2020 Field Reports | Land Arts of the American West

Final critique of the Rio Meander Map created by the Land Arts 2020 ADAPTATION at College of Architecture at Texas Tech University will take place on Wednesday 2 December 2020.

The sessions can be viewed live and recorded online at:
YouTube Live for 9am to 12pm CST: https://youtu.be/4g-SiJIdE64
YouTube Live for 1pm to 5pm CST: https://youtu.be/s25izUjD8eU

Presentation materials will be available from the day of the review at https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_leXX6tw=/

Presentations will begin with an overview of the project and move down the Rio Bravo / Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and El Paso, Texas to the Gulf of Mexico alternating between presentation and discussion of the final map and processes developed in its production. As a collective project considered one map with an index and five pieces, presentation and discussion will involve individual and collective perspectives. We will be a big group and we look forward to ambitious and lively dialog. People will be pop in and out as necessary.

Full project syllabi online at: https://landarts.org/2020/08/24/2020-adaptation/

Confirmed Reviewers

Maggie Adler, Curator, Amon Carter Museum
C.J. Alvarez, Assistant Professor, Dept of Mexican American & Latina/o Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Mary Lou Arscott, Professor of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University
Curtis Bauer, Professor of Poetry, Texas Tech University
Judith Birdsong, Lecturer in Architecture, University of Texas at Austin
Kevin Chua, Associate Professor of Art History, Texas Tech University
John Davis, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, Ohio State University
Noemie Despland-Lichtert, Instructor, Texas Tech University
Elisandra Garcia, Lecturer, Texas Tech University
Rebecca Gates, musician, artist, curator, and soundworker
David Gregor, designer builder with Pork New Orleans
Neal Lucas Hitch, Visiting Instructor, Texas Tech University
Tim Johnson, poet, editor, publisher, Marfa Book Company
Gretchen Korsmo, architect, artist and designer based in Littlefield, Texas
Ersela Kripa, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Texas Tech University
Jana La Brasca, Land Arts alum and Art History PhD candidate, University of Texas at Austin
Susan Larson, Qualia Professor of Spanish, Texas Tech University
Zoe Leonard, artist
Caleb Lightfoot, designer based in Berkeley, California
Cesar Adrian Lopez, Assistant Professor of Architecture, University of New Mexico
Stephen Mueller, Research Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University
Patrick O’Shea, artist and technologist based in Chicago, Illinois.
Samantha Saona, architect and urbanist based in Lima, Peru
Ingrid Schaffner, curator, Chinati Foundation
Jennifer Yvette Terrell, independent scholar and writer based in El Paso, Texas
Jose Villanueva, Land Arts alum and designer at RPGA Architects
Jesse Vogler, Head of Architecture, Free University of Tbilisi
Andrew Weathers, composer and musician based in Littlefield, Texas
Nichole Wiedemann, Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin

Students / Participants

Maria Amador, architect and artist in Seville, Spain
Alden Anderson, architect in New York, New York
Andres Armendariz Zaragoza, architecture undergraduate candidate at Texas Tech from Chihuahua, Mexico and El Paso
Joseph Bondi, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from Frisco
Bryan Brummett, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from Ft. Worth
Haley Cooper, architecture undergraduate candidate at Texas Tech from Poth
Stephanie Enriquez, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from El Paso
Frances Erlandson, poet and designer currently based in Green River, Utah from Los Angeles, California
Caitlin Ford, environmental designer based in Japan from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lia Forslund, Land Arts alum, writer and artist from Stockholm, Sweden
Ana Garcia Merino, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from Monterrey, Mexico
Rebekah King, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from San Antonio
Jonathan Lalinde, architecture undergraduate candidate at Texas Tech from San Antonio
Alex Lopez-Iglesias, artist and designer based in Los Angeles, California from Juarez
Adam Neese, artist and conservator based in Denton, Texas and New York
Amber Noyola, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from Lubbock
Adrian Reyna, Land Arts alumn and architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from Dallas
Daniel Rios, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from El Paso
Carissa Perez, art and architecture undergraduate candidate at Texas Tech from nine Texas towns
Grace Shanks, architecture undergraduate candidate at Texas Tech from Amarillo
Landon Wade, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from Silverthorne, Colorado
Franek Wardyński, Land Arts alumn, artist and designer from Warsaw, Poland
Mia Zaro, architecture graduate candidate at Texas Tech from Ft. Worth

Leonard_al rio.jpg — Zoe Leonard, image from *Al Rio/To the River*, 2016–20. Gelatin silver prints. © Zoe Leonard.
Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne.

Land Arts 2020 ADAPTATION

How does a field program adapt to a pandemic? Science fiction scenarios of bio-hazard-suited researchers, roaming the desert, examining the residue of humanity’s engagement with the natural world do not adequately protect participants from covid-19 uncertainty. Nor can we shield the vulnerable communities and lands—disadvantaged by systemic economic poverty and limited health infrastructure—that we routinely encounter. Rather than magnify the inherent risks of travel, Land Arts 2020 will adapt.

Land Arts 2020 ADAPTATION will conduct an interdisciplinary deep research studio and seminar to construct a meander map of the Rio Bravo / Rio Grande as it marks the border from Juarez / El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico. We will collectively research, study, draw, the history and traces of the ever-changing river. The work produced will be part a publication being developed by the artist Zoe Leonard, a former Land Arts field guest, and poet Tim Johnson to build knowledge around terrain of past (and future) field operations. The 2020 Adaption seeks to responsibly honor the ethos, aspirations, and complexities of the Land Arts program that is dedicated to teaching greater awareness and understanding of how we as humans build and operate on the planet.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Land Arts 2020 Adaptation will operate from the College of Architecture at Texas Tech University during the Fall semester as a non-traveling (face-to-face and/or hybrid-remote) studio and seminar to conduct the research necessary to produce the Rio Bravo / Rio Grande meander map that will describe the undulating and shifting course of the river over time and provide a significant resource for Leonard’s Al Rio / To the River publication.

The map, inspired by those produced by Harold Fisk and team in 1944 of The Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi, will require extensive binational and multilingual research into the history of river geometry and mapping as a manifestation of dynamic ecosystems modified over time by wide ranges of human construction.

The opportunity for students, guests, and the Land Arts program, to create a map as temporal condition report that will have significant international visibility is a tremendous opportunity in itself, and a clear way to productively adjust our operations to the present conditions.

Participation is open to everyone—architects, artists, poets, writers, historians, linguists, geographers, scientists—from those interested in the 12 credit hour graduate Land Arts Certificate to undergraduates and people yet to enroll in the university. Ideally participants will register for both the graduate topical studio and seminar, yet that is not required as it will also be possible to participate through variable credit independent study or the seminar or studio individually. There will be a host of guest collaborators from across campus and beyond.

For additional information see the Land Arts 2020 ADAPTATION prospectus and get in touch with Chris Taylor.