[notes from an underground world]

Recent thesis explorations of soil as a cultural and sensory landscape (more to come) led me to these recently-discovered subterranean worlds. The first is a laser survey of the 450+ Nottingham Caves in the UK that perforate the sandstone cliffs that support the castle facade. Dubbed appropriately by National Geographic as "business in front, party in back" the Vikings who constructed these caves around 800AD intimately knew the economy and extravagance of space-making. 

http://youtu.be/i6DJU09yKKg?hd=1


Images courtesy of Nottingham Caves Survey. 




The second underground landscape is the largest fossilized tree forest found to-date from the Pennsylvanian geologic period (of the Carboniferous era) buried under 300 million years of sedimentation: the histories of plants, animals, and people. Today the cornfields of Illinois cover this window into an ancient ecology and a similar period of global warming. Read more on the New York Times or in Smithsonian. Renderings of these forests below with photographs of fragments of trunks, leaves, and roots.

Images courtesy of the Illinois State Geologic Survey.

[notes from an indoor grove]

This winter I deconstructed a fir tree and suspended the branches over my family's table for Christmas eve dinner. I've always wanted to sit under the canopy of a large tree, inside. This year I made it happen. Sound was dampened; the guests' attention turned inward toward each other and the meal; we were cozy. Lit only from candles below, the side of a branch that is normally never illuminated was exposed. Next I want to make this at a much larger scale in a different context.

Conceptual drawing by the author

[notes from the fog]

A foggy day in Providence. Temperatures are unseasonably warm. Two images from my walk to studio this morning. 

[notes on a ginkgo biloba carpet, fall]

This is the 3rd year that I've obsessively stalked a tree. Check out the darling of my attention this season--an ancient Ginkgo Biloba or Maidenhair tree--and you may also seek out a love interest in your neighborhood. Here in the RISD Museum's central courtyard, an ancient Ginkgo Biloba drops perhaps millions of florescent fan-shaped leaves in a couple of days, creating an ephemeral glowing carpet. How about that for phenomenological? Must hurry: leaves quickly brown if they're not swept off to dumps by maintenance crews first. Stalking a Ginkgo carpet is therefore necessary and very arguably worth it.

No one else seems to know about this tree, probably because it's mostly invisible from the street. Don't forget to look up. Our tree in October vs. November:

Why stalking is necessary: three days difference: 

Through a Japanese Maple to the courtyard a few days before the Ginkgo leaves fall:

A few of my studies of a Ginkgo over a year: 

Ginkgo Biloba trees are remarkable. They're considered living fossils with records dating back 270 million years. They have no living relatives. Clearly highly adaptable, they're also resistant to urban pollution which is unusual and makes them valuable in cities as a form of landscape infrastructure. Peter del Tredici, a great urban tree specialist, landscape architect, and ecologist, has written extensively on them. Check out the Harvard Magazine for more. Here's one of his images from a recent trip to discover naturally-occurring  Ginkgo Biloba species in China:

I've been reading recently that they're at risk of not being planted as widely in cities because of the smell of the fruit the female tree produces. How quickly people forget that our world is more than just a visually-occurring place. It would be an ecological and experiential loss to our world to stop planting this great tree.

[notes on framed views]

Framing views is one of the oldest and best tricks in the book of design. Visitor becomes voyeur. Peering into a neighboring space, between screens and filters, inhabiting multiple places in one glance. Like a dance, our eyes crave to move rhythmically and then come to a point of rest before continuing. A series of framed views in a space guides our eyes confidently from one point to the next. Our imaginations are fed by a sense of mystery, wondering what is omitted from the frame, what lies behind a corner, or where a light source originates. We're hooked, engaged in a space, left wanting more. 

"Dog Day 88" Pen and Ink wash on paper by the author, San Marco Church, Florence Italy

Framed sky at the Baptista, Florence Italy

"Sky Wall" mixed media collage by the author

Islamic Paradise gardens are known for using framed views. Here courtyards and series of framed porticoes in Oman create ethereal light and sublime shadows:

Early Islamic map of Mecca

(Above) Binary window frame at L'Alhambra in Granada, Spain; Photo by Javier Carro
(Below) Courtyard  grove at Paradores L'Alhambra with box hedge, pen on paper, by the author

One of the most famous frames, ever. View to the Treasury at Petra, Jordan. The contrast of irregular natural rock formations to the geometric and symmetrical architectural form of the facade makes it even more remarkable:

I recently studied the work of Annette Hoyt Flanders, little-known landscape architect from the early 20th century. She was trained in the Beaux Arts tradition (think classical French gardens with box hedges). So while her designs don't look edgy, she was a master of creating outdoor living spaces and depth with her framed views. Below are some examples of this in her work and her travels to Europe from her slide collection at Smith College, never published before:

Annette Hoyt Flanders “The Descent to the Woodland, Lewis L Estate, Syosset Long Island

Annette Hoyt Flanders Century of Progress Exhibit, Chicago Symmetrical Box Hedges

Annette Hoyt Flanders Classic Garden Century of Progress Exhibit 1934

Annette Hoyt Flanders, Location and designer unknown 

Annette Hoyt Flanders, Parterre Garden, McCann Estate, Long Island

Annette Hoyt Flanders, Meadows from House Terrace, Oyster Bay, Long Island

Annette Hoyt Flanders, Location unknown, likely Italy

Annette Hoyt Flanders, Villa Gamberaia, Italy