Overlook Field School 2014: Landscapes of Power

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LANDSCAPES OF POWER The context of northeast Pennsylvania, situated between a past dominated by coalmines and a future heavily influenced by the natural gas industry, provided an ideal setting for exploring landscapes of power. Overlook, a 400-acre property just outside of the “Electric City” (Scranton, PA), was the home to students of the field school, as well as a canvas for site-specific artworks.

For four weeks, landscape architecture students studied the landscapes of power, building on a spring seminar on the same topic. Through readings, films, field trips, and site visits to energy landscapes (landfill methane recapture projects; hydroelectric dams and power plants; natural gas drilling sites, extraction wells, and pipelines; coalmines; wind and solar arrays) students developed an extensive knowledge of energy generation, its infrastructure, and its impacts.

Landscape architecture has the potential to render visible the invisible infrastructures of our culture, creating a site for dialogue. How much power do we need? How much is enough? What costs are we as a society willing to pay for that power – costs to people and communities, to rivers and forests, to plants and animals?

This investigation ultimately led to the creation of site-specific art that examines and critiques the sources of electricity and our cultural relationship with resources, energy production, and energy consumption. Some installations incorporate renewable energy, some convey messages of energy sustainability, and others work with and reveal the presence of natural energies. All address the questions of our relationship to resources, to landscapes, and to each other.

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ANEMOGRAPH (WINDWRITER) Grayson Morris Anemograph uses nautical technology to reveal the power of the wind. A sheet metal sail hangs from a freely turning mast; the boom holds and India ink dispenser which applies a beautifully inconsistent stream of ink onto a continuous roll of vellum.

When the sail moves in response to a gust or a breeze, Anemograph writes the wind.

The velocity of incoming winds pushes the sail side-to-side and paints an interpretation of wind redirections and gusts. The resulting paintings resemble the spikey line of a seismograph, shifting to a painted landscape as the wind changes direction and intensity. Mountains, plains, and valleys (some riddled with oil wells) can be seen in the ink, written by the wind. The peaks of those mountains coincide with real spikes in wind speed.

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CONSUMED: COMMUNICATING ENERGY USE WITH LAND-ART INFOGRAPHICS Kristzian Megyeri The growing demand for renewable energy is a trend necessary for a sustainable future. However, it is clear that there is no “magic” source of power that could possibly support the levels of consumption of Western societies. While there is tremendous interest and investment in finding cheaper and cleaner sources of energy, there is not much of a dialogue about how we could simply consume less.

Perhaps the thoughtless and wasteful use of energy is due to the general disconnect between its production and consumption. How much energy does my laptop use? And how much of a natural resource does it actually take to generate that energy?

Consumed investigates how land-art can be used to communicate these ideas while providing aesthetic intrigue. A path in the forest leads through a series of installations that can be interpreted as infographics about resource and energy consumption. The three-dimensionality of the pieces aims to heighten the visitor experience by making the information more poignant and relatable.

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ELECTRIC FESCUE Andrew Jepson-Sullivan Long, flexible, brightly colored tubes arc skyward, forming a thicket of grass-like stems. Pointy metal inflorescences dangle at the end of each stalk, flashing and glinting in the daylight, the reflected light bouncing around the forest clearing as they move gently in response to the wind. Solar panels at the top of each stalk soak up energy from the sun, mimicking the process of photosynthesis. Energy flows from solar panels, through wires to a battery, where the energy is stored for later use. When the sun sets, the energy is released; in the darkness, a swarm of bright lights can be seen, inviting those who see it to investigate.

This is Electric Fescue, a new species of grass only found in one place in northeastern Pennsylvania. Like other plant species, Electric Fescue gathers energy from sunlight in a photosynthesis-like process. The installation, which takes inspiration from the prevalent, undulating fields of grass at Overlook, explores the use of renewable energy in art and landscape architectural design.

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HOWL Miranda Hawkes Howl is an interactive sculpture that explores the generative potential of wind at Overlook. Using the reverberative technology of a pipe organ, Howl employs sound to reveal the presence and power of the wind.

Individual tubes affixed to the outside of the sculpture harmonize together as the wind passes over them. A seat is fastened to the inside of the structure, allowing a person to sit and experience the installation. Howl’s wedge-like shape amplifies and directs sound toward the participant, creating an immersive experience at the center of the sculpture. The entire machine pivots, inviting the participant to tune Howl to the conditions of the moment.

Howl both influences and is influenced by the local landscape. Its purple color provides a strong visual contrast to the seasonal fluctuations of the surrounding grasses, and in doing so, intentionally alters the viewshed and shapes perceptions of the site. Howl also takes advantage of local wind patterns, being sited where wind currents are consistently strong at Overlook.

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MINE, MIDDEN, ARTIFACT Kate Tromp van Holst Mine, Midden, Artifact explores the relationships between power, production, material culture, and waste. The manufacture of material objects relies on fossil fuels, as does the transport of these objects from origin to destination. Power is used in the consumption of these goods, in the form of cooking fuel, and heat, and lights for homes.

Mine, Midden, Artifact is the result of the careful excavation of midden heaps at Overlook. The objects found in these small landfills tell the story of material culture at Overlook, with found objects dating to the 1930’s and earlier. The objects were carefully curated into a sited installation, located in two neglected buildings on the property: an old pump house and a power generation building.

Our culture of consumption, where new, replaceable, and disposable objects are preferred and prioritized, is often viewed as civilized. While this lifestyle does provide security against the forces of earth, it also produces huge amounts of waste and chaotically interferes with natural systems. The two installations that comprise Mine, Midden, Artifact, taken together, symbolize the disparity between the perception and reality of our material culture.

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WIND SCENE Kelly Stoecklein Wind is an often-invisible force. It only becomes visible once it acts upon an object. Wind Scene is a tool for visually reading and seeing the wind. In the same way that rustling leaves or rippling water reveals the presence of a breeze, Wind Scene makes observing this phenomenon possible.

The piece is made of numerous hand-crafted buoys randomly anchored in Lily Lake. The viewer’s experience changes depending on the time of day and perspective it is viewed from.

During the day, lengths of white fabric dance in the breeze indicating the moment where wind and water meet. The buoys playfully bob up and down in Lily Lake, translating the wind’s power through the movement of the water. In the dark of night the buoys disappear, leaving only a pale, warm light delicately bouncing on the horizon, revealing the motion of the wind and waves.

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Fuller Center for Productive Landscapes Department of Landscape Architecture University of Oregon http://landarch.uoregon.edu/ 2014