THURSDAY ONE - Siobhan
Tim and Reiko
Common ground divergent practices
Definitions: spatial and discursive form of public realm and post
industrial commons
Post Industrial public realm ' public space opportunity
How do we form places?
future change
Lyrical ' critical ' transformative activities
Goals &intentions // methods and process amongst group
Fri and sat ' approach to issues in the mon valley ' are there
cledar statements that can be made about artists seeking change ' how do we
create change and how do we communicate our ability to create change
Rational approach to poetic approach is the area that the people
present cover in Tim's view
Cultural elements of the post industrial mindset
How do people poke the world bend it and help it to change over
time?
Reiko intro
Subject matter:
Life of nature contemplate nature to renew own identity
Care of the baby animals ' care of the wild life and ask where to
release them in an urban environment ' how to create a home for humans and
other creatures
Spring ' open studio
Summer
Cho-MU Butterfly dream based on butterfly life stages
Place plant butterfly and human relationships
How to meet learn and communicate with other people as a part of
the work
Move to
Nine Mile Run
Project result --- opening of stream
Ask nature
Enter into community of nature
Slag garden ' plants grow well on slag if enough water
Three Rivers 2nd nature ' we ask the citizens why/ how we should
ask these questions
Experts ' we ask the experts what questions to ask
Strategic knowledge
Pgh is recovering ecosystem
Map based on geology ' restotration potential
Distribution of species ' tracking
Hays hill
Carolyn's notes-
Proposed casino, strip mine, clear cut
River Dialogues
Visions for the future
Jackie Brookner
My work is v. dependant on context. Some of the work is entirely social process,
other's phyical manifestations: Bio-sculptures.
Rivers and Trails in
In
Worked with people to manifest projects they wantedto work
with. Not much money. Projects like: music , public art projects
(mural and sculpture) Two local Hispanic
artists worked with local art club college students. Showcased at the local arts festival and now
that is taken over by the town. 5 year
project.
Cotton Project. Modeled
portraits of their feet from Mud. People
watched and had very open conversations with Brookner. She was very moved by these projects. She realized that through this project she
was transforming herself and that she wanted to work with people more. History.
1996 3rd biosculpure: first tongue. Consulted with botonists to learn about moss
ability to filter water.
Showed a number of biosculputes.
We are part of much larger pattersn- sculpture looks like hands. Site specific sculptures in
Ibis in
Ciotti: 120 acre park.
Recreating Seminole Indian playgrounds designed with the Seminole and
native plants. Pond that's being dug in
the south, there is a former dump, some toxic materials, but with that land,
we'll make mounds and replant them with vegetation. Showing through signage for children about
the native species and their uses. Not
using the lawn/European model of pards.
Angelo Ciotti
I am a painter who was trained in
So I thought, what else could be done?
Why not reclaim the entire 23 acre site? I knew that it was not a priority for the
state. How to get the state to support such a project? There must be money in mine reclamation'
Use existing mounds, working with Dept. of Env. Engineering. Saved a lot of money $6 million' In earth
moving costs (due to existing mounds).
More could be done in the way of indigenous plants. So we revegetated the entiere area for the
turkey population- we double the turkey population. The other problem was acid mine drainage in a
water area. Captured local unwanted
beavers and they built a dam which helped to clean the waters. Another acid area was treated with
'cattails.'
Twin stupas (particularly the concave one) is retreeing itself.
Another project- polluted former mine. Drainage into river killed the river. The government solves this problem in a
couple of ways'.. sorry
Oven run- an outdoor educational center for kids. 7 holding ponds- one very acidic, the last
one, fish live in it. Show the kids that
the water can clean itself. Got funding
and volunteers for it from the local churches.
We tried to have the community help us design it, which was a
disaster. But in the end a group of
designers and mylsef worked it out. My
advice would be to bring as many people to the table as early as possible to
get as many perspectives as possible.
Discussion:
Jackie- wanted to add about cinncinati project that many community
groups are involved.
Ann- one thing that keeps re-occuring is how this work is a
catalyst for bringing people together- it seems the work is secondary to this
community bringing together. The work is
an acknowledgment of that project.
Helen- the community continues after the project/ process, the work
lives on after the community.
Laurie- is there community consensus?
Jackie-
Angelo- after twin stupas after
two meetings, some people started a campaign against the project, they didn't
understand.
Laurie- that sounds like mis- communication, but is there other
problems.
Tim- how do you tell when the community is cohesive?
Mark D.- What is the community'? There's the plant community' The
citizens
Malcom- Global communities. I really don't think there is
communities anymore, except in small places.
Shifting belief systems.
Helen- This is such an important group. I look around and see- whoa- we are a White
group. Primarily.
Tim- I chose the mon valley
because it is diverse- economically, racially.
But it's hard to get a racially diverse group in the environmental arts.
Jane- there are plenty of
people who want to have a voice, but it' the middle class in
Jackie- spoke about Seminole experience in
(other people share their experiences about working
interracially/community work)
Erika asked about Angelo's turkey population. Did he look into how the increase in turkey
population might affect other populations.
Particularly b/c he used a non-native.
I looked into quail.
Angelo- I went along with the community and game commission with my decision.
Erika- they are extremely biased.
I have an overall concern about artists without biology background
working with biased gov't. officials and not biologists. The best thing I could suggest is find a
renegade biologist.
Dan- Conversations and
intimacy regarding Jackie's foot
sculpting project. Soemtimes when you change the rules, a different
conversation might happen. Like driving
and not looking at each other.
End of discussion
Mark Dannenhauer- My background is a performance Bread and
Puppet. I did a master's in
environmental interpretation. Renegade Performer.
I'll show you my influences.
Show people the diversity of puppets around the world.
- materials at hand bridge between the places they live, meanings
and sense of the place
- amplifiers of ideas
- different visual language in different places. Sound image, movement.
- Generally puppetry had a community expression
- Political uses
- Scale
- Most places puppetry is not for kids, butfor adults
Then he showed slides of working with kids. Adults can work on larger structures. Uses of
cardboard, wire mesh, staple gun, and brown paper.
Working with non-profit environmental groups.
A lot of the things I want to do, are things that people here are
already doing.
My basic position is not to be an outsider who comes to the
community with a plan. As a way to avoid
that ' Coomunity Landscape Project Concept Map
How do people:
- read the landscape?
- Map the landscape' Various media
- Gather information, create a map of town
- Fill in town with GIS information, rivers, sewage, roads
- Populate it with people's contact information
- Way for people to connect with others and find more about what
goes on in town.
- Are people doing things in protected habitat.
- Do puppet performances based on how people personally view the
community
- Dance, images, sound, located around town.
Erika Fielder's talk:
Family was interested in the Natural world. I don't have a degree in biology, but I have
taken a number of classes and I have worked as a naturalist. And a degree in Art. Two powerful paths.
Panels commission, text. Interpretive work for parks and preserves
Start merging the arts and sciences. Right after graduation ' eco-art dialogue-
found my niche.
The interpretive work is kind of frustrative. But currently working on : Airport in
We become tributaries of the watershed in which we live, in seven
days of living there, by drinking that water.
We may be confusing ourselves by drinking bottled water.
Cement castings of animal print, children's footprints. Trail
marker
Nature guides that are not site-specific. Worked with a number of human senses. 37'
Like gravity, moisture, light and dark, sexuality. With out these senses, we
can not fall in love with the earth, that is my new goal.
I love to go into the schools and work with kids. Kids created an ephemeral work, alongthe
ocean. Two conditions, must be seen by
humans on the bridge and by animals.
Made a giant sand compass.
Kids in the city having this day of incredible extasy with nature.
I am interested in returning something to the earth. In many indigenous cultures, salmon bones
were sacred, give people the opportunity to return salmon bones to the lakes
and streams. Series of postcards to
converse about watershed, and returning something to the earth that they have
taken.
Birdfeeder hats.
Record of people and their watersheds, locally, globally. Watershed exchange.
Stephanie Flom:
Background as an environmental educator. Activist.
Worked for CDC to open up theater in low-income mostly African
American community. Then worked for a
dance company.
As an administrator, but discovering the creative through garden
passion. Could we have garden tours- as
a cultural/ creative endevor.
Persephone Project: art gardens of project.
Garden as contemporary ART.
Can we see this pratice that so many people have, as an art
practce and through this understanding, have transformation in their lives.
When we engage with art, something happens.
Large ' scale outdoor museum.
Park along bigelow blvd. 1
mile long. Got funding for Phase One-
Garden Artists (5 catagories)
Worked with local artists, sculpting sycamores. This summer we worked with an artist with a
history as a cotton sharecropping (in her family). Planted cotton, ocra.
Stephanie's own garden, sunflowers and night flowers. So communter
could be greeted morning and night.
Make a garden where people contribute plants. Magic Penny Garden. Seed packet to be passed out. Invited people
to bring plants and tell story. Those
plants would go in Lily Yeh's garden.
Video taped the stories.
The two community gardens near-by are the Hill district (with
Jorge Myers) and with paul Banyon in
Polish Hill.
The Mayfly: doodles turns
to cuttings- very similar to mattisse.
Mayflies came out in the doodles, then they appeared in downtown
for the first time in 100 years.
Exhibits at
Discussion:
Marks work- broad range of cultural references. Erikas work- one on one, deep sensual
understandings. Stephanie- long life of consistant
interactions, played many roles in the community. Brings up the question of
internal actors and external actors.
Helen- in our work we have to create a community around us.
Erika- how do I do that in my community?
I listen a lot. I open my ear and
don't give advice.
Helen- I think the caring that
you feel is non-verbal communication and that develops trust.
Christine- tools for community connecting. Means,
bridges. Intermediary tools.
What is an intermediary tool?
Like when you are looking at someone's feet, that's a tool.
Suzi, Sometimes artists go
into a community that's already formed.
Is it any value of creating community if you are creating it?
Suzi- so is the signifigance the community that is created?
Tim- it's a question of efficacy'
A number of people say their intention is creating a community.
Brad- what about participating in your community. I don't want to get stuck on that word.
Mark- I agree with that a lot.
Community is an emergent process- but can't be forced. Convergent.
But can't be created.
Brad- really the emphasis is your role in that.
Jon- in some of the projects we've done, (I understand the point
your making) we've had artists doing a thing in a building over a month, but in
that month, a community did emerge. A
lot of the art sucked, but the community lived on.
Brad- I want a city where concentration of power is decreased.
Free.
Suzi- Intentionality'''
Particiption. How the community
structure emerges is through a participatory act.
Helen- sometimes the word community is used as the other- not as
the self- but then I think of manipulation.
But if it is friends, mutual advantage, things happen. Two things ' community as others, community
as friends. A close moral, ethical
group.
Jackie- some families are dysfunctional. How over history (sigmont'
Author) communities are formed- to keep us from killing each other,
constraining us. Especially in ecology
we need to see constraint as a positive thing.
Jane- Something frightening is that community is always seen as
lacking in something. Many of us seek
funding to work with 'community.'
Concerned about being in a missionary role.
Mark (T.Svs)- I m in a neighborhood with 4 languages.
Erika- the most successful communites I've been a part of is ones
with a deep spiritual base, not just human communities.
Laurie- social justice model.
Voluntary community. Power is in an important part of what we need to
talk about.
Reiko- sometimes people come and they are not sure they are a
community. Some interesting people
stimulate the group and create transformation.
Ann- 2 things- issue that many of us come into a community tht is
not our own, and work in that community. ' hia hellar- the social desire for
nature. We human beings have a desire
for something social, but that desire has been subverted by capticalism into
buying stuff.
Jackie- story: restore and
restory.
Nicola- the social element is
acitively constructed by us. Is nature
constructed by us?
End of discussion
Helen and
Our work exists between the possible the probable and the utopic.
This experience is about trust- letting go- the pleasure of
letting the unconscious do its work.
Begin with work in 1970- don't know anything about earth except
that it's being destroyed.
Smelling and tasting the earth.
Planting. Lets make things to
eat. Portable orchards. In museum. Worm farms.
1977- first earth restoration project. Art park- spoils pile- quarry. Brought earth
in from local communities from sewage project.
After bulldozing them, spread meadows.
Kunst in
Idea was to infect the planners of
Can only affect change through social urgency.
Developers trying to build 600 thousand houses in the middle of
We've got it all backwards. We frame our ecology into little bits.
Where to put those 600 thousands'
You can put them in big
circle.(around a meadow) we go on
TV, the green party accepts it and puts
it in their plan. Then the green party
goes out of office. Plan is dropped . 3 or 4 years later, we called back by the
ministers of agriculture, to do an exhibit the plan again. The work is designed
to go from gallery to city hall)
After many meetings, number of years. (Needed a plan to readdress the water
levels.) We made a lake with bogs, trees.
Stacie Levy-
Nature- forbidding thing or prettified thing. The work I do is tryhing to locate yourself
to something you can't see (watershed).
Diagrams of things that are things that are hard to see.
Another idea is that nature is everywhere- even in concrete
jungle. But a lot of it is covered up.
Showing the watershed.
There was water here and now it isn't let's reveal where it is.
Collecting water from all possible tributaries. Filled in cups,
culverted areas are cups turned upside down.
Making bridges with your body.
Show in Edinbourgh- penn- name waterways after animals.
Work with undesireable water- run-off. Harvest water off roofs make them gravity fed
sculptures.
Landfills
Storm water park proposal- harvest roof top rain into ponds in
vacant lots in philli.
Acid mine drainage piece (in platforms show at Carnegie) Create designs for areas with a lot of acid
mine drainage. Park- alan compe. Treating water- talking about site- show how
it works. Litmus garden. Vivified by colors of foliage. Former industrial site. Wanted to remember former industrial site.
Winifred Lutz collaboration.
Scookle area.Tidal river.
Topography of upper scookle.
Hydrological patterns put in the landscaping.
Project at a school- sandblasted on to stone ' the
watersheds. Slanted so that when it
rains the water goes into the mini- Deleware.
Discussion:
representation
of nature- intervention in politics/land use.
Laurie: comment on agency of
immediate moment. Open relationship
through visualization and actualization.
Tim- how does this resonate to the ground zero folks'
Jon- I coe from a urban
desing background. If you are trying to
work at the scale of a country- you have to let go and let people take it.
Christine: Ideas are out there- people are having the
same ideas at the same time.
Value in standing up and saying it loudly
Tim- is there a way to make things happen.
Stacie- it's about making metaphors- get people to listen/understand.
Dan- you start with something that sounds crazy-
unraveling the carbon industry. Have a
long term goal- interjecting that into the dialogue and people will take it up.
Tim- could Erika help us develop the ears'
Jackie- if you can convince people they have a vested interest'
Nicola- dodgy to use art as a tool for a predictable outcome'
Jackie- not a totally predictable outcome. Sometimes it gets diluted.
Malcom: growing ideas might be
similar to growing corn. IF the
conditions are right- can do both. Idas
are not simple they are complex. But if
they are mysterious its impossible. But
not like corn in that society is not like earth- much more constructed. Conditions are not given, they are made. Impossible to predict, but we can try.