Landscape. The word evokes mountain lakes and desert plains, rivers and trees and fields of green.
Yet in present-day America, landscape has become an increasingly complex and divisive issue. Suburban development sprawls ever outward while many traditional urban cores crumble to rust and rubble. Once a nation of cities and farms, we now find ourselves confronting a frequently uneasy mixture of natural and postindustrial environments.
On Sept. 19 and 20, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will host a national symposium titled “Unsettled Ground: Nature, Landscape, and Ecology Now!” Co-sponsored with the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, “Unsettled Ground” is the first in a yearlong series of lectures, panel discussions, artistic interventions and workshops exploring the intersection of contemporary architecture, art, ecology and urban design.
Panel sessions run from 5 to 8 p.m. both evenings with discussions to follow. All sessions are free and open to the public and take place in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, located in Steinberg Hall, near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. Participants include:
Monday, 19 September
Session 1: 5 to 6:15 p.m.
- Julie Bargmann, associate professor and director of the Landscape Architecture Program, University of Virginia School of Architecture
- Kristina Hill, associate professor of landscape architecture, University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Session 2: 6:30 to 8 p.m.
- Peter Mullan, director of planning, Friends of The High Line, New York, NY
- Mary Ann Lazarus, senior vice president and sustainable design director, HOK Architects, St. Louis
Tuesday, 20 September
Session 1: 5 to 6:15 p.m.
- Dan Peterman, artist, Chicago
- Jennifer Price, freelance writer and environmental historian
Session 2: 6:30 to 8 p.m.
- Nils Norman, artist, London
- Sabine Eckmann, Ph.D., director and curator, Kemper Art Museum, Washington University
- Angela Miller, Ph.D., professor of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences, Washington University
The series was organized by Peter MacKeith, associate dean of Architecture and associate director of the Sam Fox School, and by the school’s Public Programs Committee, which includes Eckmann and Miller as well as Ron Fondaw, professor of Art; Jane Wolff, assistant professor of Architecture; Ellen Petraits, Art & Architecture librarian; and Lutz Koepnick, Ph.D., professor of German Languages & Literatures and Film & Media Studies, both in Arts & Sciences.
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WHO: Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts WHAT: Symposium, “Unsettled Ground: Nature, Landscape and Ecology Now!” WHERE: Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Steinberg Hall, Washington University WHEN: 5 to 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 19 and 20 COST: Free and open to the public INFORMATION: (314) 935-9347 |
“‘Unsettled Ground’ demonstrates that The Sam Fox School exists now, well in advance of the completion of construction,” said MacKeith, referring to two new buildings designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, which are scheduled to open next fall. “This series is the product of a great deal of thoughtful deliberation by a fantastic group of faculty from each of the school’s principal units — Art, Architecture and the Kemper Art Museum — as well as University Libraries and the College of Arts & Sciences. It is truly a collaborative effort.”
The opening symposium will encourage audiences to explore what nature means today in our technologically mediated environment. A statement by the programs committee points out that “Many contemporary artists find striking beauty in decaying industrial landscapes, and challenge global consumerism through aesthetic strategies such as the recycling of junk materials. Yet how do we appreciate such values without cynically endorsing further destruction of our habitats and environments? How should we define concepts such as landscape, nature and ecology in the first place? Are ecological thinking and practice necessarily opposed to the commercial orientation and the global reach of postindustrial society?
“In pursuing questions such as these, ‘Unsettled Ground’ aims to illuminate the political, economic, aesthetic and ethical uses and abuses of the natural world.”
Subsequent events will include a lecture and workshop with Matthew Coolidge, founder and director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Los Angeles (Oct. 26-29); a lecture by William J. Cronon, Ph.D., the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Feb. 13); and a lecture by Berlin-based artist Olafur Eliasson, (March 30), part of the German department’s symposium, “After the Digital Divide?”
For a complete schedule or further information, call (314) 935-9347 or visit www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu.