Merging Horizons – Soil Science and Soil Art
Alexandra Toland, Gerd Wessolek 2009
Berlin University of Technology, Institute of Ecology, Department of Soil Protection
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Abstract
A collection of canvases caked in colorful arrangements of browns and grays competes for
space alongside an extensive accumulation of soil samples, old lab equipment, and remnants of
assorted research projects in the basement of the Gorbatschow Building of the Berlin University of
Technology. Remains of an artistic field experiment conducted last summer, the canvases mark the
Soil Protection Department's attempts to integrate artistic dimensions into the soil science
curriculum at the university. Such cross-disciplinary activities are gaining recognition elsewhere, as
scientists, artists, educators, and environmentalists are developing a visual vernacular for the
outermost skin of the earth.
Why, when and in what context did soil science and art merge horizons? While incidental
depictions of soil and geologic forms may be identified in virtually all major artistic genres, artwork
explicitly dealing with soil and soil conservation issues is uniquely characteristic to the more recent
environmental arts movement spanning over the last 50 years. Regarding the art-historical
developments from the Land Art monuments of the 60s and 70s to more recent interdisciplinary
remediation projects, it is important to distinguish between artworks that favor a symbolic,
conceptual use of the “earth,” and those that more specifically make reference to “soil” as a
geophysical, agronomic or ecological body. In this chapter, we introduce soil art as a subgenre of
environmental art. We review the subject of soil throughout different historical developments of the
environmental arts movement, look at several artists who have taken on soil as a fundamental focus
of their artistic practice, and share some reflections on our own soil art experimentation at the TUBerlin. Finally, we address the benefits and challenges of cross-disciplinary experimentation. It is
our hope that a thoughtful combination of soil science and art will inspire new opportunities for
collaborations within and beyond the soil science community.
1. Historical Roots
1.1 Earthworks and Land Art
A plein-air extension of minimalism, Land Art, like happenings, interventions, installations and
performance art, celebrated a distinct break from traditional forms of art making, art appreciation,
and art theory. Unlike landscape painting, nature photography, and outdoor sculpture parks, Land
Art incorporated the landscape not merely as subject or setting for the artwork but as an integral
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part of it. The Land Art movement is perhaps best known for “Earthworks,” such as Robert
Smithson’s iconic Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake in Utah (1970), Michael Heizer’s Double
Negative, cut into the Mormon Mesa in Nevada (1970), or Robert Morris’ Observatory in the
Netherlands (1977).
Many of the Land Artists also transported their perceptions of nature into museums and gallery
spaces, isolating “earth” as an abstraction of the landscape. Prior to his herculean pursuits with
bulldozers, Robert Smithson, for example, repeatedly framed simple arrangements of gravel, sand,
salt and slate in mirrored corners of exhibition spaces and in wooden boxes on gallery floors.
Smithson designated these minimalistic works with natural elements as “non-sites,” as opposed to
actual sites in natural settings. Alongside Smithson’s Non-Site at the Dwan Gallery’s “Earthworks”
exhibition in 1968, Robert Morris similarly exhibited a pile of soil and rock installed as a sculpture.
In various exhibitions, Richard Long laid out arrangements of stones in museum settings,
bringing attention to the raw materiality of natural elements, in juxtaposition with the contrived
architectural context of the exhibition space. Artist Alan Sonfist similarly addressed the materiality
of exhibition spaces in his Atlanta Earth Wall and Macomb Wall of Earth (1965). Here, the artist
brought attention to the natural history architectural space by covering the outer walls with rippled
sculptural facades made out of core samples taken from nearby sites.
Many are also familiar with Walter de Maria’s New York Earth Room (1977). In this work, de
Maria made reference to the lost natural history of New York by filling an entire gallery with 197
m3 of peat rich soil. Probably the most massive A-Horizon (uppermost layer of organic enriched
soil) on the whole island of Manhattan, the New York Earth Room allows the viewer to experience
the raw, rich odor and texture of an isolated oasis in the middle of a concrete jungle, creating an
eerie monument to pre-Columbian New York.
The definitive Land Art works were, however, embedded in the landscape. Far away from the
white-walled safety of museums and gallery spaces, artists such as Michael Heizer, Richard Long,
Robert Morris, Dennis Oppenheim, and Robert Smithson provoked new ways of interpreting art
and experiencing the environment. Despite their groundbreaking contribution to art history, many
of the monumental Land Art works often failed to acknowledge or protect the ecologies of the
landscapes in which they were situated. When the state of California required artist team Christo
and Jeanne-Claude to complete an environmental impact report for their 24 mile long Running
Fence in 1976, attention shifted from the art world elite to a wider public discussion on the
environment. While art critic Michael Auping (1983) commented on the negative ecological
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repercussions of Land Art in his essay “Earth Art: A Study in Ecological Politics,” Allen Carlson
(2002), professor of environmental aesthetics, even denounced some of the monumental earth
works as being an “aesthetic affront to nature.”
As cultural attitudes about environmental responsibility gradually shifted, artists adjusted their
practice as well, ushering in a new canon of ephemeral, site-specific, ecologically conscious art that
addressed nature for nature’s sake, and not simply as a novelty of the art world. Appearing in the
same year as the “Earthworks” Exhibition, Joseph Beuys’ Earth Telephone (1968), consisting of a
real telephone, earth, wire and straw, may thus be interpreted as a symbol of communication
between artist and audience but also between humankind and nature. Earth Telephone (Fig. 1)
represented a telepathic call for action, inviting other artists to follow a subtler, more sustainable
path. Artists such as Charles Simonds and Ana Mendieta (among others) answered the call by
creating ephemeral, allegorical works with soil
that linked personal myths of creation with
“the earth” as a fertile, celestial body. Works
such as Alan Sonfist’s Time Landscape (19651978), a recreation of a pre-colonial biotope in
Manhattan, and Newton and Helen Mayer
Harrison’s installation of an endangered
meadow on the roof of the national art
museum in Bonn (1996-1998) marked a new
direction for the Land Art movement.
Fig. 1: Joseph Beuys, Earth Telephone, 1968.
1.2 Ecological Art
While Land Art can be traced back to a distinct period of postmodern artistic activity of the late
20th century, ecological art emerged as a critical response to Land Art around the same time period,
and continues to thrive as a branch of contemporary art today. Ecological art addresses issues such
as sustainable land use, natural processes, biodiversity, habitat conservation, and renewable
resources. Two main approaches may be articulated here: artistic remediation that is primarily
aesthetic and remediation that is also ecologically restorative. For example, Barbara Matilsky (1992
p. 56) makes a distinction between artists who have “proposed or created ecological artworks that
provide solutions to the problems facing natural and urban ecosystems,” and artists who hone their
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skills to attract attention or create awareness of environmental issues by “framing the problems
through a variety of media…” Such a distinction becomes apparent with regard to artists working
with soils.
In Robert Smithson's Pour series, the artist literally dumped truckloads of asphalt and glass and
barrels full of glue and sulphur down the slopes of already contaminated strip mines for the pure
aesthetic enjoyment of watching the clattering, gooey descent. In contrast, Alan Sonfist sought to
ameliorate such conditions by pouring rings of humus rich
soil onto industrial brownfields. The airborne seeds that
landed within the Pool of Virgin Earth (1975) brought new
life to industrial wastelands. In the Grass Grows and
Bowery Seeds works by Hans Haacke (1970), the artist
similarly placed mounds of fertile soil on rooftops and in
gallery spaces to exhibit the physical and biological
processes of change, renewal, and decay. In another
example, artist-biologist Kathryn Miller developed a bold
but humorous series of artistic recultivations by literally
“bombing” brownfields with grenade-like sculptures of soil
and seeds from native plants (Fig. 2). Miller’s Seed Bombs
(1992-2001) and Subdivision (1992-2001) soil mounds
bring attention to the ecological potential of forgotten urban
and industrial spaces.
Fig. 2: Kathryn Miller, Seed Bombs, 1992.
Another example is Paolo Barrile’s Message Earth (1961-2003). Well aware of the
environmental art activities that had been going on in the United States, the Italian painter
abandoned his formal painting career in the ’60s to launch an ambitious, long-term series of
performances, installations and public interventions. His mission was to collect and redistribute soil
samples from all over the world as a symbolic gesture of environmental and social health. With the
help of hundreds of artists, schoolchildren, and friends, Barrile scattered fertile soils on urban
squares and brownfields, taking a passionate stance against soil sealing and environmental
degradation.
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1.3 Artistic Remediation and Regional Transformation
Some ecological art goes beyond recultivating degraded sites to using more complex techniques
of soil remediation. Mel Chin, for example, teamed up with agronomist Rufus Chaney in 1990 to
test out bioreactors at the Pig’s Eye Landfill in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Revival Fields consisted of a
circular fenced-in area of geometric plantings of control species and “hyperaccumulators.” These
are plants with unique abilities to take up contaminants such as heavy metals from the soil. After
several years of research and documentation, the unique phytoremediation (i.e., remediation
facilitated by plants) project generated interest for further collaboration, and was repeated in several
locations in Germany and the United States. As different targeted pollutants required different
treatments, new species were tested, bred and “installed” according to conditions of each location.
The artist, Georg Dietzler, has similarly confronted soil contamination issues by
instrumentalizing mycoremediation (i.e., remediation facilitated by fungi) as art. (Fig. 3) In works
such as Self-Decomposing Laboratory (1999) and Moveable Oyster Mushroom Patch (1996-1997),
Dietzler makes use of oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) to break down organic pollutants
such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). The oyster mushroom’s unique ability to split chemical
structures without absorbing toxins makes it an edible byproduct of waste management. Dietzler’s
work exposes the power and beauty of bioremediation in the filigree mycelium of prized gourmet
mushrooms.
Fig. 3: Georg Dietzler, Testing an Industrial Site - Völklinger Hütte, 1989.
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The reality of remediation is, however, often a complex and costly endeavor for artists as well
as environmental engineers and soil scientists. When entire regions are at stake, scientists and
artists must reach for solutions that are both ecologically and economically viable. For example, the
coal mining regions of the Ruhr Valley in Germany, or mid-Appalachia in the United States, offer
ample opportunity for experimental remediation projects. The scarred landscapes have attracted
both aesthetic and ameliorative approaches that unfold like a barren canvas, spread out over many
states on which to paint a new future.
One of the greatest post-mining success stories was initiated in 1994 in Vintondale,
Pennsylvania by historian T. Alan Comp, and a group of artists, scientists, planners and members of
the surrounding community. The success of AMD&ART lies in its interdisciplinary commitment to
nature. The group has fought abandoned mine drainage (AMD) with interdisciplinary art,
engineering and community activism. They have restored habitats and ecosystem health through
artfully designed passive water treatment systems. Initiated by the Carnegie Mellon Studio for
Creative Inquiry, the Nine Mile Run Greenway Project represents a similar effort to restore and
protect a watershed in nearby Pittsburg. The project has merged art and community involvement to
confront environmental issues such as soil sealing, storm water management, habitat depletion,
erosion and freshwater eutrophication.
2. Soil Art – Unearthing a Genre
It is not surprising that when we mention soil art, or talk about interdisciplinary collaborations
between artists and soil scientists, a frequent response is an immediate association with
“Earthworks.” While most of the early Land Art and Earthworks were mainly concerned with
various perceptions of space, artistic context, and historical meanings of landscape, soil art, in
contrast, deals with the geophysical materiality and biochemical processes of the earth. It addresses
the pluralistic roles and functions of soil as habitat, growth medium for plants, substrate for
architectural structures, archeological archives, as a diverse natural filtration system, and as the
basis of cultural identity. It explores the aesthetics of soil (see chapter on “The Aesthetics of Dirt”
in this volume) as a complex mineral and organic body, with infinite combinations of colors,
textures, formations and interpretive meanings. In light of the historical frameworks described
above, we define ”soil art” as art consciously and specifically about, in, or with soil as such or soil
conservation issues – created by artists, scientists, educators or collaborative efforts thereof.
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Furthermore, soil art comprises a wide range of artistic disciplines beyond painting and sculpture,
to include installation, performance, photography, video and cinema, animation, landscape
architecture, environmental remediation, and the Internet. As the field of soil science belongs to the
environmental sciences, we identify soil art as a subfield of environmental art.
In addition to the artists and groups mentioned above, we will highlight the following four
artists and their works as prominent examples in the advancement of soil art. These artists move
beyond environmental art audiences and symbolic uses of “earth,” to offer creative new insight on
soil classification, documentation, and evaluation methods. Following the artists’ profiles, we will
go on to share two reflections of our experience at the TU-Berlin as practical examples for
combining soil science and artistic practice. Partly supported by the German Soil Science Society
and the Berlin University of Technology, the Department of Soil Protection has been investigating
several approaches to “art-pedology” in recent years. Several student projects, field exercises and
thesis papers have been carried out since 2002. Many other successful examples of soil science and
art collaboration are documented on the soil arts website, www.soilarts.com (Toland and Wessolek
2006).
2.1 Marianne Greve – One Earth Altar
Upon entering the sun-drenched interior of the “One World Church,” the visitor’s gaze
immediately falls on the imposing One Earth Altar (Fig. 4a and 4b). Framed by tree-lined windows
in the back, the glass and metal structure merges the crucifix as symbolic framework with an
archive of earth-narratives. Hamburg-based environmental and conceptual artist, Marianne Greve,
was invited to create the altar as the centerpiece for the “One World Church,” which was erected in
Schneverdingen as part of the Expo 2000. Based on the artist’s earlier idea for an earth library, the
Altar is designed as a set of massive folding metal bookshelves in the shape of a triptych cross
behind a simple glass altar. The “earth books” that fill the shelves consist of soil samples collected
from all over the world, poured into Plexiglas cases with reference numbers etched on the beveled
bindings that sparkle in the afternoon sunlight. Seven years after its inauguration, the project
includes over 5,000 earth books on its shelves, with room for a total 7,000.
Soil is the basis of all life on the planet and rich with symbolic meaning that can be traced to
religions and cultures from the beginnings of human history. Marianne Greve (2001) describes the
idea behind the work: “Earth from many places on the globe lets us realize our common
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dependence on this thin layer of weather-beaten stone, from which life takes its nutrition and in
which it leaves its traces.... There are different worldviews but only one earth, which in its diversity
and in conjunction with special places always proved fascinating to all people.”
The One Earth Altar thus brings together people of all kinds, cultures and faiths, from every
corner of the earth, to truly fulfill its name and purpose. Each earth book is documented in a local
information terminal and on-line database (http://www.eine-erde-altar.net) according to origin,
donor, key word and shelf location. The reference numbers of each book are generated randomly,
so that the soil generously donated from Ambassadors and world leaders such as the Dalai Lama
may be located next to those of local families. Each book is filled with about a half liter of soil and
stones, and is accompanied by a reference sheet documenting geographic coordinates, locality and
donor’s name, geological, historical, political, spiritual, and emotional relevance, as well as soil
color, texture, age, and other physical properties. The artist encourages personal stories to be
delivered along with historical and geological information. Each soil sample carries a personal
legacy of historical and cultural remembrance - family weddings, births and deaths, individual and
collective milestones, memories and tragedies. As expansive and impressive as any collection of
soil samples in a scientific institution, the One Earth Altar captures the natural and cultural
diversity of the earth, offering real and virtual visitors alike a new perspective on experiencing and
archiving soils. Readers are welcomed to go on-line and explore the international soil collection, or
to donate their own personal sample to this unique soil classification project.
Fig. 4a and 4b: Marianne Greve, Eine Erde Altar, 2000.
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2.2 Daro Montag – Bioglyphs
Despite differences in established soil classification and mapping methods, soil profiles provide
a common groundwork for identifying, analyzing and documenting the thousands of soil types of
the earth. Soil profiles are for the most part similar in form – a simple vertical trench revealing the
various soil horizons from the topmost layer of leaf litter, to the humus-rich topsoil and weathered
subsoils, to the underlying parent material (a typical “A-B-C” profile). Similar to the binomial
nomenclature (categorization of genus and species) of all living organisms, soil types may also be
determined based on particular diagnostic characteristics such as horizon sequencing, color and
aggregation. Accompanying standardized field analyses, soil profiles are often preserved for
educational purposes with photographs, digital models, soil monoliths, and so-called lacquer profile
“peels,” a method invented by Ehrhard Voigt in 1930 and further developed by Prof. Reinhold Tüxen,
in which a mirror image of the profile wall is preserved onto a cloth or board with multiple
applications of an adhesive mixture.
Artist Daro Montag has developed a technique of profile preservation with film that transcends
established soil documentation procedures. Montag’s method exposes the essence of the
pedogenetic microcosm in a biologically determined, artistic soil taxonomy. Rather than
photographing the soil, Montag allows soil microorganisms to eat away, and in a sense develop
exposed film buried vertically in the earth. Photographer Paul Kilsby (2001, p. 4) describes this as a
process of creating “not images after nature but traces of nature – bioglyphs” (Fig. 5). As
nematodes and a host of other soil organisms nibble their way along the gelatin-enriched surface of
the film, swirling organic patterns of cyan, magenta and yellow are left in the infinitesimal wake of
their sightless journeys. Montag’s Bioglyphs portray decay as fine art, shedding colorful new light
on the dark, unusual world of the detritivores (the diverse group of organisms that feed on
decomposing matter). In the words of the artist, bioglyphs are “composition by decomposition,”
where “everything is in the process of becoming something else” (Montag 2001, p. 8).
Montag’s use of film also encourages us to revisit Walter Benjamin’s discussion on aura and
authenticity in the developing process. In his essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction,” cultural critic, Walter Benjamin (1936), describes the challenges photography and
film present to traditional practices and interpretations of art. The reproducible nature of film
complicates the “aura” of works of art, in their authenticity, creation, ownership and presentation,
as the “original work” is no longer distinguishable from its copies. Montag seems to rekindle this
discussion by inventing a new technique for “developing” film. Rejecting film as a merely
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replicative media, Montag rather uses film to set the stage for tiny miraculous performances of
microbial activity. The originality and thus “aura” of the work lies in the method rather than an
intended result. And in this case, the final product is not only dependent on the artist’s ingenuity,
but also on various biological processes in a given soil ecosystem. While the resulting “bioglyph”
may be reproduced in print form, the phenomenological capturing of the image preserves both the
aura of the medium as well as the unfolding of pedogenetic events. Montag’s unusual use of film
thus “does not portray objects or entities – it discloses events. It is not concerned with classification
but with revelation” (Montag 2001, p. 8).
Soil is also to be seen here as Prima Materia, the primitive formless base of all matter (Montag
2007). It is a continuous cycling of mineral nutrients and biotic activity, an enigmatic universe that
cannot be captured in a single photograph, monolith, lacquer peel or scientific field survey.
Montag’s unconventional soil profiles, or bioglyphs, are a collaborative art with microorganisms - a
creative, cross-species experiment that compliments and challenges accepted concepts of soil
documentation and classification as well as traditional photography.
Fig. 5: Daro Montag, Bioglyph: Radiance II, 1994.
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2.3 Betty Beier – Erdschollen Archive (Earth Print Archive)
Urban soils do not merely provide sites for new construction and infrastructure, but also
determine the quality of human health, local climate, water supply, safe waste storage, plant and
animal habitats, and in some developing countries, even provide the source of nutrition and food
production for the urban population. Soil is the fundamental substrate common to all terrestrial
locations – natural or humanly altered. The shift in focus of environmental art from remote and
rural locations to urban centers may be compared with the relatively recent increase in urban
ecological research. For example, the SUITMA (soils of urban, industrial, traffic, mining and
military areas) working group, initiated in 2000 by Prof. Wolfgang Burkhardt and others, examines
not only the impacts of contamination but also the ecological potentials of anthropogenic soils.
Despite SUITMA’s progress, the classification and documentation of urban and industrial soils
remains a major task. Although technosols (soils unnaturally brought to the surface, created, or
substantially modified as part of an industrial or manufacturing process) have been just recently
recognized in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (Spaargaren 2005), the scope,
heterogeneity and rapid growth of this urban soil group presents a significant need for future
research.
In another soil-archiving project, artist Betty Beier has spent over ten years documenting
technosols around the world. Concerned with the rising yearly loss of soil due to urban and
industrial development, Beier explores the loss of landscape in the series Erdschollen Archive
(Earth Print Archive). Although it is estimated that over 130 hectares of land are lost each year in
Germany alone due to building and transportation projects, the German Federal Soil Protection Act
(BBodSchG) does not even recognize soil sealing as an environmental impact (Wessolek 2008).
Beier’s Erdschollen Archive documents the vanishing surfaces of her own country and beyond as
“landscape” is transformed into urban and industrial sites via soil sealing.
Using a method similar to Voigt’s lacquer peel technique, described above, Beier’s Erdschollen
are neither paintings in a traditional sense, nor lacquer profiles, but something in between. Rather
than digging a vertical trench to reveal the hidden composition of humanly created soil horizons,
Beier makes earth casts with plaster molds and acrylic resins in square meter aluminum frames laid
out horizontally on the surface. Reminiscent of Mark Dion’s A Yard of Jungle (1992), in which the
artist relocated one square yard of rainforest to the Museo de Arte Moderna during the Rio Earth
Summit in 1992, Beier similarly extracts square meter samples of soil from various cultural and
industrial landscapes. Here, as in Dion’s Yard of Jungle, the square meter as artistic framing
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mechanism is used as an instrument of dislocation and a critical measurement of land use.
Working in such diverse places as the Xiaolangdi Dam in China, the Kárahnjúkar power plant
in the Islandic highlands, and urban and mining areas in Germany, Beier’s work explores rugged
and degraded anthropogenic soils and the histories held within them. The growing archive of over
60 Erdschollen, is also accompanied by soil samples, photographs, and drawings of each site, as
well as notes about the natural history, culture and politics of the regions. Art historian, Jörg
Katerndahl (2006, p. 5) writes: “By analyzing the surface, (Beier’s) work always reveals something
from the underneath, the technical aspirations, the political background and the fates of the people
affected.”
Tire tracks, windblown footprints, trickles of surface runoff, and even the reflections cast in
murky puddles are all frozen as moments in time. (Fig. 6) Excavated and abstracted from the
landscape, the Erdschollen appear as memoirs of a vanishing resource – landscape sealed in
symbolism and acrylic rather than asphalt. Beier’s technolsolic portraits capture the rapidly
changing face of the earth and challenge viewers to retrace the steps of industrial development, land
allocation, and the importance and impermanence of site. In this sense, Beier develops Robert
Smithson’s earlier concept of “non-sites,” by abstracting and isolating elements taken from the
landscape and then using artistic methods to archive contemporary land use.
The
Erdschollen Archive and
accompanying materials are
documented on the website
www.erdschollenarchiv.de
Fig. 6: Betty Beier, Erdscholle
Ministergarten 100 x 100 x 7cm, 1997.
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3.4 John Sturgeon – The “More Moor” Performances
Natural peats and bog soils are a result of organic matter accumulation under anaerobic
conditions. The organic soil layers reveal the former conditions of plant communities and climate
changes over relatively recent geological time. Organic soils were formerly a sink for nutrients,
humic substances, and water until humans started using these soils for food and fuel production
about 250 years ago. The fate of these wetlands and their organic soils has become a major
environmental concern. Having been drained for agricultural production, their role in the landscape
changed from a sink to a source of CO2 and N2O. To successfully restore and conserve peat and bog
soils, it is important to protect their natural soil water and nutrient regimes. This becomes more and
more difficult in a state of rapid global climate change.
One special quality of organic soils is that they are spongy and seem to float over the underlying
groundwater, which can easily be tested by jogging across the surface. In fact, to truly experience
the resilience of ten thousand years of accumulated organic matter, one must jump up and down in
a bog. This is how we introduce students to the drained landscapes of Brandenburg. And this is
exactly what John Sturgeon did as a segue to other performances and installations at the “More
Moor” Symposium in 1992 in the nature conservation area of "Holler and Wittemoor," near
Oldenburg, Germany. Sturgeon’s Falling Moor performance may be seen as a response to Joseph
Beuys’ Bog Action (Eine Aktion im Moor) of 1971, in which the artist ran, bathed and swam
through a bog in southern Holland. Sturgeon similarly threw himself from different heights and
positions into and onto multiple sites in the Wittemoor—a literal “getting to know you” phase
between artist and bog. In another subtle reference to Beuys, this time reminiscent of the Earth
Telephone (1968), Sturgeon, with both feet buried and temples wired to the landscape, seems to
exchange messages with the earth in his performance piece Moor Battery.
Acclaimed digital media artist John Sturgeon is perhaps an unlikely protagonist of soil art. Yet
his memorable multi-media performance and video works at the “More Moor” International
Festival of performance, installation & site specific work provide inspiring new ways of looking at
endangered wetland soils. In addition to Falling Moor, and Moor Battery, Sturgeon performed
Fishing Moor with German performance artist Insa Winkler. The two artists dressed as anglers and
traversed the conservation area with video-camera topped fishing poles. The resulting video
portrayed various perspectives of the wetland ecosystem and the interactions of the performers.
The tone of Sturgeon’s work becomes more serious in Narkose. (Fig. 7) This work touches on
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death as an inevitable aspect of soil. Here, Sturgeon appears buried horizontally “at a geological
depth of about 2,000 years.” (Sturgeon 1992). Accompanying the somber performance is a video
loop on a monitor near the artist’s head that flashes with images of environmental destruction cut
with battle scenes from the Gulf War of 1991. As quickly as human life is obliterated, so are entire
ecosystems. The motives may vary, but the irreversible effects carry a similar, unbearable weight.
Additionally, an audio track of a text Sturgeon wrote emerges from small speakers in the ground.
Dark echoes emanate from the depths of forgotten time and space as poetry to and from the earth.
The foreboding content of the images and sounds, and the temporal nature of the digital media that
convey them, create a melancholic, even threatening tension in the work. Narkose begs the question
in dire metaphors – is this the fate of the earth, or a merely a passing phase of transformation?
Fig. 7: John Sturgeon, Narkose, performance at Symposium Moor 1992.
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3.5 Soil and Sculpture – Students Retrace the History of Former Sewage Fields
Located on the northern periphery of Berlin, the Rieselfelder, or former wastewater disposal
fields, are the site of acres of anthropogenic soils with a fascinating natural and cultural history.
From 1890 to 1985, untreated sewage wastewater was applied to about 1,400 hectares of
agricultural land outside the city. The disposal of more than 10,000 mm of wastewater in the 1970s
rendered agricultural use no longer possible. Upon construction of the purification plant
“Schönerlinde,” intensive wastewater application finally came to a close in 1986. In 1987, in honor
of the city of Berlin’s 750th anniversary, the GDR attempted to reforest the site as a remediation
effort. Unfortunately, this measure had virtually no effect on the site. Most of the trees died, mainly
due to seasonal water shortage, nutrient deficiency, and heavy metal contamination. A complete
change in soil moisture conditions, from very wet under the constant wastewater infiltration, to
relatively dry, with only natural precipitation (ca. 570mm a year), caused the soil to become water
repellent (Täumer et al. 2006), and a rapid turnover process of organic matter occurred, which
induced increased leaching of heavy metals and nitrates (Hoffmann 2002). To protect the
groundwater and reactivate weakened soil functions, a remediation program financed by the
European Commission and the city of Berlin was initiated in 1997 under the leadership of the
Department of Soil Protection of the Berlin University of Technology (TU-Berlin). For the longterm immobilization of heavy metals and improvement of soil fertility, 30 cm of calcareous lime
excavated from a nearby tunnel construction project were applied to the surface and mixed with the
contaminated soil up to 90 cm soil depth. As a result, a reforestation program was successfully
carried out, and some locations are now used for an artificial groundwater recharge program for
pre-purified water of the Schönerlinde facility.
Based on this complex history, TU-Berlin students developed artistic proposals to capture the
history of the wastewater disposal fields and make the change of soil properties visible to the
public. Inspired by the minimalist forms of the early Earthworks, landscape architecture student,
Hardy Buhl, erected a giant soil ”cake” in 2006 (Fig. 8). The 20 m diameter cake was divided by
three intersecting mulch pathways, culminating in the center with a granite boulder, left behind by
the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. Several trenches were excavated in the area and the soil
profile horizons were horizontally arranged in concentric circles. The uppermost layer of couch
grass (Elytrigia repens) sod was placed at the outer perimeter, with deeper, subsoil materials
towards the centre. In juxtaposition to the ancient rock at the center, the cake's striped slices
revealed the stark anthropogenic signature of the former sewage-dumping site. Every other slice,
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however, was laid out with lime-enriched soil from remediated areas elsewhere on the site,
exposing both the destructive and ameliorative effects of human activity on the soil.
Today, the topography of the site shows little evidence of its former use to the untrained eye.
Grassy meadows dotted with willows and poplars border hedge-lined dirt pathways leading up to a
little lake on the eastern edge of the site. Managed by the Forestry Department of Berlin-Buch, the
2000-hectare large Rieselfelder are now used as a public park. Installed amidst the site's extensive
outdoor sculpture park, the soil cake was both an artistic addition as well as an informative tribute
to the Rieselfeld's hidden history. Sensitive to the surrounding ecology of the site, the work was
allowed to be reclaimed by vegetation over the course of time and is now no longer visible, except
for the top of the granite boulder that peeks out from a sea of couch grass.
Figure 8: Hardy Buhl and Project Group “Bodenkunst auf Brachflächen” Soil Cake Installation at the Rieselfeld Sculpture Park,
Berlin-Buch.
17
3.6 Soil and Painting – A Springboard for Other Forms of Soil Art
Since the Upper Paleolithic time, humans have used soil-based pigments to adorn cultural
artifacts, dwellings and their own bodies. “Earth paintings” also represent a by-product of the Land
Art movement, including some lesser-known works of artists such as Richard Long, Robert
Rauschenberg, and Alan Sonfist.
After an introduction to Land and Environmental Art, the TU Department for Soil Protection
took the classroom outside. In the heat of the summer months, when the conditions for making
lacquer profiles were just right, a series of creative field exercises was carried out in an overgrown
urban lot near the TU campus (Fig. 9). Landscape planning- and environmental engineeringstudents, research fellows, technicians, and visiting scientists were invited to paint their impressions
of the site with materials found on or buried in the soil. As participants scurried about collecting
samples from different soil profiles, a discussion on urban soils, water and nutrient transport and
surface sealing ensued. While waiting for
the canvasses to dry, the site itself revealed
its complex cultural and natural history.
Everyone looked for clues that could be
integrated into the artwork. There was an
analysis of crumbling remnants of old
building materials, the recycling of
colorful, weather-beaten trash, the
excitement of hitting ground water at the
deepest point of the site, and the discovery
of hidden fox holes beneath the new shoots
of wild locust trees. Though the previous
knowledge and experience of making art
differed greatly among the participants,
everyone was able to piece together their
own unique interpretation of the site with
paintbrush, stretched canvas, and soil.
Figure 9: Collective artwork of students and staff from the
Dept. of Soil Protection, June 2006.
18
While the active participation in the experiment was a great success, the lasting effect of such
activities remains unclear. Stephen Wilson warns of the specialized blinders often donned by many
in scientific fields: “Many scientific and technological researchers define the arts as alien
territory… If they are personally interested, they hold stereotypical views of the arts that stops with
classical museum and gallery forms such as painting and sculpture” (Wilson 2002a, p. 876). Such a
warning is not without reason. Despite the collaborative efforts mentioned earlier, many scientists
still view art as something decorative – to be hung on a wall or placed on a pedestal. Two important
lessons may be learned, however, from the gritty brushstrokes of our artistic field exercises at the
TU-Berlin:
1. Despite their stereotypical identity for the arts, painting and sculpture offer “easy access” to
interdisciplinary educational models of combining soil science and art. To mould a figurative form
out of a chunk of clay or to sprinkle medium-grained sand onto a canvas represents a creative, even
cathartic, hands-on introduction to soil science and soil art. Artistic activities loosen institutional
textbook soil science lectures to allow for other forms of knowing and experiencing soil.
2. Painting and sculpture with soil can be a springboard for other forms of artistic experimentation
and collaborative research. While they represent an opportunity for combining different fields of
interest, the experiment can still be developed further.
3. Interdisciplinary Opportunity and Challenge
In a beautiful a play on words, cultural researcher, Hildegard Kurt (2003, p. 5) compares
science, (Wissenschaft), or literally “the making of knowledge” to art as “Wissensform”, literally
“the form of knowledge”. Both are equal and necessary counterparts that, when used together,
contribute to a holistic experience of understanding and appreciation. In a similar sense, Stephen
Wilson (2002b) asserts that both art and science are carried out as cultural acts. Wilson (2002b, p.
18) compares the parallel roles of contemporary artistic and scientific practice:
“Both value the careful observation of their environments to gather information through the senses. Both value
creativity. Both propose to introduce change, innovation, or improvement over what exists. Both use abstract
models to understand the world. Both aspire to create works that have universal relevance.”
In an age of growing common interests and a collective sense of environmental responsibility,
practitioners from both fields have become increasingly curious about the methods and research
areas of the other. In addition to learning about various artistic activities with and about soils, we
19
were also curious to find out how soil scientists felt about the field of soil art. At the German Soil
Science Society’s annual conference in 2007, we distributed a survey on soil science, aesthetics and
art at a session on soil science, society and education. We asked members to share their opinions
about the importance of this unusual aspect of soil science, and about their potential willingness to
get involved. While 64% regarded the interdisciplinary direction of “soil art” as important, 85%
answered that they would be personally interested in cooperating with an artist. These results
suggest good potential for future soil science and art collaborations. But how?
Stephen Wilson’s book, Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology,
provides hundreds of examples of how artists have used and developed scientific research in their
works, from fields such as atomic physics, robotics, microbiology and genetics. Conversely, we
should ask how artists might be integrated into research projects – and more specifically, soil
science research projects - not only with the goal of generating greater public understanding or
promoting cultural values, but also by contributing their own creativity to finding solutions to
problems such as e.g. soil erosion, contamination, or degradation. How can the field of soil science
more openly incorporate aesthetic and artistic values that resonate with art audiences or a wider
public? How can artists be paired with scientists in productive research partnerships? How can such
pooling of creativity be further fostered in academic settings to influence conservation strategies?
To address these questions, it is worth mentioning a few organizations that document and
support “best practice” examples of interdisciplinary projects. The following groups could inspire
future collaboration between scientists and artists specializing in soils: the Leonardo and
International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST), greenmuseum.org online
network for environmental arts, the Art and Science Collaborations Inc. (ASCI), the RSA Arts and
Ecology Program, the Carnegie Mellon University Studio for Creative Inquiry, and the MIT Center
for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS). The following museums may also offer exciting new
opportunities for soil science and art collaborations: the Underworld Exhibition in Osnabrück,
Germany (Unterwelten Ausstellung des Natur und Umweltmuseums am Schölerberg), the ISRIC
World Soil Museum in Wageningen, NL, the Underground Adventure at the Field Museum of
Chicago, the Dig It! The Secrets of the Soil exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of
Natural History in Washington D.C., and the Dokuchaev Central Soil Museum in St. Petersburg,
Russia.
Interdisciplinary projects, such as some of those mentioned in this paper, and promoted by the
organizations above, are unique in that they are either initiated by or include artists in solving local
20
and regional environmental problems. The artistic element of involvement need not always result in
an object or exhibition, but can rather be seen as a creative phase of guidance in restoration and
conservation efforts. Verging on an “Is it Art?” aesthetic, the trend towards creative collaboration
promises some interesting solutions to difficult environmental dilemmas, but also calls for a
progressive cultural context that can support the new environmental avant-garde. Wilson (2002c, p.
131) warns of the inevitable challenges of interdisciplinary environmental and ecological art:
Some analysts object that it is difficult to distinguish ecological art projects from political or scientific
interventions. As art moves increasingly into actions in real-life settings with multiple non-art actors, the
differentiation becomes difficult. How are these projects any different than if they were initiated by a political
or scientific group? Other analysts suggest that definitions are changing and that new kinds of public art are
emerging that do not resemble old forms. An even more radical suggestion is that the distinction between art
and non-art is no longer visible.
In a Neo-Renaissance reconciliation of art and science, we must constantly examine what
distinctions and parallels can be made between an ever converging critical art-world and a
culturally literate scientific community. This is necessary for any attempt to combine soil science
and art. Both fields must inform themselves of the other’s developments if they are to take part in a
constructive dialogue. Both must guide each other in achieving common goals of environmental
change. Conscious cross-referencing and frequent communication is needed. This is not a
theoretical observation, but a call for action. Professional artists should be invited more often to
conferences, into laboratories, and to participate in engineering and agricultural experiments, while
scientists might offer their expertise at environmental art symposiums, exhibitions and seminars.
Creativity goes both ways. It must only be recognized and cultivated in settings that are home to
both the arts and the sciences.
21
References
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Environmental Art, New York: E.P.Dutton, Inc., 92-103.
BENJAMIN W (1936) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In: Benjamin, ILLUMINATIONS: Essays
and Reflections, (ed.) Hannah Arendt, New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968 / and Schocken Books, NY, 1969.
CARLSON A (2002) Is environmental art an aesthetic affront to nature? In: Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment – The
Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture. Abingdon and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2007, 150-163.
GREVE M (2001) Der Eine Erde Altar (One Earth Altar). Markus Kirchengemeinde Schneverdingen zur EXPO2000, Eine
Welt Kirche – Eine Erde Altar. Greve, Marianne: http://www.eine-erde-altar.net/ Cited 11 October 2008.
HOFFMANN C (2002) Schwermetallmobilität und Risikopotenziale der Rieselfeldböden Berlin Buch. Dissertation at the
Technical University Berlin, published in: Bodenökologie und Bodengenese, Heft 35, 226 pp.
KATERNDAHL J. (2006) Documents of rapid change – Betty Beier’s Earth Prints Archive – (Erdschollen-Archiv) – as a
contribution to the art of preserving traces of our time. In: Beier, Working on the Earth Prints Archive - The Kárahnjúkar
Dam Project. Exhibition documentation materials, Copyright Betty Beier.
KILSBY P (2001) Bioglyph: Infra et ultra. In: Montag, Bioglyphs. Cross Farm, Diptford, Totnes, DevonFesterman Press,
2001, 3-7.
KURT H (2003) Introduction in: Agenda Transfer, Die Kunst der Zukunftsfähigkeit - Ansätze, Beispiele, Hintergründe,
Erfahrungen Hg. v. Agenda Transfer, Bundesweite Servicestelle Lokale Agenda 21 , zusammengestellt von Hildegard Kurt,
82 Seiten, Bonn, 2003: Eigenverlag, ISSN 1439-1856.
MATILSKY B (1992) Ecological Art: A Response to Environmental Issues. In: Matilsky, Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary
Artists’ Interpretations and Solutions. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 56-60.
MONTAG D (2001) Artist’s Statement. In: Montag, Bioglyphs. Cross Farm, Diptford, Totnes, and Devon: Festerman Press,
2001, p8. (originally published in Sci-Art catalogue, 1998).
MONTAG D (2007) Thinking Soil. In: Montag, This Earth. Cross Farm, Diptford, Totnes, and Devon: Festerman Press. 1-55.
ISBN 978-0-9544187-4-8.
SPAARGAREN O (2005) Anthrosols and Technosols. Definition for the ISRIC –World Soil Information, Wageningen, The
Netherlands.
STURGEON J (1992) Performance Documentation of Narkose, performed at the Symposium Moor 1992, an international
festival of performance & site specific work on the Wittemoor.
TÄUMER K, STOFFREGEN H, WESSOLEK G (2006) Seasonal dynamics of preferential flow in a water repellent soil. Vadose
Zone Journal, special issue: “Scale transfers in the unsaturated zone”, 5, 406-411.
WESSOLEK G (2008) Sealing of Soils. In: Alberti et al. (eds.) Urban Ecology. Springer US, 161-179.
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Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Leonardo Series, 18-20.
WILSON S (2002c) Ecological Art: Questions Raised by Artistic Interest in Ecology. In: Wilson, Information Arts:
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22
Figures
Title Image: Gerd Wessolek, Soil Alphabet, 2007. Seattle Washington Soil Art Exercise
Figure 1: Joseph Beuys, Earth Telephone, 1968. Reproduced here by permission of the Artists Rights Society (ARS)
Figure 2: Kathryn Miller, Seed Bombs, 1992. Santa Barbara, California. Hand-packed soil and seeds of native plants.
Reproduced here by permission of the artist
Figure 3: Georg Dietzler, Testing an Industrial Site - Völklinger Hütte, 1989. Rauma, Finland. Straw bale, wood
construction, clay plaster, PCB contaminated soil, oyster-mushroom cultures, moisture control unit, 5x5x4 feet.
Reproduced here by permission of the artist
Figure 4a and 4b: Marianne Greve, Eine Erde Altar, 2000. steel frame, etched acrylic book sleeves, soil samples; Photo: A.
Toland Reproduced here by the author and (verbal) permission of the artist
Figure 5: Daro Montag, Bioglyph: Radiance II, 1994. Ilfochrome print from 35mm slide.
Reproduced here by permission of the artist
Figure 6: Betty Beier, Erdscholle (Earth print) Ministergarten 100 x 100 x 7cm, 1997. Photo B. Seeland
Reproduced here by permission of the artist
Figure 7: John Sturgeon, Narkose, performance at Symposium Moor 1992. Photo: Insa Winkler
Reproduced here by permission of the artist
Figure 8: Hardy Buhl and Project Group “Bodenkunst auf Brachflächen” Soil Cake Installation at the Rieselfeld Sculpture
Park, Berlin-Buch. Photo: Hardy Buhl, 2006. Reproduced here by permission of the TU-Berlin, Dept. Of Soil Protection
Figure 9: Collective artwork of students and staff from the Dept. of Soil Protection, June 2006. Photo: Gerd Wessolek
Reproduced here by permission of the author
Additional information on artists and organizations mentioned may be found online:
Artists:
Barrile, Paolo: http://www.paolobarrile.it
Beier, Betty: http://www.erdschollenarchiv.de/
Beuys, Joseph: http://www.beuys.org/
Chin, Mel: http://www.haussite.net/site.html
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/
De Maria, Walter, New York Earth Room: http://www.earthroom.org/
Dietzler, Georg (in greenmuseum archive): http://greenmuseum.org/artist_index.php?artist_id=33
Dion, Mark (in pbs art21 archives): http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/dion/index.html
Greve, Marianne: http://www.eine-erde-altar.net/
Haacke, Hans (in artnet archive): http://www.artnet.com/artist/674342/hans-haacke.html
Harrison, Newton and Helen Mayer: http://www.theharrisonstudio.net/endangered_meadows.html
Heizer, Michael: http://www.diacenter.org, and http://doublenegative.tarasen.net/
Long, Richard: http://www.richardlong.org/
Mendieta, Ana (in Guggenheim Online): http://www.guggenheim.org/artscurriculum/lessons/movpics_mendieta.php
Miller, Kathryn (in greenmuseum archive): http://greenmuseum.org/artist_index.php?artist_id=3
23
Montag, Daro: http://www.purdyhicks.com/dm_images_1.htm
Morris, Robert: http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_115.html
Oppenheim, Dennis: http://www.dennis-oppenheim.com/
Simonds, Charles (in Walker Art Center Resources): http://collections.walkerart.org/item/agent/509
Smithson, Robert: http://www.robertsmithson.com
Sonfist, Alan: http://www.alansonfist.com
Sturgeon, John: http://www.umbc.edu/sturgeon/
Organisations:
AMD&ART: http://www.amdandart.info
Art and Science Collaborations Inc. (ASCI): http://www.asci.org/
Carnegie Mellon University Studio for Creative Inquiry: http://www.cmu.edu/studio/index.html
Dig It! The Secrets of the Soil Exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: http://forces.si.edu/soils/
Dokuchaev Central Soil Museum in St. Petersburg: http://www.soilmuseum.narod.ru/english/index_en.htm
Greenmuseum.org network for environmental arts: http://www.greenmuseum.org/
ISRIC World Soil Museum in Wageningen, NL: http://www.isric.org/UK/About+Soils/World+Soil+Museum/
Leonardo and International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST): http://www.leonardo.info/
MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS): http://cavs.mit.edu/
Nine Mile Run Watershed Association: http://www.ninemilerun.org/
RSA Arts and Ecology Programme: http://www.thersa.org/arts/
Soil and Art Online Platform of the TU-Berlin Dept. of Soil Protection: www.soilarts.com
Underground Adventure at the Field Museum of Chicago: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/undergroundadventure/index.shtml
Underworld Exhibition in Osnabrück, Germany (Unterwelten Ausstellung des Natur und Umweltmuseums am
Schölerberg): www.osnabrueck.de/unterwelten/21037.htm
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