Studio // Networks and Infrastructure Sandra Froese
EVLU 3008 // Environmental Design Program // University of Manitoba // Landscape and Urbanism // Winter term // 2016 Prof. Dr. Karen Wilson Baptist // TA. Michelle Tustin
Title Page: Oil Texture Ink on mylar, 24 x 36 in
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EVLU 3008 // Environmental Design Program // University of Manitoba // Landscape and Urbanism // Winter term // 2016 Prof. Dr. Karen Wilson Baptist // TA. Michelle Tustin
“All perceiving is also thinking, all reasoning is also intuition, all observation is also invention.” Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye // 2004
“I do not believe that any man can adequately appreciate the world of today unless he has some knowledge of - a little more than a slight knowledge, some feeling for and of - the history of the world of the past.” Theodore Roosevelt
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gar•den formal representation of nature form of garden can have meaning symbolic meaning function or underlying idea ‘mirror of the soul’ a record of the uniqueness of a culture in time and place provides an opportunity for individual creativity and personal expression symbol of emergence : shared power traditional sense : oases an extreme control of details : a caring upkeep a place of seasons landscape geometries
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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION a geography of gas
6-7
SEQUENCE 1 THROUGHLINES to live is to leave traces
8-13
SEQUENCE 2 SONGLINES the light has gone out of my life
14-19
SEQUENCE 3 TOPOGRAMS the palimpsest landscape
20-23
SEQUENCE 4 PORTRAITS the enclosed gar•den
24-35
REFERENCES
36-37
A critical exploration of analytical, conceptual, and developmental aspects of design of the public realm in an experimental studio setting. Social, political, economic, communication, and ecological networks will be studied. // studio brief 5
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INTRODUCTION
a geography of gas The Bakken Formation is located between Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana and North Dakota. The development of hydro-fracking technology is plunging the region into a new era of boom and prosperity. The networks and infrastructure of petro-regionalism are vast and have implications both with in and beyond the Bakken. The cities and small towns of the Bakken barely cope with transportation infrastructure dense with oil tankers and trucks carrying large peices of industrial equipment. This land has been divided and conqured by well pads, pipelines, transfer stations, mancamps, and the night skies blaze with flares from the burning of natural gas. All for the natural resource of oil. No individual stratum, no single tracing that composes, collectively, the palimpsest of the Great Plains is without sin. // studio brief
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SEQUENCE 1
THROUGHLINES
to live is to leave traces Duration : 3 weeks Throughlines involve the mapping of a network or infrastructure element relevant to fracking in the Bakken region. The selected element will pertain to the geomorphic, socio/cultural, economic, political, communication, technological and/or ecological characteristics of the region. An investigation into the regional traits that define the people, the landscape, and the industrial features of our petro-region. // studio brief Representational medium : mapping, graphs, text, data, photographs, hand drawing
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Fossil Fuels The gingko adiantoides fossil, found in North Dakota, is evidence of deep historic traces of life in the Bakken formation. It refers to the process of fossilization and the transformation of plant material into a natural resource over time. Areas of native prairie grasslands contain exponential amounts of oil beneath the earth’s surface. Hydraulic Fracturing is extracting these volumes of fossil fuels disrupting the regional and local geomorphology.
Gingko Adiantoides
Above: Gingko Adiantoides Edited photograph, 4 x 4 in http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/26471-show-us-your-ginkgoopsida/
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Lower Sentinel Butte Formation
Hilly Butte Formation
Till Cliff
Traces of Geomorphic Processes
l ac ie r
sin Wiscon
10
G
i de
nt
La
CONTINENTAL. The geomorphology of the Bakken and its origination is researched with the networks of the linear geologic time scale, and the transition between the pleistocene and holocene periods where climate change affected large regions of the continent. A drastic decrease in temperature 12,900 to 11,700 years ago (BP), also known as Younger Dryas, occured causing the Wisconsin glacier and the Laurentide ice sheet to retreat over the northern hemisphere. .
e ur
eet Sh e Ic
Boulder-covered surface of the Missouri Escarpment
Prairie Potholes
Esker
Coteau Slope - Rolling Hills
REGIONAL. Specific landforms were created during the life of the Wisconsin Glacier. The melting stages and erosion periods placed vernacular descriptions to each formation within the Bakken region. Left:Wisconsin Glacier Acrylic on opax, 24 x 36 in Above: Regional Landform Vignettes Ink on mylar, 1 1/2 x 3 in
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Re
tre
sin Glaciar Wiscon ide Ice Sheet t Lauren
Temperature (δ18O) -31
at
sta
ge
s
North Dakota The Bakken Region
-33
-35
1:1
Gingko Adiantoides
-37
II REGIONAL Geomorphology created from the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
-39
“TO LIVE IS TO LEAVE TRACES” Benjamin Walter
Younger Dryas A sharp decline in temperature, 12,900 to 11,700 years ago (BP), resulted in major retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
Sandra Froese
EVLU 3008
Winter 2016
Hilly Butte Formation
Boulder-covered surface of the Missouri Escarpment
Till Cliff
Prairie Potholes
Esker
Environmental Design
Faculty of Architecture
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
-43 10000
480 000m
Holocene
240 000
Lower Sentinel Butte Formation
12000
120 000
Years BP 16000
0
-41
Pleistocene
Wisconsin Glacier retreat over North America.
14000
I CONTINENTAL
Coteau Slope - R
Reached 2-3 km thick
reat
G The
oom
Oil B
LOCAL. Fragmentation of human activities in the anthropocene era have manipulated earth’s surface from hydraulic fracturing. The processes of constructing and building roads and oil pads have stripped aways historic land features from the Wisconsian Glacier. The act of drilling itself has caused high concerns of environmental health and safety to the landscape as well as humans.
Rolling Hills
1:1
III LOCAL
Fracking well pads disrupting local geomorphology. 0
100
200
400m
Above: Finger Print Ink on Vellum
Drilling 2-3 km deep
Right: Throughlines, Final Board Mapping, graphs, photo collage, acrylic on opax, ink on vellum, ink on mylar, composite photo image printed on canvas, 24 x 36 in
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SEQUENCE 2
SONGLINES
the light has gone out of my life Duration : 3 weeks Songlines express a portrait of the relationship between people and the network and/or infrastructure described in sequence 1. The selected narrative characterizes spatial and experiential values. The experience is both emphasized and empathized. An intimate characterization of how people are affected by the dynamics of fracking. // studio brief Representational medium : collage
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“The light has gone out of my life” was written in the journal of Theodore Roosevelt the day his wife and mother died. This was the pivoting point of my research, what drove me to Roosevelt’s story and how his legacy is affected by fracking. Theodore Roosevelt was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. After the death of his wife and mother, Roosevelt was depressed and lost. He came to the badlands of North Dakota to find his place in the world, to find placeness in a vast cultural landscape. He did this by hunting and ranching. Through his time and close intimacy to the historic landscape he developed his conservation ethic. The ongoing care and interpretation of these conserved cultural sites improves our quality of life, and deepens a sense of place and identity for future generations. Above: Theodore Roosevelt Photograph [https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/ theodoreroosevelt] Left: North Dakota Badlands Image Transfer
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Fracking wells testing the limits of the national park revealing the distinct outline of the conserved area. The destruction of fracking is not only seen on the landscape but is revealed through American culture and the morals people hold to the land. PLAN Theodore Roosevelt National Park 0
16
2000
4000
8000m
SECTION sediment disturbance 0
1
2
4m
The dynamic drilling process takes minutes to destruct and fracture the earth’s sedimentary layers resulting in fragmented rock. The burnt coal figure standing on barren shale land represents detrimental harm to the geomorphology of the Bakken region. Left: Theodore Roosevelt National Park Watercolour on paper, 8 1/2 x 11 in Left: Sediment Disturbance Graphite on vellum, 11 x 17 in Left: Fracking Drill Head Graphite on vellum, 11 x 17 in
SECTION fracking drill head 0
10
20
40cm
Above: Coal Figure Collage, 5 x 6 in
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“This re so
urce is w
hat driv es my b
ody an
d fuels
my soul
”
When the demand for one resource clashes with the need for another, which values will rule the day? Vertical Drilling 0
1
2
4m
Fractured.
Landscapes. Historic. Fractured.
Culture.
AL
Fracturing Drill Head 0
10
20
Society. People.
40cm
AN D
Morals.
TO R
UE
NQ
CO
Fractured. Earth. Formations. Habitat. Fractured. Ancestry. Traditions. A culture embodies a World View.
D
AN
AL NQ
CO
INDIVIDUAL
EXPERIENTIAL
D
RE
UE
III SOCIAL
Feburary,
Thursday 14.
1884.
“The Light has gone out of my life.”
Theodore Roosevelt National Park 70 466.89 acres 0
Sandra Froese
EVLU 3008
Winter 2016
Environmental Design
Faculty of Architecture
2000
4000
8000m
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.” Edward Abbey
“We can’t in fact, destroy our habitat and one another without destroying ourselves.” Kathleen Dean Moore SOCIAL. The story of social morals changing/fractured along the temporal insertion time frame creates one of disconnect and destruction. From conservationalist movements introduced by Theodore Roosevelt to modern day industrialism involving hydraulic fracturing, our personal attachment to the landscape have been destroyed. Thus our cultural traditions have been manipulated over time.
Left: Songlines, Final Board Graphite on vellum, image transfer, watercolour, photo collage, composite photo image printed on canvas, 24 x 36 in
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SEQUENCE 3
TOPOGRAMS
the palimpsest landscape Duration : 3 weeks Topograms reveal descriptions distinct to regional geomorphic features, characteristics of flora and fauna, and the nuances of weather. Topograms are not only charming, historical remnants of the intimacy between people and place, they are vivid descriptors of the unique features that characterize ‘place’. Three spatial elements from the petro-region are annotated to describe the place experienced. // studio brief Representational medium : graphite
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Natural Landscape
Cultural Landscape
Technological Landscape
Above: Natural Landscape Above: Cultural Landscape Above: Technological Landscape Graphite on vellum, 24 x 36 in
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Elkhorn Ranch // built 1884-1885 Cultural Cottonwood tree
“My home ranch-house stands on the river brink. from the low long veranda, shaded by leafy cotton-woods, one looks across sandbars and shallows to a strip of meadowland, behind which rises a line of sheer cliffs, a grassy plateaus… gazing sleepily out at the weird-looking buttes opposite, until their sharp outlines grow indistinct and purple in the afterglow of the sunset.” Theodore Roosevelt
Oil Ranch // oil boom 2006-2016 Theodore Roosevelt Oil Field Technological derricks
It is now a land of chemical and noise pollution, and of plains that exsist no more.. in this land people live a depressed and sick lifestyle.
“It was a land of cast silent spaces, of lonely rivers, and of plains where the wild game stared at the passing horsemen... in that land we led a free and hardy lifestyle...” Theodore Roosevelt
Maltese Cross Ranch // owned 1883-1900 Natural petrified wood bison
Left: Topograms, Final Board Graphite on vellum, colored pencil on paper, 24 x 36 in 23
SEQUENCE 4
PORTRAITS
the enclosed garden Duration : 3.5 weeks The Portraits address the idea of design resolution: conceptual models of design alternatives/visions illustrating the implications of existing and/or altered networks and infrastructure elements particular to the region investigated. The four harmonized portraits become the expression and representation of the essential nature of the place. What does it mean to understand the nature of a place? What has the Bakken, its people, its landscapes, and the forces that have acted upon it throughout time come to mean for you? // studio brief Representational medium : montage
“Gardens are one of the oldest expressions of civilization� The Enclosed Garden Right: Lenses Digital trace
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LENSES OF THE ENCLOSED GARDEN ‘The Enclosed Garden’ by Rob Aben and Saskia de Wit describe the theoretical concept of the enclosed garden and the competition between constraint and freedom and the relevant binaries that come along with such a complex network with our place in the landscape and the values we hold as habitants of the land over time. A series of lenses is revealed in which different scales and traces provoke the environmental psychology consistent with rational and emotional views towards the pre-colonial and industrial landscape.
TELESCOPE
KALIEDOSCOPE
FIELD GLASS
MAGNIFYING GLASS
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TELESCOPE ‘The Enclosed Garden’ describes a garden as a telescope as “an opportunity to break free from earthly matters and turn to the reaches of the cosmos, where givens such as unity, void, and spatiality, ever scarcer commodities in an urbanizing landscape, are immutably present… in the garden we see not nature represented but natural processes, rain, snow, sunlight , dusk, the moon, the stars, processes over when we have no control. Only the form, the container of space, is given expression by the arrangement of the walls and the ground plane.” The lens of the telescope maps the terra incognita of the Hortus Conclusus through networks of natural and unnatural processes. Within the National Park / ’garden’ humans have no control over the natural processes [color images]. Comparative to the networks of infrastructure humans do have control over revealed through the constellations of roadways and oil wells enclosing the ‘garden’ [shaded drawings]. The vision explores a changing order. Right: Telescope Image transfer on vellum, graphite, digital montage, 12 x 12 in
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“The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom.� Theodore Roosevelt
in the garden. celestial body petrified wood wildlife sunrise sunset geomorphology sedimentary wildfire climatology weather erosion river stages
SECTION Geomorphology : Garden Feature 0
2000
4000
8000m
PLAN Theodore Roosevelt National Park : Garden 0
2000
4000
8000m
outside of the garden. constellation of roadways drilling derricks pump jacks burning methane well pads oil explosions climate change excess water water contamination
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KALEIDOSCOPE ‘The Enclosed Garden’ describes a garden as a kaleidoscope as a “fragment of reality capturing and reflecting a fantastic play of colours and shapes… a selection is made from nature to represent the complete arsenal. A suggestion of completeness is evoked by presenting the selected species in vast quantities - simplification and abundance in one. This abundance suggest a landscape of far greater dimensions than that of a garden and thus transcends the limits of the space. The containment is no longer created just by the walls but also by the density of the planted species.” The lens of the kaleidoscope combines the idea of sacred geometries with current research in environmental psychology involving natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, and informational environments, the colourful fractal reveals a time scale of a plant species at a 1:1 scale showing its years of life, but also a time scale of the particular landscape through its petrification. The state of being petrified reveals the extremes of the changing landscape in a natural process. The black and white mirror this same binary but of the industrial landscape. Right: Kaleidoscope Image transfer on vellum, digital photo montage, 12 x 12 in
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“We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so.� Theodore Roosevelt
petrified wood
cultural forest
Industrial forest
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FIELD GLASS ‘The Enclosed Garden’ describes a garden as field glass as “capturing expansive prospects which might lend coherence to an area… where enclosure and openness are placed in opposition. Because the horizon is visually brought into the garden… the illusion of the garden and the reality of the landscape are impossible to distinguish between. Landscape has become illusion.” The field glass lens dipicts the polarities of horizontal and vertical planes between the ‘enclosed garden’ [National Park] and the Industrial landscape. The drawing reveals the distinct change in geomorphology at ground plane and the encasing of pollution and disturbances below and above the horizon. Right: Field Glass Image transfer on vellum, graphite, digital montage,12 x 12 in
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“It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man.� Theodore Roosevelt
light and noise pollution
Enclosure
strata of history
Openness
present pipelines
water and soil pollution
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MAGNIFYING GLASS ‘The Enclosed Garden’ describes a garden as a magnifying glass as “activating dynamics, diversity and networks by showing a detail, and shutting out all other aspects… By putting frames round points where the urban dynamic is strongest components can be disentangled, magnified and thus particularized as parts of a complex totality… By being framed, a garden is loosed from its surroundings, so that the real image is replaced by an ideal image.” The lens of the magnifying glass reveals a seed of hope, a symbol to heal ourselves, the morals we hold true to ourselves as habitants dwelling in the Bakken region as well as our collective global garden [Earth]. The cottonwood tree is titled ‘the pioneer of the praire’ representing an optimistic future of colonization and community development for fauna, flora, and humans originating in the Bakken.
Right: Magnifying Glass Image transfer on vellum, graphite, montage, 12 x 12 in
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“We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.” Theodore Roosevelt cultural community symbolism of hope cottonwood seed
cottonwood tree “the pioneer of the prairie”
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“Leave it as it is... the ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.� Theodore Roosevelt
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References Accessed January 27, 2016. https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?useExisting=1. Accessed January 24, 2016. https://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/hydraulic_fracturing_101#.VrDmd8ftLzI. Aben, Rob, and Saskia de Wit. The Enclosed Garden: History and Development of the Hortus Conclusus and Its Reintroduction into the Present-Day Urban Landscape. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1999. “Adventures in Energy.” Adventures in Energy. Accessed January 20, 2016. http://www.adventuresinenergy.org/Exploration-and-Production/ index.html. “Bakken Shale.” What Is Fracking?. Accessed January 20, 2016. http://www.what-is-fracking.com/bakken-shale/. Brorby, Taylor, and Stefanie Brook Trout. Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America. North Liberty, Iowa: Ice Cube Press, LLC, 2016. “Drilling Water Wells a Tactic to Block Fracking.” StateImpact Pennsylvania. Accessed January 29, 2016. https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/10/14/drilling-water-wells-a-tactic-to-block-fracking/. “The Earth�s Geologic Time Scale Eons Eras Periods Epoch Life.” RocksInMyHeadToo! Rocks Minerals Crystals Gems & Much More!. Accessed January 28, 2016. http://www.rocksinmyheadtoo.com/TimeLine.htm. “Elkhorn Ranch - Theodore Roosevelt National Park (U.S. National Park Service).” NPS.gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service). Accessed January 23, 2016. http://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/elkhorn-ranch.htm. “Environment and Climate Change Canada - Water - Presence of Pesticides in the Nelson River Basin.” Environnement Et Changement Climatique Canada - Environment and Climate Change Canada. Accessed January 21, 2016. https://www.ec.gc.ca/eaudouce-freshwater/default. asp?lang=En&n=EACFCA96-1. “Fracking in the Bakken Comes with a High Human Cost.” Public Radio International. Accessed January 23, 2016. http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-06-18/fracking-bakken-comes-high-human-cost. “Huge 4.4” Fossil Ginkgo Leaf Plate - North Dakota For Sale (#19804) .com.” FossilEra. Accessed January 20, 2016. https://www.fossilera.com/ fossils/huge-4-4-fossil-ginkgo-leaf-plate-north-dakota. “Illinois State Geological Survey Quaternary Glaciations in Illinois | ISGS.” Illinois State Geological Survey Welcome to ISGS | ISGS. Accessed January 29, 2016. https://www.isgs.illinois.edu/outreach/geology-resources/quaternary-glaciations-illinois. “North Dakota Geologic Survey.” Department of Mineral Resources. Accessed January 29, 2016. https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn1. asp. “North Dakota Oil Pump Jack Fracking Crude Extraction Machine Stock Photo 273537326 : Shutterstock.” Shutterstock. Accessed January 28, 2016. http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-273537326/stock-photo-north-dakota-oil-pump-jack-fracking-crude-extraction-machine.html?src=a-r3ccXBxMJCo3ZP5EoRbA-1-79. 36
“NPS Archeology Program: About the Antiquities Act.” NPS.gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service). Accessed January 23, 2016. http://www. nps.gov/archeology/sites/Antiquities/about.htm. “Roosevelt, Theodore. 1913. An Autobiography: IV. In Cowboy Land.” Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Accessed January 20, 2016. http://www.bartleby.com/55/4.html. “Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation - Theodore Roosevelt National Park (U.S. National Park Service).” NPS.gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service). Accessed January 29, 2016. http://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-and-conservation.htm. “Theodore Roosevelt’s Diary the Day His Wife and Mother Died, 1884.” Rare Historical Photos. Accessed February 9, 2016. http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/theodore-roosevelts-diary-day-wife-mother-died-1884/. “USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center - North Carolina: ‘Of Current Interest’ Archive.” USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center - North Carolina. Accessed January 21, 2016. http://nc.water.usgs.gov/about/interest_archive.html. Waldheim, Charles, and Andrea Hansen. Composite Landscapes: Photomontage and Landscape Architecture. 2014. “Ward Archives.” North Dakota Geology. Accessed January 28, 2016. http://johnbluemle.com/category/counties/ward/. Wheelock, John Hall. A Bibliography of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1920. “The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis.” Scientific American Blog Network. Accessed January 30, 2016. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/ history-of-geology/httpblogsscientificamericancomhistory-of-geology20110727the-younger-dryas-impact-hypothesis/.
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