LAND CARE IN THE EXPANDED FIELD The Art of Landscape Maintenance in a Broken World by Abigail Pierce MLA 2022 Project Advisor: Michael Geffel, Professor of Practice Presented to the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Landscape Architecture June 2022 LAND CARE IN THE EXPANDED FIELD ABIGAIL PIERCE, UO MLA 2022 2 MICHAEL GEFFEL , PROJECT ADVISOR Attention is the beginning of devotion - Mary Oliver With Gratitude: Michael Geffel, Advisor Masayo Simon David Buckley Borden Ignacio López Busón Emily Scott Jane Brubaker Nick Sloss Madeline Bolt Lauren Meyer Todd Gillen My cohort My family and Jason, my favorite maintainer 3 ABSTRACT Landscape maintenance is a largely routinized and long-term process, and these qualities have the tendency to render it invisible. And yet, if we are to sensitively and meaningfully engage landscapes and the communities present therein, an ethics of care for landscape architecture is essential. To understand land care, and its importance in this moment, it must be made more familiar by enhancing its visibility, appeal, and power. This project explores the concept of a maintenance artist in residence, as inspired by the work of the artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Ukeles has been the maintenance artist in residence with the New York Sanitation Department for 40+ years. Through empathy and connection, Ukeles’ socially engaged art practice lends visibility to the reality, necessity, and creativity of maintenance work. The guiding question for this project is: How can the Ukeles model of maintenance artist in residence be applied within landscapes? Using the framework of creative practice for this inquiry opens the possibility of speculative design and the generative potential of iterative design in relation to practices of landscape maintenance. Four typologies of maintenance art are identified through Ukeles’ work: interaction, performance, documentation, and exhibition. These typologies are then explored through a research- through-design methodology informed by creative modes of inquiry as detailed in Karen Lutzky and Sean Burkholder’s “Curious Methods” and Tim Ingold’s Making. Studying land care in this way will hopefully lead to understanding its potential as a socially engaged, multi- disciplinary creative practice serving both the physical and social infrastructures that require our ongoing attention. A Maintenance-Artist-in-Residence could act as a living link between designers, caregivers, and communities, while increasing visibility and respect for land care, the labor it involves, and the creative potential it holds. 4 LAND CARE Maintenance is a fundamental way that we interact Given the growing awareness about the effects of with the physical world around us, and how we care climate change on our landscapes and communities, for our landscapes influences how those landscapes a profound re-engagement with maintenance as are perceived or valued. Yet maintenance is a vital life support for both our social and ecological concept that is rarely valued as anything more than systems is required. In a “broken world”, repair and a necessity in western capitalistic cultures and is care must not be afterthoughts of the design process often considered a nuisance, or not at all (Mattern but instead our primary objective, our starting point 2018). When short-term thinking with an eye toward (Jackson 2014). progress and advancement are highly valued, long- term reflection and tending are too often overlooked and underappreciated. 6 Defining Maintenance The Challenges What is landscape maintenance? There are the There are many layered qualities of familiar activities that we can divide into subtractive maintenance: political, social, physical, cultural, and (weeding, pruning) and additive (planting, mulching). as such, there are myriad challenges associated with There is a temporal quality to maintenance in that maintenance, not the least of which involves social much of it is done according to the seasons, such perception and aesthetic standards. as mowing or leaf removal. Then there is the as- Many current landscape maintenance and needed maintenance - otherwise known as repair aesthetic standards in the U.S. are rooted in Euro- - when something breaks and needs fixing. The colonial traditions. These non-situated traditions elements of spatiality and scale are also at play with have had ecological ramifications since they ignore maintenance all the way down to a cellular level. Our site-specificity as well as local ecological knowledge cells and the cells of other living organisms perform (Berkes 2000). Idealized pastoral landscapes have a daily maintenance for function and elimination. way of erasing site history, memory, and indigeneity. From body, to home, garden, neighborhood, city, As a result, many current landscape maintenance region, country, and world – all levels require care and and aesthetic standards have detrimental effects upkeep. on ecological function (Nassauer 1996). Likewise, the Alongside these physical infrastructures, division between mental labor and manual labor has our social infrastructures require maintenance as deleterious effects on our social systems. Both social well. Social systems like health care, welfare and and physical infrastructures are at play here. education all require ongoing support and care. The inherent repetition and routine of On the individual level, our friendships and family maintenance is partially responsible for the tendency relationships require upkeep to thrive. Repetition for the importance of maintenance to be overlooked, is the rhythm of routine maintenance. Deferred rendered invisible by its ubiquity. Another reason maintenance will almost always lead to the need to for this invisibility is contextual, at least for western repair or recovery, highlighting the requirement for capitalistic societies where innovation is valued maintenance to occur with regularity. Maintenance above all else. New products, new experiences, new is never done, only kept up with because it is not a sales – these things do not encourage one to take linear process, but a dynamic one. care of the existing, the old, the worn out. As a result, our physical infrastructures are crumbling and landfills overflowing (Jackson 2014, Mattern 2018). There is a general lack of long-term thinking, and a misunderstanding about what it takes to maintain landscapes. 8 INSPIRATION MIERLE LADERMAN UKELES Too often, there is a divide between those who do the mental labor such as design of landscapes, and the manual labor of upkeep. The artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles expressed this divide in her Manifesto, calling them “Development” and “Maintenance” (Ukeles 1969). “Development” is creation and innovation, generative and exciting. This is where our culture invests its energy and interest. Shiny new things and novelty reign supreme. The other category, “Maintenance”, is often viewed as drudgery and chore-dom, in service of the creations. People win awards for “Development” (such as the design of landscapes) but not for “Maintenance” (the service work that goes into caring for those landscapes) (Jackson 2014). Service is an important word here, and one that is culturally significant. Service work is not exalted in the same way that other professions are, and those who do service work are not given the same respect as those who work in management or executive positions. Human labor is essential to maintenance, yet maintenance workers are often treated as second class citizens, through low wages and status (Dion 1996). Service work is also a gendered concept, with the history of women doing service work, either in the home or out, such as domestic work, while men traditionally worked in maintenance jobs involving sanitation and groundskeeping. Additionally, service work involving maintenance “rel[ies] heavily on poorly paid immigrants and people of color”, furthering inequity (Mattern, 2018). source: queensmuseum.org MLU Maintenance Art Manifesto 1969 10 Creative Practice and Maintenance MLU and sanman 1979-80 Looking to other disciplines and learning from their insights can only enrich the practice of landscape architecture. Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ work to explore and expose the complexity and nature of maintenance and the lived experience of the people that do maintenance work is unparalleled. Through empathy and connection, Ukeles’ socially engaged art practice lends visibility to the realities of maintenance work and the skewed distributions of respect and resources available to those who work in maintenance. She is revealing a process that tells us something about ourselves and our communities. The perspective that the sanitation workers have on the environment and the communities from which they collect is a unique one – like reading tea leaves, but with garbage. By taking the time to connect with them and build trust, Ukeles opens a world that is mostly unseen. That she does it as an artist and it is called art is important, too – the response source: artnews.com likely would have been quite different if they had just called it an awareness-building exercise, or a public outreach campaign. The label art demands a different The practice of landscape architecture can benefit perspective which is useful for building awareness. from looking at maintenance in new ways, informed Long term care as an artistic, creative practice reveals by the arts and considering how collaboration, both the physical and social infrastructures that multiple and activated audiences, a working require our ongoing attention. relationship with communities, and political intention Ukeles’ and other socially engaged artist can address the need for a new maintenance practices give us a new perspective on the unseen paradigm in the Anthropocene/Capitalocene. “To components of the status quo, whether it be societal, put it bluntly, while contemporary art has enjoyed political, or economic systems. the myth of radical individuality (development, in Ukeles’s parlance), artists—and the art community— are actually pretty good at setting up systems to keep things going (Russeth 2020).” 12 Maintenance Art Typologies So much thought and creativity are put into As a framework for this project, four main typologies designing landscapes – hours of research and of maintenance art in Ukeles’ oeuvre have been collaboration and iteration to create beautiful and identified. Interaction is where she directly engages captivating outcomes - but when it comes to ideation with a community involved in maintenance. An about the long-term care of these landscapes, the example of this would be her Handshake Ritual door to creativity seems to slam shut. Suddenly, it’s (1979) that was part of her Touch Sanitation series an unsolvable mystery and all that creativity just dries where she shook the hands of 8500 sanitation up. It’s easy to take a cynical view of this – that there’s workers and accompanied them on their routes. no money in maintenance, that no one gets famous Performance is when she employs a choreographed for maintenance, that it’s considered blue collar work presentation involving maintenance people, actions, that those with degrees feel is not appropriate for the and equipment. An example of this typology is level of education that they’ve achieved – and to be Washing/Tracks/Maintenance from 1973, where the sure, there is likely some of that. But it seems that the artist washed the steps of an art museum. Exhibition biggest problem is a systemic one – it’s just the way is perhaps the most recognizable as traditional art in we do things (or don’t do them, in this case). Design that it often occurred in an art institution. Ceremonial is taught to landscape architects and designers; Arch Honoring Service Workers in the New Service maintenance is taught to landscape contractors. But Economy (1989-1994) is a large piece made up of anyone who has ever worked in landscapes knows, 6000 dirty work gloves and garbage materials. Finally, design and maintenance are inextricably linked. Documentation is a typology that occurs frequently Maintenance is design - dynamic, ongoing, adaptive in Ukeles’ work since much of her work is time- design. based. It should be noted that there is much blurring Artists such as Ukeles act as human between these four typologies – Touch Sanitation, highlighters for such quiet, humble, unseen for instance, while mainly listed as interaction here, processes. It feels like a first step, a preamble. The includes aspects of all four. acknowledgement is so important and yet, is it enough to change the dominant paradigm that rewards innovation more than maintenance, that undervalues the work and workers that keep the world running? If we are to understand maintenance and repair, it must be made more familiar and valuable, and Ukeles has showed us a way to do that. 14 Touch Sanitation 1978-80 source: newyorker.com Ceremonial Arch Honoring Service Workers 1989-1994 source: saic.com direct engagement with a community or creation of objects from maintenance action involved in maintenance materials to be shown in art institutions Washing/Tracks/Maintenance 1973 source: timeline.com Dressing to go out/Undressing to Go in 1973 source: artsy.com choreographed presentations involving photographic records of maintenance maintenance acts and equipment activities showing repetition and seriality TYPOLOGIES OF MAINTENANCE ART 16 Documentation ExhibitionInteraction Performance BACKGROUND For this project, the maintenance art typologies Additionally, it is a disturbed site with novel were explored on the North Campus Riverfront at ecosystems that is representative of many highly the University of Oregon. This site was chosen for impacted urban landscapes that are frequently several reasons. Field work was central to the premise undervalued and overlooked. In the last 200 years, of this project and this site was easily acccessible. massive changes caused by dispossession, extraction, There was also landscape maintenance research and landfill drastically altered the landform, soil already happening there. For several years prior to structure, and ecological relationships of this place. this project, Michael Geffel, my advisor and professor What we see here today looks and functions very in the landscape architecture department, had been differently from what was here prior to settler conducting field experiments in parametric mowing. colonialism. 18 source: lchm.com source: google.com 1936 2006 gravel mining begins and continues for the bike path built in 1971; a mix of native and non- next few decades; concrete and asphalt native vegetation has filled in production follow shortly thereafter source: lchm.com 2021 source: Michael Geffel1968 site has now been filled with construction water easement and bike path construction debris and mixed soils; site is acquired by UO create disturbance and compaction SITE: LAND LAB INDUSTRIAL AFTERMATH 20 zone of disturbance mulch & hydroseed Compacted soil. Failed seeding. Piles of construction debris. A thin veneer of bark mulch on the most visible areas. This was our starting point. SITE: LAND LAB JANUARY 2022 CONDITIONS 22 source: Michael Geffel If landscape architects acknowledge that the Professor Michael Geffel’s field research in parametric essence of maintenance is care, landscape mowing explores maintenance as a creative act, maintenance becomes increasingly specific, generating new approaches for adaptive design and adaptive, and inventive. communicating care. - Michael Geffel, “Landscape Design through Maintenance: Field Case Studies on Parametric Mowing” EXISTING KNOWLEDGE THE CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF MAINTENANCE 24 source: jstor.com A belief that nature needs no presentation Joan Nassauer’s influential article “Messy Ecosystems, and that presentation is essentially sinister Orderly Frames” coined the term “cues for caring” leaves ecosystems highly susceptible to meaning the visual signals people need for misunderstanding reassurance that a landscape is being cared for. - Joan Nassauer, “Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames” EXISTING KNOWLEDGE THE CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF MAINTENANCE 26 RESEARCH This research was a collaborative effort. I “Curious Methods” by Karen Lutzky and teamed up with my advisor, Michael Geffel, and my Sean Burkholder advocates for prioritizing physical classmate, Masayo Simon, for these explorations perception and interaction with a site as well as and work parties, developing a communal practice creative explorations to increase understanding of of researching, processing findings, and designing landscape processes. outcomes. Tim Ingold’s Making urges us to consider The approach for exploring the Ukeles an integrated approach to inquiry wherein the typologies was informed by creative practice as well, relationship between acquiring and applying specifically creative inquiry processes that center information is both interactive and recurring. This experiential connection. The two main creative requires active participation and creation or, in other inquiry methodologies are as follows: words, making. 28 CREW INTERVIEW Taking cues from Ukeles’ Touch Sanitation, four members of the University grounds maintenance crew allowed me to ride along with them and talk about labor and land care. They have been working at the University grounds crew for anywhere from a few months to 10 years. While it was my intention to let the conversation flow, I had prepared a few questions: How would you describe your work? What do you wish those who design landscapes knew about maintenance? Which areas are harder or easier to maintain and why? Do you feel your work allows you to be creative? [Fixers] know and see different things - indeed, different worlds - than the better- known figures of “designer” or “user” - Steven Jackson, “Rethinking Repair” 30 Interaction Performance Exhibition Documentation What part of your maintenance work allows you to be creative? “Ruthless “Habitat creation - “Working with “Mulching leaves stewardship” seeing other species students” and leaving them using the space in planting beds to increase soil health” - Nick - Madeline - Todd - Lauren *At the time of this project, Nick was the sole crew member whose area of maintenance included the North Campus Waterfront which contains the Land Lab. 32 Care-Centered Practice Recurrent themes from these conversations fell Time is a constant in any landscape. Anyone who into four categories: Access, Materials, Time, and actively works within landscapes, such as the Relationship grounds maintenance crew or anyone who gardens understands that they are working with and within Access specifically relates to the ability to get in time. I heard from the crew members that they and care for a place. Quite simply, if a crew member wished designers would consider time more in the cannot readily access a space with the necessary design process. One example where time was not tools, it is harder for them to care for it. I was shown considered was shown to me - a newly planted some examples of designed landscapes with poor landscape full of ferns, crisping in hot south-facing access that required the crew member to get creative sun. There were trees planted as well, no doubt with or uncomfortable to take care of the grounds. But the intention of providing shade but they were still access can also relate to other barriers to care beyond saplings and it would be many years before there just the physical: there can be political, social and was sufficient canopy cover. The crew member cultural barriers that get in the way of connection of responsible for this area was tasked with trying to care. keep the ferns alive and looking good in this high visibility area even though it was a losing battle. Materials are the stuff of landscape: soil, plants, hardscaping, but also the temporary, intermittent Finally, relationship: too often those who are things that come in from construction or installation. designing landscapes have little contact with those When these items are selected by designers there who tend to landscapes. This is unfortunate because is the hope that they would be chosen with the the people caring for landscapes have a unique and intention that they be durable and site appropriate. valuable perspective on the realities of a place. Unfortunately, that is not always the case, and the crews have to deal with the consequences, whether it be a poor choice of pathway material that gets slippery at the slightest hint of rain, or plants planted where they don’t get the right amount of sun or water. 34 Does the design address barriers to care and How is change over time considered in the maintenance? design process? Are the chosen materials appropriate for the Are the people who know the place best place and conditions? included in the design process? INCLUDING CARE MAINTENANCE IN DESIGN 36 Relationship TimeAcces Materials SEED & FENCE Following the construction of the water easement, the area through the center of the Land Lab was very disturbed and compacted. It had been seeded in the fall, but that seeding had failed, so we adopted it. Michael chose a seed mixture of pollinator-friendly native annuals and perennials with the help of Bart Johnson and Bitty Roy, and we spread that in February of 2022. Like so many other design fields, landscape architecture is increasingly mediated by digital tools and data layers, and its practitioners often struggle to stay in touch with material realities. - Karen Lutsky and Sean Burkholder, “Curious Methods” 38 Interaction Performance Exhibition Documentation This kind of learning aims not so much to After seeding, we constructed the fence with the provide us with facts about the world as to idea that it would help germination in the easement enable us to be taught by it. by keeping the geese from browsing. We sought to explore the creative potential and aesthetic properties of common landscape materials such - Tim Ingold, Making as t-posts, temporary fencing and row cover fabric. The construction involved an adaptive, collaborative process, with multiple iterations happening throughout the spring of 2022 in response the changing conditions throughout the growing season. 40 The interplay of light and shadow with the selected materials created many moments of aesthetic delight, changing with the weather and the progression of the seasons. We took the opportunity to document it frequently, via cameras on the ground and with the drone. 42 Maintainers require care; caregiving requires Reemay is a very common and useful material that is maintenance. easy to overlook, but through this project its beauty became apparent. The wind became a collaborator - Shannon Mattern, “Maintenance and Care” and also made frequent maintenance necessary as the reemay got torn from vigorous gusts. Adaptation and improvements were necessary and creatively approached. 44 PHOTOPOINTS Fifteen photo points were set up around the land lab and I committed to photographing them weekly. This idea came about by combining a guide to photopoint monitoring and the Ukeles’ documentation typology. It became a weekly ritual, rain, or shine, creating a structure for my commitment to this place. This ritual became something I looked forward to as a quiet practice of sensory connection. The images that were created recorded the changes over time due to ecological and maintenance processes at play here. To study maintenance is itself an act of maintenance. - Shannon Mattern, “Maintenance and Care” 46 Interaction Performance Exhibition Documentation PHOTOPOINT No. 2 PHOTOPOINT No. 13 nesti ng season eer kill d mow n KILLDEER HOUSEo as may june Throughout our time working on the site, we would il r ju frequently see and hear killdeer. Then one day I almost stepped on an egg, so well camouflaged in the gravelly, scrappy soil in the easement. Those who know killdeer will understand that this was a perfect equino place for them to nest - they prefer low vegetation x and can often be found nesting in low fields and even equinox parking lots. uary t o c o dece ber mber novem The circle of ecological compassion we feel is enlarged by direct experience of the living world, and shrunken by its lack . - Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass 50 grey fox nesting se march ap solstice solstice ber september Interaction Performance Exhibition Documentation ugust a ly sto g fr t a v fi r s ost last a vg fr n j a ruar y feb seed I began paying attention to the places around the riverfront where the killdeer were most often seen, and it was all the compacted gravelly spots left over from the construction and the construction vehicles. What is desirable to a killdeer is undesirable to humans…unless those humans were parking, or driving, or doing donuts. Even in our land care efforts, we were disturbing them by walking too closely or too frequently. So, I started thinking about ways to communicate the importance of what was happening in these places, and how to add some protection for the killdeer nesting areas. After reading some studies about experiments with exclosures for ground nesting birds, I found several on plovers and one specifically on killdeer. From these, I chose three examples and decided to expand upon the forms the studies used to build these prototypes. The killdeer nesting season was nearly over by the time these prototypes were built, but I am hoping that they may inform some future action to protect ground nesting birds here. Three studies were referenced for plover nest exclosures. The forms were then adapted to consider materiality, ease of creation, and visibility. The truncated cone form (seen on facing page) is the easiest to construct and makes the most efficient use of the material. The yellow shows up well in the field. Isaksson et al Nol et al Rimmer et al Truncated cone Complex cube Triangle 52 INSIGHTS 54 zone of disturbance mulch & hydroseed lupines 2/8/22 wildflower mix 2/17/22 fence installed 2/24/22 LAYERS common killdeer sites OF ATTENTION 56 CENTERING CARE EMPATHY AS A DESIGN TOOL Address barriers Develop collaborative Respect and Be generous with to care, whether relationships with respond to the time and attention - physical, social, those communities conditions and this is the only way cultural, or emotional connected to a place materiality of a to build trust and (both human and place understanding other than human) 58 APPENDIX 60 EXPLORATIONS WAIT. . .s lowscapes PREVIOUS LAND LAB PROJECTS RESEARCH COLLECTIVE recomposition Recomposition, Summer 2020 We Are Investigating Time (WAIT) is a research collaboration initiated by Abigail Pierce and Masayo Simon. The research practices within this collaboration include performance, commitment, and long-term engagement with the site. Along with developing a collective practice of active observation, we also centered performing playful and celebratory acts of care to bring Tree Drift, Fall 2021 visibility to our own impact on the site. The project detailed within this booklet would not have been possible without the support and teamwork of WAIT. 62 PROTECTION YELLOW CARE STRUCTURES at the Land Lab COLOR STUDIES Refugium, July 2021 in previous projects Refugium, July 2021 Elevated Rot, Fall 2021 Elevated Rot, Fall 2021 64 Tree Drift, Fall 2021 Points, Fall 2021 REFERENCES Baum, Kelly, et al. Nobody’s Property : Art, Land, Space, 2000-2010. Mattern, Shannon. “Maintenance and Care.” Places (Cambridge, Mass.), Princeton University Art Museum ; Distributed by Yale University Press, no. 2018, 2018, pp. Places (Cambridge, Mass.), 2018–11-20 (2018). 2010. Nassauer, Joan Iverson. “Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames.” Landscape Berkes, Fikret et al. “Rediscovery of Traditional Ecological Knowledge as Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, 1995, pp. 161–170. Adaptive Management.” Ecological Applications, vol. 10, no. 5, 2000, pp. 1251–1262. Nol, E, and RJ Brooks. “Effects of Predator Exclosures on Nesting Success of Killdeer.” Journal of Field Ornithology, vol. 53, no. 3, 1982, pp. 263–268. Pauliny, Angela, et al. “Nest Predation Management: Effects on Dion, Mark, and Rockman, Alexis. Concrete Jungle. Juno Books ; Reproductive Success in Endangered Shorebirds.” The Journal of Wildlife Distributed by Consortium, 1996. Management, vol. 72, no. 7, 2008, pp. 1579–1583. Ingold, Tim. Making : Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. Phillips, Patricia C., et al. Mierle Laderman Ukeles : Maintenance Art. Routledge, 2013. Prestel, 2016. Isaksson, Daniel, et al. “Managing Predation on Ground-Nesting Birds: “Quick Guide to Photo Point Monitoring.” United States Department of The Effectiveness of Nest Exclosures.” Biological Conservation, vol. 136, no. Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service 1, 2007, pp. 136–142. Rimmer, Dw, and RD Deblinger. “Use of Predator Exclosures to Protect Jackson, Steven J. “Rethinking Repair.” Media Technologies, The MIT Piping Plover Nests (Utilización De Cercados Para Proteger Nidos De Press, 2014, pp. Media Technologies, 2014–02-28. Charadrius Melodus).” Journal of Field Ornithology, vol. 61, no. 2, 1990, pp. 217–223. Jenkins, Katherine. “Field Exercises.” Journal of Landscape Architecture (Wageningen, Netherlands), vol. 13, no. 1, 2018, pp. 6–21. Russeth, Andrew. Maintenance Work: Andrew Russeth Considers the Role of Art in a Pandemic, Artforum International, 24 Mar. 2020, www. Keating, Richard. “Landscape Aesthetics in Practice.” Journal of Visual Art artforum.com/slant/andrew-russeth-considers-the-role-of-art-in-a- Practice, vol. 11, no. 1, 2012, pp. 15–25. pandemic-82548. Lacy, Suzanne. Mapping the Terrain : New Genre Public Art. Bay Press, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, “Maintenance Art Manifesto” (1969) 1995. Lutsky, Karen, and Sean Burkholder. “Curious Methods.” Places (Cambridge, Mass.), no. 2017, 2017, pp. Places (Cambridge, Mass.), 2017– 05-23 (2017). 66 LAND CARE IN THE EXPANDED FIELD SCRIPT FOR PRESENTATION 6.4 .2022 by Abigail Pierce Project Advisor: Michael Geffel Note: this was a joint presentation with Masayo Simon START AT PUDDLE [MASAYO’S FOCUS SPREAD] [COVER] MASAYO: MASAYO+ ABBY: Through this project, I am weaving together three topics of interest: Hi! We are Masayo and Abby, and we are WAIT…slowscapes, a place-based, process-driven research I am interested in developing a process that uses art and creative fieldwork as a means to center collective. WAIT stands for We Are Investigating Time, and it was created to design an ongoing practice intimate connection with landscape as a research and design practice. This includes highlighting for ourselves. sensory knowledge and personal experience as critical parts of site analysis. I’m looking for ways to create an inclusive practice where the research phase involves facilitating [WAIT SPREAD] dynamic experiences for and with others. I am interested in investigating methods for landscape interpretation that acknowledge the MASAYO: complexities of post-extraction landscapes, while creating openings for reparative connection? The research practices within this collaboration include performance, commitment, and long-term engagement with complicated landscapes. Along with developing a collective practice of active My interests draw inspiration from Karen Lutsky and Sean Burkholder’s article Curious Methods. observation, we also center playful and celebratory acts of care to bring visibility to our own impact on Their process of landscape interpretation examines the lost complexities in documenting living the site. landscapes through maps and historic surveys. They create their own non-solutionist investigation of engaging with landscape through experience-based stages that they name as INQUIRY - INSIGHT WAIT aims to expand upon the design process, asking how designers could allocate more creative - IMPRESSION. “Inquiry” is the process of asking questions through quick, physical interventions resources into analysis and maintenance. To study this, we asked what would happen if we instead on the landscape. “Insight” is the feedback they gain from these experiences. Their impressions are designed processes that centered land care by focusing on forming intimate connections with the recorded quickly, with the knowledge that these will constantly change. landscape through creative fieldwork, and framing maintenance as an artistic act. I used this open-ended framework as a guiding practice during my process, which led to emergent This presentation shares a series of sub-projects that emerged from the questions above. While connections and many rabbit holes that allowed for constant shifts within the shape of this project. we each investigated individual components during this project, we see each project as a smaller component that reinforces WAIT as a whole. [ABBY’S FOCUS SPREAD] ABBY: ABBY We decided that our efforts would be strongest as a collaboration when we discovered that our My interests involve exploring the intersection of art and landcare with an eye toward promoting interests overlapped. Plus, after two years of remote learning, we wanted to develop a communal greater understanding about the impacts of landscape standards on ecological function and social practice of researching, processing findings, and designing outcomes. We also felt a need to prepare needs. for a future practice by working with landscape, in the landscape. As we talked through our ideas, it became apparent that the themes we were both exploring were very similar. Those themes are: For this project, I was inspired by the work of the artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who has been the maintenance artist in residence with the New York Sanitation Department for 40+ years. Ukeles’ Care. Commitment. Collaboration. Connection. Creativity work to explore and expose the complexity and nature of maintenance and the lived experience of the people that do maintenance work is unparalleled. As a framework for this project, four typologies In the following projects, we will introduce our independent research interests in more detail, and of maintenance art are identified through Ukeles’ work: interaction, performance, documentation, how they intertwine with each other. and exhibition. The guiding question for this project has been: How can the Ukeles model of maintenance artist in residence be applied within landscapes? We decided to take this opportunity to be messy all the way through till the end. By not treating landscape as a problem to be solved with neatly packaged design ‘solutions’, we were free to let Studying land care in this way will hopefully lead to understanding its potential as a socially connections emerge. engaged, multi-disciplinary creative practice. A Maintenance-Artist-in-Residence can act as a living link between designer and caregiver and community, increasing visibility and respect for land care, the labor it involves, and the creative potential it holds. So, now that we’ve given you a bit of background on our focus, we are going to move a bit further into [POINTS OF ENTRY SPREAD] the site. ABBY: MOVE TO CONCRETE MISTAKE With these layers of complexity in mind, how does one person start to build a caring relationship with a place? To do this, we each had entry point actions that got us connected to the site at the start [SITE IMPRESSIONS SPREAD] and represented the commitment we made to get to know it. MASAYO: On the right side is a map of the 15 photo points I set up around the Land Lab. Starting in early We chose to work on this site for several reasons. Field work was central to our project, and it was easy January, I committed to photographing them weekly. This idea came about by combining a guide to to get here. There was also landcare research already happening there: Michael’s field experiments in photopoint monitoring and the Ukeles’ documentation typology. It became a weekly ritual, rain or parametric mowing. It is also a disturbed site with novel ecosystems that are representative of many shine (or hail), creating a structure for my commitment to this place. This ritual became something I highly impacted urban landscapes that are frequently undervalued and overlooked. looked forward to as a quiet practice of sensory connection. The images that were created recorded the changes over time due to ecological and maintenance processes at play here. I have an example ABBY: of one set of photo point images to share (at the end?). We were also struck by the impressions of the site. It didn’t seem to generate a lot of interest, and was MASAYO: the victim of many negative impressions. The large zone of disturbance from the recent construction I walked the same transect weekly, starting south from the train tracks, heading north through the of the bike path and water easement did nothing to help these impressions. On these pages are field, the cottonwoods, and finally the riverbank. I was particularly looking for ways that my body and some people's responses to the site and as you can see, they are less than glowing. sensory ways of knowing responded to following my curiosity, and then how these ways of knowing led to an understanding of place that spans outside of the logic of maps, surveys, and historic pho- Despite these impressions, the site is full of complexities and hidden histories, so we’ll zoom out a bit tographs of the area. Following Curious Methods, I used different methods to record these transects; to give you some context before we dive into our projects. through photographs, collage, making sensory instruments, and recording sound. [INDUSTRIAL AFTERMATH SPREAD] Through this continual investigation, I realized that the whole story of this site could be told through one transect. I began to wonder how this way of storytelling could be expanded into other elements In the last 200 years, massive changes caused by dispossession, extraction, and landfill drastically on this site; the pieces of gravel, the blackberry, the red tail hawk. altered the landform, soil structure, and ecological relationships of this place. What we see here today looks and functions very differently from what was here prior to settler colonialism. MOVE TOWARD MILLRACE WHILE TALKING ABOUT UNIFORMS [TIME + SCALE SPREAD] [UNIFORMS - NO SPREAD SINCE WE WILL BE WEARING THEM] MASAYO: ABBY: We wanted another way of communicating that in our research process, we were changing the site This timeline shows the relative scale of events that shaped this landscape. It’s important to note that and also becoming part of it. We decided to wear uniforms when on the site as a representation the records that are most often available in landscape research are from the period after white settlers of our commitment to this practice and a communication device that increased the visibility of our colonized this area, from 1850 to present-day. presence and impact. We chose these white coveralls because they would show dirt and grass stains, and highlight the passage of time through the materials of the place. There is also a performance ABBY: aspect – we are highly visible when wearing these and passersby are more likely to interact with us. We would be remiss not to acknowledge that the Kalapuya are the first maintainers, artists, and (Of course, this also relates to the Ukeles performance typology) residents of this land. Our practices here are not new or revolutionary but rather an attempt to develop a reciprocal relationship with place. Additionally, there is a lot of previous scholarship and art that inspired us to look deeply into land care, slow research, and sensory connection with place. We do not have time to go into these topics in depth, but have references to check out in our individual booklets. ARRIVE AT FENCE NEAR MILLRACE REFLECTION: This experience reflected that creative fieldwork in the form of workshops creates an opportunity for [SEEDING & FENCING SPREADS] inclusive, visible, and experiential forms of site analysis. I synthesized student experiences, prompts, and reflections into categories that could create ABBY: engaging site interpretation for future experiences and installations. Following the construction of the water easement, the area through the center was very disturbed · Activate imagination –imagination allows access to abstract concepts/timescales about place and compacted. It had been seeded in the fall but that seeding had failed, so we adopted it. Michael · Foster creative forms of embodied and sensory inquiry – creating space for novel experiences chose a seed mixture of pollinator-friendly native annuals and perennials with the help of Bart helps people make new connections Johnson and Bitty Roy, and we spread that in February of this year. We also seeded along the pathway Create open-ended invitations for attention, curiosity, and participation – deep attention to place is an and this section here shows some of the plants we seeded: lupines, tarweed, gilia, for example. opening for creating a relationship of intimacy and care. After seeding, we constructed the fence with the idea that it would help germination in the easement Now we will transition to the interactions embedded in Abby’s project. by keeping the geese from browsing. We sought to explore the creative potential and aesthetic properties of common landscape materials such as t-posts, temporary fencing and row cover fabric. [CREW INTERVIEWS SPREAD] The construction involved a collaborative process, and required maintenance and adaptation along the way. *Ask Michael if he has anything he’d like to contribute here ABBY: Taking cues from the interaction typology, four members of the University grounds maintenance Throughout the time we were working out here, we had many interactions with the people, animals, crew allowed me to ride along with them and talk about labor and land care. Through these rides and birds that are on this site. These spontaneous interactions were generative and informed our next they showed me the areas that they are responsible for. It should be noted that Nick is the only crew phase of this project. In this next section, we will both share the intentional interactive projects we did. member whose area includes the waterfront, and as you can imagine that is a huge task for a single person. MOVE TO MAINTENANCE ROAD PULLOUT Though it was my intention to let the conversation flow, I had prepared a few questions: [INTERACTIONS SPREADS] How would you describe your work/what do you call your position? What do you wish those who design landscapes knew about maintenance? Masayo: Workshop - Sensing Time Which areas are harder or easier to maintain and why? Throughout this process, I was creating a short workshop in collaboration with Nina Elder, an inter- Do you feel your work allows you to be creative? disciplinary artist. Her work examines how our lives are entangled with ghosts of mines, gravel, and glaciers–appropriate for this site. <<<”since it used to be a gravel quarry” >>> [RECURRENT THEMES SPREAD] We worked with Liska’s transpecies design class.The main goal of the workshop was to facilitate an experience for collaborative sensory investigation grounded in our connections with the site across ABBY: space and time. The workshop was divided into three sections: Recurrent themes from these conversations fell into four categories: Access, Materials, Time, and Relationship, and I think these are essential for developing a care-centered landscape practice. Grounding exercise Sensory prompt/ways of knowing exercise Access specifically relates to the ability to get in and care for a place. Quite simply, if someone cannot Students create their own prompts, trade, and perform them. readily access a space with the necessary tools, it is harder for them to care for it. But access can also relate to other barriers to care beyond just the physical: there can be political, social and cultural As a debrief, students diagramed their relationship to the site before and after the exercises. The barriers. diagrams and our final discussion showed many changes in perception of the site after we had created space for deep engagement. Some felt more a part of the landscape, while others felt that the Materials are the stuff of landscape: soil, plants, hardscaping, but also the temporary, intermittent complex dynamics that emerged as they learned more about the site made them realize how much things that come in from construction or installation. When these items are selected there is the they would never know. hope that they would be chosen with the intention that they be long lasting and site appropriate. Unfortunately, that is not always the case, and the crews have to deal with the consequences. Time is a constant in the landscape. Anyone who actively works within landscapes understands that [KILLDEER HOUSES SPREAD] they are working with and within time. standing by the killdeer houses in the easement Finally, relationship: too often those who are designing landscapes have little contact with those who ABBY: tend to landscapes. This is unfortunate because the people caring for landscapes have a unique and Throughout our time working on the site, we would frequently see and hear killdeer. The turning valuable perspective on the realities of a place. Collaborating with them will help to ensure that long- point came when I almost stepped on an egg, so well camouflaged in the gravelly, scrappy soil in term thinking and reciprocal practices are honored. the easement. Those of you who know killdeer will understand that this was a perfect place for them to nest - they prefer low vegetation and can often be found nesting in low fields and even parking We have been spending the last two weeks prototyping for temporary installations that are the result lots. I began paying attention to the places around the riverfront where they were most often seen of spending so much time getting to know this place and its inhabitants. and it was all the compacted gravelly spots from the construction and the construction vehicles. What is desirable to a killdeer is undesirable to humans…unless those humans were parking, or driving, MOVE TO FIELD or doing donuts. Even in our land care efforts, we were disturbing them by walking too close or too frequently. So, I started thinking about ways to communicate the importance of what was happening [TREE GHOSTS SPREAD] in these places, and how to add some protection for the killdeer nesting areas. After reading some studies about experiments with exclosures for ground nesting birds, I found several on plovers and MASAYO: one specifically on killdeer. From these, I chose three examples and decided to expand upon the TREE GHOSTS forms they used to build these prototypes. The killdeer nesting season is nearly over and they have I’m currently in the process of exploring prototypes for a site-specific temporary installation that moved on to the pole yard, but I am hoping that these prototypes may inform some future action to highlights the black cottonwoods here. I became inspired by the presence of the cottonwoods after protect ground nesting birds here. seeing how students engaged with them during the workshop. Black Cottonwoods are dynamic, charismatic, and engaging, and are also indicators of ecosystems that emerge from disturbance. The [REFLECTIONS]] at the new fence]] installation is accompanied by a zine that contains prompts inspired or developed by students from Liska’s class as a way to facilitate openings for relational connections with these trees and the site. Even though we’ve presented these projects individually, it should be noted that we’ve helped and I’m using reemay as a part of the material palette that we developed early on in this project as a supported each other every step of the way–through building installations, prototyping, ideation and way to draw attention and curiosity to the tree to cue visitors into the narrative of the site. These talking through challenges. That was a crucial part of this whole process for both of us, especially cottonwoods can be looked at as past and future ghosts. Their presence tell stories of landscape within the challenges of creating a process-driven design project. Our conversations were generative, altering events, while providing habitat for many species here–and will continue to do so into the and the affirmation that we got from them encouraged creativity and exploration. future. The cottonwoods highlighted here are on their way to becoming future snags. ((In times before extraction, development, and flood control interrupted this landscape, Black Additionally, we found that a lot of our methods for bringing visibility to most of our processes Cottonwoods would have likely rooted after major flood events changed the path of the river, created an inclusive structure for working with outside groups. Designing creative forms of active providing conditions for riparian forests to follow. These cottonwoods, however, are the result of community engagement inspired multidisciplinary pollination that we both want to continue to work post extractive, post-dumping disturbance to this landscape. Often referred to as ‘trash trees’, they with in the future. indicate emergence and survival after violent disruption that prioritized resource over connection. These Cottonwoods can be looked at as past and future ghosts. Their lifespan tells stories of landscape Most of all, what surprised us about this process is how much we both fell in love with the site. altering events while their presence provides habitat for many species here–and will continue to do so We started out ambivalent, and at some point, started to really look forward to our time together into the future. What can we learn from the cottonwoods?)) here. Leaving space for open-ended investigations of the site was what allowed for that connective Prototyping this installation has acted as a research tool of site dynamics in its own right–due to relationship to occur–neither of us were looking for specific things, nor had a specific objective for weather patterns, the site has been entirely different each day I’ve worked out here. 18 mph winds left approaching this place when we started out, and so we ended up developing a relationship. the grasses trampled. On calm days, the fabric falls flat, on windy days it is wild. As a collective, we hope that these projects will continue to inform a care-centered approach to this landscape, as well as other landscapes that we work with in the future. We hope that these processes can be inspiring for other landscape architects – to not necessarily replicate – but to look for their own openings to invite this type of long-term engagement into their practices.