Expanding, exploring soil

When Sapiens shifted from collecting to producing food 10 000 years ago (Neolithic revolution) did they seed our current so-called Anthropocene epoch and its environmental predicament? Is soil one of the links between city and country? Is it an investment, a resource to be exploited, or a 'mother earth' to be cared for? And if it is not treated with respect, will it be gone for good? The relation between contemporary Sapiens and soil is controlled by war, technology (including herbicide, pesticide and fertiliser) law and policy; what is their impact on soil? How do these shape soil, and how does soil shapes us Sapiens in return?

Could a few critical answers be gathered from two books I am reading:

Earth Matters

How soil underlies civilization (OUP, 2016)

Richard Bardgett

·         Shows how soil, and the multitude of organisms that live in it, control all the biogeochemical cycles on which the functioning and future health of the Earth depends

·         Considers the relationship between human civilisation and soil, past and present

·         Describes the fundamental role of soil in climate change mitigation, food security, water quality and the restoration of biodiversity

·         Discusses the impact of widespread soil degradation, and explains why future sustainable management of soils is key to human well being, even for an increasingly urban human population

The main theme of Silent Spring written by Rachel Carson is the destruction of the delicate balance of nature by the wholesale use of insecticides. Rachel Carson carefully explains what the balance of nature is. She describes the balance of nature of the soil, of the earth's waters, and of the organisms of the earth.

Published on 27 September 1962 it documented the adverse effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting the industry's marketing claims unquestioningly.

There was strong opposition to Silent Spring from the chemical industry. DuPont, a major manufacturer of DDT and 2,4-D, and Velsicol Chemical Company, the only manufacturer of chlordane and heptachlor, were among the first to respond. DuPont compiled an extensive report on the book's press coverage and estimated impact on public opinion. Velsicol threatened legal action against Houghton Mifflin, and The New Yorker and Audubon Magazine unless their planned Silent Spring features were canceled. Chemical industry representatives and lobbyists lodged a range of non-specific complaints, some anonymously.

Paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi, (Dernières Nouvelles de Sapiens, Flammarion, 2018, in Mediapart, online video, 26 October 2018) estimated that typically hunter-gatherers had a child every three or four years, whereas Neolithic farmers produced one child every year. In 2018, almost 7,5 billions Sapiens (us) live on the planet. Do we Sapiens need to control our demographic extension; do we need to eat less meat; do we need to change how we commercialise our food excess? Do we need to personify our planet as a 'mother earth'?

Joseph Werner: Diana of Ephesus as allegory of Nature, c. 1680

In the Ecosex Manifesto of  Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, the two artists change this concept from 'earth as mother to earth as lover' (http://sexecology.org/research-writing/ecosex-manifesto/). Could this be a welcomed metaphor in rural Herefordshire? This is how the artist represent this metaphor.

Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, http://sexecology.org/

Crit 1 October 2018. Expanding, exploring soil: foley, membrane, interview

Hayden recorded Sam exploring soil

HCA recording studio, October 2018

Foley (named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley) is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass.(Wikipedia, https://www.google.com/search?q=foley&oq=foley&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1556j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

As part of the foley Sam experimented with the soils from the Dairy field in Bartonsham in Hereford and a domestic garden at Stretton Grandison near Hereford. The latter was rich with life (invertebrates, leaves, sticks, worms etc) and its fragrance was pleasant (mushroomy) which contrasted with the lifeless granularity of the more industrial soil from the Dairy field. Their respective sound reflected these differences.
Video teaser: https://youtu.be/zwaOQD_OV_Qaser 

Interview as practice, in this un-edited 10 minutes interview D explains what soil is: https://youtu.be/TTc_-WkrOkM

D and P and M in conversation about soil, Stretton Grandison, October 2018

Researching soils: 

.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil

.     the National Soil Resources Institute (NSRI)

.     http://www.ukso.org/SoilsOfEngWales/home.html
.     http://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes/#

.     Soils derive from transported materials that have been moved many miles by wind, water, ice and gravity. Soil in D's walled garden near Stretton Grandison was transported from Normandie in the Medieval period.

.     The EU's soil taxonomy is based on the World Reference Base for Soil Resources produced by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. 

What kinds of soils  in Herefordshire? 

Soilscape 8: 
Slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage, http://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes/#

Mark Dion: 
taxonomies and categories of thinking about nature. See:Whitechapel exhibition, 14 Feb - 13 May 2018, http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/mark-dion/
And article, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/welcome-to-my-wunderkammer

The Harrisons: 'Making Earth 1970: After understanding that topsoil was endangered world-wide, we made earth many times. The first was sand, clay, sewage sludge, leaf material, and chicken, cow and horse manure. These elements were gathered, mixed, watered, mixed again and again over a 4 month period until it had a rich, forest-floor smell and could be tasted. The largest making of earth was ArtPark in 1977. The smallest making of earth was in the exhibition, “Revered Earth.” Later works looked to the well-being of existing earth.'http://theharrisonstudio.net/making-earth-1970 

Making Earth 1970, Tasting and smelling earth, The Harrisons,

http://theharrisonstudio.net/making-earth-1970 

Researching making soil in the Dairy field, 

Hereford 2018, https://youtu.be/wjLu8lCCGf0

Researching making soil in the Dairy field, Hereford 2018 https://youtu.be/wjLu8lCCGf0

                           

                                         

Unpacking Soil with D in Herefordshire

D, P and M in conversation about soil in Herefordshire, October 2018
Current creative practice
My work is structured around issues, rather than disciplines or media: it is idea led, rather than self-expressive. My practice stems from the multidisciplinary and collaborative practice of Helen Mayer Harrison (b. 1927) and Newton Harrison (b. 1932), Mierle Laderman Ukeles (b. 1939) and Agnes Denes (b. 1931).

My practice is a kind of field work located in Herefordshire. It is situated at the intersection of ecology, politics, law and economics, to try and comprehend our new geological epoch controversially called the Anthropocene. My work is open-ended: I film, take pictures and record the narrative of my local constituency.

In this project (October 2018- October 2019) entitled Soil, I aim to give humans and other interrelated species a voice.

Interview as practice

This is part one of an unedited interview of a locally renowned gardener who lives near Hereford. Her name is D. D explains what soil is and tells stories about her gardening. I have known D for over a year. Most weeks I give D a hand around her large' jardin à l'anglaise' and in exchange she shares her stories and expertise. This is a face to face conversation taking place in D's kitchen where I ask her few questions. I introduce the reason for our conversation and mention the specific subjects I want D to talk about. D knows that I will use our conversation for my practice which this year focuses on soil. At this stage, I understand soil more as the stuff of alchemy than biology or geology and D has agreed to be one of the specialists advising on this project. The interview lasted 40 minutes. Before I packed my recording equipment, we both listened to parts of the recorded conversation. I did not offer to send D a copy of the tape. But I will do so next week, this is part of good practice. This excerpt is 10 minutes long. In this interview soil is looked at in various ways:

     .a complex material

     .the multi-dimensional character of soil, a public and private good

     .soil as a sense of place

Click here to listen to the recorded interview

Handfuls of new ideas

Listening to D, I discover that we add to soils, for example changing its Ph levels - adding composted materials - leaves, manures etc. Soil is a universe of many:  'A handful of soil can contain literally billions of individual organisms and thousands of species' (Earth Matters, How soil underlies civilization, Richard D. Bardgett, OUP 2016, chap 2 Soil and Biodiversity). This makes it the most densely populated part of the planet

Despite having scientific names, we all know them. Here is a selection of these underground organisms:

     .ectomycorrhizal which is a form of symbiotic relationship that occurs between a fungal symbiont and the roots of various plant species. (Wikipedia)

     .decomposer fungi, fungi are not plants, they feed on nutrients from the organisms they are decomposing.(Wikipedia)

     .ammonia-oxidizing archaea which transforms amonia into nitrate; this is believed to be a central part of the global biogeochemical nitrogen cycle since the oxygenation of Earth. (https://aem.asm.org/content/78/21/7501)

     .nematodes, or roundworms

     .testate amoebae is a single-celled organisms which makes a shell called a 'test' that partially encloses the cell, with an aperture from which it can emerge, to provide the amoeba with shelter from predators and environmental conditions. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testate_amoebae).

    .ants, millipedes, centipede, earthworms, woodlice, moles, flatworms etc.

According to the book Earth Matters, Cleopatra (69-30 BC) 'declared [worms] to be sacred because of their contribution to Egyptian agriculture.'(p24).

This hidden universe is at once minute and great, substantial and diaphanous, amorphous and definite. It is all about scales: the tiny size of a testate amoebae and its complex defence mechanisms are astonishingly all packed into one single cell, and just like worms, played 'so important a part in the history of the world' (Darwin, 1881, cited in Earth Matters, p 24).

I am expanding, exploring, discovering several facets of soil, the agency of this network, what do we have in common with 'them' lowly creatures' (Darwin), how words can migrate from biology to art and  talk about emotions as in ektos, 'outside', μύκης mykes, 'fungus', and ῥίζα rhiza, 'root'. Or the term Loam which means a blend.What do I want to say in this project? This will be conveyed by my research which for the foreseeable time will extend into:

.literature search for soil-words and could also be a search for soils of  languages

.collecting soils around Herefordshire, inviting people to contribute to the project with a handful of their own soil

.recording the sound(s) of soil, in a recording studio environment (HCA) with a sound technician and an actor plus top soil from D's garden. Soil is A Sound Not Meant To Be Heard (see the exhibition by Cardiff-based artist Anthony Shapland, Oriel Davies Gallery, 2018:http://www.orieldavies.org/en/exhibition/sound-not-meant-be-heard) so as an experiment let's give soil first person, I/WE.