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Throughout history, mankind has marked its occupation – both the habitual and the ritual practices that thread one generation to another – into and out of the earth. In studying these earthworks, which can often seem natural, archaeologists have uncovered migration patterns and geopolitical relations that stretch well beyond the written record of history. Today, in a world marked by a glut of media, it is easy to forget the lasting earth-marks of our actions; to forget, that we, ourselves, are writing histories into and out of the earth every day. What stories do we want the earth to tell of our time here?
The landscape of Great Britain is littered with stories constructed by previous generations – some known, some not. When uncovered, they speak volumes about the many varied peoples who have populated these isles over time. If traced, a line or mound of turf – only distinguishable from the surrounding landscape through the sharpness of its form – may unravel human relations that span across continents and through cosmologies. The material of these stories – soils, waters, plants – allows the deep time of geology (rocks) and meteorology (weather) to penetrate the cast of characters, rewriting and often obscuring the story from view. This allows a mingling of fiction and non-fiction, of possibilities and impossibilities, to penetrate the historical record and our understanding of ourselves.
Throughout the year, Design Studio 7 has examined the many challenges faced by, and forcing change onto, bodies around the globe, working with the materials and methods of storytelling with the earth to write and rewrite messages to future generations. We have studied sites across the country whose constructed landforms and altered materials tell of histories that mirror the challenges of today. Learning with these sites, we have considered the elemental properties of soils, rocks, plants and weather that have turned the earth’s surface into inhabitable art. While addressing the complexities, contradictions and conflicts present in the work of land artists including Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria and Michael Heizer, we have also considered the relationship between land art and landscape architecture. Where do these practices converge and where do they depart?