FILL23 / Cryptic Sounds

FILL23 / CRYPTIC SOUNDS

The work of the Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes is only possible thanks to the generous support of Mort and Sue Fuller (UO Journalism, Class of 1971).

CRYPTIC SOUNDS

In the Spring of 2023, the Department of Landscape Architecture was allocated space to operate the “Overlook Outdoor Instructional Area” over the next 5 years. “Overlook” refers to both the Willamette River Natural Area Landscape Management Plan recommendation for a river viewpoint adjacent to the site, as well as the nationally-awarded program which lies at the heart of the Fuller Initiative. For the inaugural year of the outdoor instructional area, the Overlook seminar hosted sound artist, Lisa Schonberg, to lead a workshop called “Cryptic Sounds.” Students were trained in “soundscape ecology” and developed compositions from a diverse collection of recordings including: the dawn chorus, kildeer, foliage (wind), ants (contact mic), mill race (hydrophone), rail line (geophone), spring game festivities, and the Eugene Marathon. The seminar culminated with a field broadcast of these compositions, alongside temporary installations, and instrument prototypes from the seminar.

Fuller Initiative

Land Lab Director : Michael Geffel

Sound Artist-in-Residence:

Lisa Schonberg

Overlook Seminar Participants:

Blayne Burnside, Asa DeWitt, Mattie Ecklund, Lainey Everly, Jack Ferguson, Steven Garcia, Jenny Ginn, Carlos Gonzalez Flores, Eva Kahn, Momo Kelley, Nicole Konicke, Mikayla Mckone, Mckenna O’Neill, Blake Schouten, Tellez Santaella

Field Assistants:

Janessa Beltran, Tressa Cummings, Natalia Dorkina, Sarah Goldstein, Evan Kwiecien, Nicole Konicke, McKenna O’Neill, Miriel Orhai, Tellez Santaella, Katie Sinclair, Tayler Uesato, Ian Vierck

Project Partners:

UO Campus Planning & Facilities Management

DESIGN RESEARCH / / / RESEARCH BY DESIGN

ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT FIELD EXPERIMENTS (2018-Present)

Initiated during the 2018 Overlook Seminar on “Maintenance,” an adaptive management field experiment has been conducted by Professor of Practice, Michael Geffel, UO Campus Planning & Facilities Management, and Lucan Landscaping to understand how the novel maintenance approach of “drift mowing” might strike a balance between Himalayan Blackberry control and meadow habitat. Drift Mowing uses the operational patterns of mowing to demonstrate that the site is cared for, while allowing meadow drifts to remain where blackberries are not present. Meadow drifts provide habitat for birds, small mammals, and pollinators, while also providing an aesthetically diverse landscape for the broader public.

After three years of the field experiment, drift mowing was no longer necessary to identify the extent of invasive species – and the surrounding meadows did not need to be cut at all – so long as the edge between bramble and meadow was delineated before spring emergence. The resulting formal language and spatial distribution of meadows are entirely derived from the population ecology of the landscape as mediated through infrastructural maintenance. This research has been published in Landscape Journal, Kerb, LA+, and Making-Do in Urbanism and the Arts (forthcoming).

WILDFLOWER TEST PLOTS

Following construction of the Ruth Bascom Riverfront Bike Path and adjacent EWEB water supply line, the Fuller Initiative adopted the two disturbed easements within the Land Lab after the initial hydroseeded native grasses failed. Together with UO ecology professors and a local native nursery, a native pollinator seed mix was developed to study which native species were best adapted to severely compacted soil conditions. The seed mix was composed primarily of summer-flowering, annual species to ensure a prominent bloom during the World Athletics Championships in July.

Expanding on this field experiment, temporary protection fencing was installed around two test plots to monitor the effect of goose browse on meadow establishment. After a joyful seeding event, the team approached the Goose Exclusion Fence Lots [GEFL’s] as a temporary art installation and opportunity to explore the aesthetic potential of common landscape products. Materials were selected based on their potential for reuse through later phases, effectively making the GEFL a 750 LF mockup for later distributed installations. Goose browse was found to be beneficial to wildflower establishment since they primarily browsed the competing grasses.

OREGON EXPERIENCE LABORATORY

During the World Athletics Championships (Oregon22), the Fuller Initiative Land Lab received a sponsorship by Travel Oregon to create seven interactive landscape installations, each representing a different landscape of Oregon. Partnering with the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS), Sound Artist, Lisa Schonberg, and Fuller Design Fellow, David Buckley Borden, the “Oregon Experience Laboratory” included an embedded challenge within each installation, that when solved, opened a “portal” to its specified region using an Mixed-Reality app designed by CASLS. This game-based overlay allowed international guests to view the diversity of Oregon’s landscapes and was accessible to those who speak English as a second language. Despite the new focus on representational installations, the exhibition relied on the same materials as earlier research activities, reconfigured based on the aesthetic discoveries from previous assemblies. Following the Oregon Experience Laboratory exhibition, the “waves” have now become the Land Lab standard for temporary protection fencing.

This project received professional awards in Pro-Bono Design and Climate Action by the Oregon Society of Landscape Architects.

ESTABLISHING THE OVERLOOK OUTDOOR INSTRUCTIONAL AREA

Founded in 2023, the Overlook Outdoor Instructional Area (OOIA) operates as an “innovation landscape” to support trans-disciplinary field experiments and experiential learning. This initiative follows a recent movement in Landscape Architecture education to use the campus as the subject of research, and as testing ground for material experimentation. The concept emerged as a way to bring Overlook pedagogy to campus after the 2020 “Experiment” field school was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Located on a former quarry and landfill, the OOIA serves as an outdoor classroom for the Overlook seminar to “learn through making” – with a distinct focus on ecological and aesthetic education. Thanks to a longstanding partnership with UO Campus Planning and Facilities Management, students are able to design, test, and install temporary installations at the lab, and exhibit their work to the larger Eugene community that uses the Willamette River Natural Area.

SOUNDSCAPE RECORDING WORKSHOP

Continuing a research partnership from the Oregon Experience Laboratory, the FILL hosted sound artist, Lisa Schonberg, for a one week workshop on soundscape ecology. While landscape is explicitly visual, the soundscape connects us to invisible or hidden actors in the ecosystem through our sense of hearing. The soundscape is made up of three auditory categories: biophony, geophony, and anthrophony, and each one may be dominant depending on the time of day and season of the year. Many sounds that impact the Overlook Outdoor Instructional Area (OOIA) are from beyond the site boundaries: Franklin Blvd, the Willamette River, Autzen Stadium, and the Central Oregon & Pacific Railway to name a few.

During a weekend workshop, students were trained in recording technology, and captured audio throughout the Willamette River Natural Area. Thanks to the microphones provided by Lisa, we were also able to record “cryptic sounds,” which are outside of the range of human hearing. The workshop happened to coincide with the annual Spring game (Saturday), and the Eugene Marathon (Sunday), allowing us to witness and record the anthrophony of thousands of people moving through the site.. The following Tuesday, Lisa introduced sound editing software, and the students created compositions of their recordings. These were broadcast in the Aural Placemaker and Madia installations during the Cryptic Sounds exhibition. Selected compositions can be found at https://fuller.uoregon.edu/land-lab/

EXHIBITION & FIELD BROADCAST

AURAL PLACE MARKER

Asa DeWitt & Momo Kelley, installation assistance by Black Schouten

Auralization, used initially to describe the act of visualizing soundscapes, has also come to define the fabrication and interactive manifestation of acoustic phenomena broadly. The Aural Place Marker allows participants to discover otherwise unknown sounds recorded on the site using non-traditional microphones (such as geophones, hydrophones, contact microphones, and ultrasonic microphones). Taking inspiration from outdoor trail markers, the installation acts as a visual and auditory waypoint representing some of the unique sounds that take place on site. By using student compilations of these sounds, rather than the raw unedited recordings, this marker also serves as a physical dialogue between the natural and anthropomorphic, digital and physical, student and listener, institution and landscape. In doing so, the installation plays a role in place-making. Playback is achieved through an amplifier and exciter that, when in contact with an object, vibrate the material and create auditory resonance. This provides a unique interactive experience in which the listener may not hear any sound until placing their ear on the Aural Place Marker. Doing so anchors the physical installation to place, adding a material component that informs the participant’s interaction.

SURVEY BENCHMARK

Mikayla Mckone

In early-Spring, an intriguing collection of tracks can be found in the FILL: shoe prints, impressions of various birds, tire tracks, etc. These imprints are a reminder of the many species, human and non-human, that inhabit and use the site. The tracks left behind are a part of the living history of the place and capture a moment in time. The current land care of the site explores how humans and plants can work together to rebuild the quality of the site and bring back a balance through reciprocity. Referencing USGS material culture and typography, the survey benchmarks highlight areas of biological interest within the test plots and along the bike path. These areas are repeatedly visited to evaluate how the site is changing, and the survey benchmarks are a type of research infrastructure for the lab. But rather than simply identifying benchmarks numerically, each is given a marked with a track found on site to signify the life and land care at work.

CROP PROTECTION SAILS

Mattie Ecklund, Steven Garcia & Eva Kahn. Meadow Guard installation by FILL Field Assistants.

Acknowledging invisible climatic influences is an important step in preparing for climate change and reframing the way humans interpret and interact with the landscape. Wind emerged as an important actor during the field recording workshop which revealed how important wind is in our perception of sound on the site. Further, wind physically alters the site through seed dispersal, movement of vegetation and traveling pollen. Site ecology, vegetative form, and programming are all influenced by wind.

To visualize the agency of the wind, sail prototypes were developed with crop protection fabric. This fabric references the material culture of Willamette Valley agriculture and continues earlier fabric prototypes at the Land Lab. Each fabric sail was stitched, grommeted and attached to Meadow Guards using metal hardware. Double hemmed sleeves were slid over steel hoops that were then tensioned with rebar footings. This installation is reminder that humans are not bystanders in the climate change crisis. Through exploration of our surroundings, we are given space to form connections to nature that heal and inspire.

INSECT RECORDING STUDIO

Nicole Konicke & Mckenna O’Neill

One method of capturing the cryptic sounds of insect life is to use a “contact microphone” which records microvibrations that contact it. This is of particular importance to our visiting sound artist, Lisa Schonberg, who records and composes music from ant life. During the soundscape ecology workshop, Lisa trialed a prototype for an Insect Recording Studio to help field researchers better capture insect sounds. Made out of plexiglass and flexible piano hinge, this prototype shields the microphone from ambient noice and can be folded up to fit inside a backpack after the field recording. While early trials established proof of concept, the hinge detail left much to be desired.

As a thank you to our guest, a second prototype was developed that improved the hinge detail. The mobile studio folds flat and includes triangular braces to stabilize the structure. A small gap is left at the base of the plexi so that the contact mic can easily be placed and adjusted without moving the frame. This prototype continues an Overlook tradition of building “instruments” which allow humans to better understand hidden actors in the landscape and is now part of the permanent FILL tool collection.

HEDERA HELIX BASKET

Lainey Everly

Maintenance offers us an opportunity to engage with the environment in potentially engaging, enriching, varied, and creative ways. How might we approach the regular removal of invasive species so that they can be seen as a gift, as opposed to a nuisance? English Ivy (Hedera Helix) provides material, and a connection to the site through maintenance. When pulling ivy, there are remarkable similarities between the notion of weaving and the way in which ivy piles over and through itself. In an attempt to preserve the length of ivy for future use, each vine must be carefully peeled back as it zig-zags through layers of interwoven strands. This parallel in intentionality continues from collection to creation. Basketweaving is an old art, requiring few additional tools (if any) and no additives that make eventual composting and recycling of the materials more difficult. It is an artform with roots in cultures all around the world, resulting in varied approaches, styles, uses, and weaves. The Hedera Helix Basket uses an Adirondak basket backpack base and a twining stitch for the sidewalls. Thanks to its ubiquity, ivy removal becomes an opportunity for a reciprocal relationship with the landscape that translates maintenance into abundance.

MADIA

Blayne Burnside, Jack Ferguson, Tellez Santaella, Blake Schouten

Following the Portland Rose installation of the Oregon Experience Laboratory, Madia is a similar abstraction of the Land Lab’s most abundant flower using painted snow-fence, with the strategies of color and formal quality. Its beauty perceived by passersby advocates for the beauty of each and every madia flower that lines the walking paths. Our habitual lens that defines the human scale, and the consequential ignorance to scales beyond us is a notion that can be challenged by installations such as the Madia. In creating such an installation, we express our human potential to manifest consideration and perspectives of life beyond our own instinctual habits. By continuing down this theoretical discourse in a way for others to understand, perhaps a greater appreciation and sensitivity to the living subjects all around us could be conceived.

PHOTO POINT

Jenny Ginn

The Photo Point is informed by the process of scientific communication and the possibilities this process holds for interpreting and translating data into a deeper appreciation of place. Repeat photography is a method of data collection to track landscape change over time, and has been used to document long-term ecological change following scientific experiments (at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest for example) or major disturbance events (such as the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens). While typically conducted by trained photographers, including a photo point in a public landscape engages citizen science to crowdsource images which are as helpful for artistic interpretation as they are for scientific research. There are successful efforts to use citizen science to track plant phenology at a large scale, and photos from citizen science (CS) projects are a rapidly growing body of high-quality data. As the number of photo “instances” increases we will get a fuller understanding of the life of the landscape: how individual plants grow, installations weather, and the land is cared for. Eventually, these images can be translated into photo collage, timelapse, or mixed-reality visualization, and made available digitally so that citizen scientists can experience the landscape change that they are helping to document.

Fuller Initiative Land Lab 2023

Department of Landscape Architecture

University of Oregon College of Design

fuller.uoregon.edu/land-lab