February 25, 2021
We start this series of conversations with deep consideration of the ground’s physical matter – its underlying geologies, its biotic and abiotic assemblages, its biochemical processes, its material flows – as a means to focus our attention downward to the complex living system beneath our feet. As we contemplate its possible futures within the geologic epoch of the Anthropocene, we additionally mine the histories of extraction, exploitation, and violence that have brought us to this point. Operating across a range of scales, timeframes, and depths, this initial conversation explores the animate, relational, and differentiated articulations of the “ground” as material.
MODERATOR: Aroussiak Gabrielian
Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism and Director of the Landscape Futures Lab, USC School of Architecture
SPEAKER: Emily Eliza Scott
Assistant Professor of Art History and Environmental Studies, University of Oregon
SPEAKER: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe
Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry and Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced
SPEAKER: Jane Hutton
Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, University of Waterloo
SPEAKER: Ryan Dewey
Artist