Creative potential in the rural post-industrial environment - Small scale, integrated forestry and architecture
09/07/19 Natural log post harvested on site. Hand rubbed finish. I am reexamining the species for accuracy. The logs are fallen not cut from the forest although we have do some thinning to foster a diverse forest. The natural posts are way to connect to the forest/timber products by retaining as much of the character of the tree in the wood including a hand rubbed finish that is both tactile and keeps the tone and color of the wood unchanged.
To be surprised by what we see...
I will describe a process of creative inquiry and aesthetic interpretation that is intended to expose entrenched paradigms and address concerns for rural culture and ecology. The work on-going at WAS is an exploration of the creative potential in the post-industrial rural environment. One of the creative explorations in development is a program of controlled or prescribed burns in which architecture is used to in alignment with biodiversity, cultural capital and rural economies. I am making a mutually supportive argument: the need for changing paradigms is the basis for creative potential.
The post-industrial condition is defined by interdependencies, not the isolation of elements within discrete parts which is the model characteristic of industrial practices. The functional grids and boundaries overlaid across the Midwest invoke a sense of predictable regularity and aesthetics of human dominance over nature through “improvement” of the land. The establishment, transgression and transformation of boundaries on the land itself, between nature and culture, human and nonhuman and the role of human engagement, management and control of the environment are the dominant themes that emerged during our exploration of the post-industrial rural landscape. While terms such as conservation and restoration may imply we have the ability to undo the effects of industrial agriculture; in reality, it is a boundary we can no longer transgress. What do we do or make in practical and material terms in order to fully conceptualize what we find in the rural post-industrial landscape and, how do we act appropriately, ethically, and ecologically, as designers and artists?
In aesthetic interpretations, meanings emerge through aesthetic qualities, as perceived by an individual. That individual brings with her or him a set of values, preferences, and more or less background knowledge, aesthetic experience, perceptual and emotional sensitivity, and imaginative ability.[i] I will address aesthetics in a pluralistic form that is understood as an integrated cognitive process. Phillip Alperson writes: “There is … an important sense in which viewing, hearing, reading, judging, surveying, discussing, criticizing, and all other activities involved in attending to, understanding and evaluating works of art are themselves performances, not only in the sense they are performed actions, but also insofar as they contribute to bringing a work to completion or at least to a fuller realization in some sense. Therefore, we can see that the fundamental character of aesthetic appreciation and how we understand and value what we experience emerges from a multitude of sources that coalesce both internally and externally. One’s creative skills of observation, association, and divergent thinking drive deeper understandings and aesthetic appreciation in any field. In addition, the performative acts of evaluating and understanding the focus of our aesthetic appreciation are also creative skills that extend our sensory and cognitive entanglement. The view of aesthetic interpretations allows us to extend our conventional thinking of architecture and extend the context in which the practice of the ethics of our habitation.
Carl Sauer wrote in 1955, “We present and recommend to the world a blueprint of what works well with us at the moment, heedless to that we may be destroying wise and durable native systems of living with the land. The modern industrial mood is insensitive to other ways and values. Since our arrival on the prairie, we have systematically tried to conquer the wild and replace it with the tame or useful.”The belief that materials, landscapes, and inhabitants are essentially empty, passive things awaiting the vision, agency and industry of man to make them either into something or change them into something of value was prevalent in our early settlement and still prevails today. We seek practices and experience that reject the paradigm of linear progression and restore aspects that may be essential to our well-being. In Jane Bennett’s concept of vibrant matter the view of the world is different as we strive to be “surprised by what we see.
K. Lair
I will describe a process of creative inquiry and aesthetic interpretation that is intended to expose entrenched paradigms and address concerns for rural culture and ecology. The work on-going at WAS is an exploration of the creative potential in the post-industrial rural environment. One of the creative explorations in development is a program of controlled or prescribed burns in which architecture is used to in alignment with biodiversity, cultural capital and rural economies. I am making a mutually supportive argument: the need for changing paradigms is the basis for creative potential.
The post-industrial condition is defined by interdependencies, not the isolation of elements within discrete parts which is the model characteristic of industrial practices. The functional grids and boundaries overlaid across the Midwest invoke a sense of predictable regularity and aesthetics of human dominance over nature through “improvement” of the land. The establishment, transgression and transformation of boundaries on the land itself, between nature and culture, human and nonhuman and the role of human engagement, management and control of the environment are the dominant themes that emerged during our exploration of the post-industrial rural landscape. While terms such as conservation and restoration may imply we have the ability to undo the effects of industrial agriculture; in reality, it is a boundary we can no longer transgress. What do we do or make in practical and material terms in order to fully conceptualize what we find in the rural post-industrial landscape and, how do we act appropriately, ethically, and ecologically, as designers and artists?
In aesthetic interpretations, meanings emerge through aesthetic qualities, as perceived by an individual. That individual brings with her or him a set of values, preferences, and more or less background knowledge, aesthetic experience, perceptual and emotional sensitivity, and imaginative ability.[i] I will address aesthetics in a pluralistic form that is understood as an integrated cognitive process. Phillip Alperson writes: “There is … an important sense in which viewing, hearing, reading, judging, surveying, discussing, criticizing, and all other activities involved in attending to, understanding and evaluating works of art are themselves performances, not only in the sense they are performed actions, but also insofar as they contribute to bringing a work to completion or at least to a fuller realization in some sense. Therefore, we can see that the fundamental character of aesthetic appreciation and how we understand and value what we experience emerges from a multitude of sources that coalesce both internally and externally. One’s creative skills of observation, association, and divergent thinking drive deeper understandings and aesthetic appreciation in any field. In addition, the performative acts of evaluating and understanding the focus of our aesthetic appreciation are also creative skills that extend our sensory and cognitive entanglement. The view of aesthetic interpretations allows us to extend our conventional thinking of architecture and extend the context in which the practice of the ethics of our habitation.
Carl Sauer wrote in 1955, “We present and recommend to the world a blueprint of what works well with us at the moment, heedless to that we may be destroying wise and durable native systems of living with the land. The modern industrial mood is insensitive to other ways and values. Since our arrival on the prairie, we have systematically tried to conquer the wild and replace it with the tame or useful.”The belief that materials, landscapes, and inhabitants are essentially empty, passive things awaiting the vision, agency and industry of man to make them either into something or change them into something of value was prevalent in our early settlement and still prevails today. We seek practices and experience that reject the paradigm of linear progression and restore aspects that may be essential to our well-being. In Jane Bennett’s concept of vibrant matter the view of the world is different as we strive to be “surprised by what we see.
K. Lair
Drift field is an image in contrast of the dominate view of Iowa and industrial histories. The future of agriculture is often being characterized as "precision ag" as the new digital technologies emerge. While "precision" offers the feel of improvement and promise of less waste to fix our current state of affairs it is merely a more aggressive continuation of control and dominance that has characterized our relationship the land and rural communities. Precision is in opposition to diversity.
The image of the drift field show trees as the eroded and flooded river deposits them in a fallow prairie field. They are the casualties of our land practices and image of the underlying chaos we foster with our precision. They are also highly irregular, expressive forms that indicate their own individuality having grown in particular sites and conditions. The drift is appealing in that is it not wood a material product but rather an extended life of a tree.
The image of the drift field show trees as the eroded and flooded river deposits them in a fallow prairie field. They are the casualties of our land practices and image of the underlying chaos we foster with our precision. They are also highly irregular, expressive forms that indicate their own individuality having grown in particular sites and conditions. The drift is appealing in that is it not wood a material product but rather an extended life of a tree.
The land of Iowa considered a land of resources to be modified by agriculture by European settlers. The rubble of that settlement has been wearing away.