Winter between 2023 and 2024, Josh traveled to Ukraine on a Research Trip in order to adjust his understandings as an outsider on the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. By being physically present in Kyiv during the largest air attacks from Dec 29th - Jan 3rd since the start of the full scale invasion, and interviewing over 30 local nationals in off-the-record conversations in Odesa, Lviv, and Vinnytsia, Josh truly assimilated on a domestic level in better understanding the political climate and lives affected by the ongoing conflict.
In summary, Josh lives by the fundamental of exploring the bubbles which bound him and breaking them in both the natural and artificial worlds.
