IMPLEMENTS FOR FUTURE GLACIAL SCOURING

1) WE ALREADY KNOW GLACIERS USE STONES AS CUTTING TOOLS TO SHAPE LANDSCAPES AT DRAMATIC SCALES ACROSS REGIONS & CONTINENTS.
2) THESE STONES ARE MOVED BY GLACIERS LONG DISTANCES AND ARE LEFT BEHIND ERRATICALLY IN LANDSCAPES WHERE THEY OBVIOUSLY DON'T BELONG.
3) WHAT IF ERRATICS COULD BE PLACED INTO LANDSCAPES FOR GLACIERS TO USE IN THE DEEP-FUTURE?
4) AND IF THESE ERRATICS WERE ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES ACCORDING TO A DESIGN LANGUAGE THAT CONSIDERS SITE CONDITIONS,
5) THEN WHEN A FUTURE GLACIER MOVES THESE SEQUENCES OF ABRASIVE MATERIALS DURING THE NEXT ICE AGE,
6) THESE TOOLS WILL CARVE RELATIVELY PREDICTABLE PROFILE PATTERNS IN BEDROCK, JUST LIKE ICE FLOW DID WITH ERRATICS DURING THE LAST CONTINENTAL GLACIATIONS.
7) AND IF THESE FUTURE ERRATICS WERE PART OF EARTHWORKS AND ARRANGED IN LANDSCAPES IN PARTICULAR SEQUENCES,
8) THEN CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPES COULD BE PRIMED FOR SPECIFIC CHANGES TO OCCUR IN THE DEEP-FUTURE VIA COLLABORATION WITH THE PRESENT.
9) IMPLEMENTS FOR FUTURE GLACIAL SCOURING IS A PROJECT TO DESIGN AND DEPLOY A CATALOG OF LAND-FORMING TOOLS THAT WILL SIT DORMANT IN LANDSCAPES UNTIL THEY ARE ACTIVATED IN THE NEXT ICE AGE.

A DEEP FUTURE MARK-MAKING DESIGN LANGUAGE

Our first tools were stone tools, and indeed long before our arrival, glaciers used stone to make marks in the landscape. Implements for Future Glacial Scouring proposes to bookend these early human and geologic tools by placing our final tools in the landscape to await activation at some distant deep future date.

The idea is to engineer cutting tools that can be left in the landscape to be activated by geologic forces of the deep future, forming a collaboration across massive time scales.

This project defines a design language that takes into consideration the conditions of an installation site, as well as object characteristics, to calculate the design requirements to prime a contemporary landscape with the right functional tools to produce a predictable future landscape.

Using a site-specific application of this design language, tools are deployed into a landscape with consideration of multiple site conditions: type of ecological land unit, expected deep future climate conditions for that location, hardness of bedrock, orientation of the site, expected ice flow direction, type of earthmoving suited for the site, the sequence of implements, the material strength of implements, and the projected future landscape outcome.

DATE: ongoing (2016-present)
MATERIALS: various
SCALE: maquettes for earthworks
DIMENSIONS: variable
SITE: various
STATUS: incomplete
An Attempt To Understand a Glacier Without Ever Having Seen One (archive record), Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art.
Lines of Descent in FRINGES Landscape Observatory (January, 2020).
Landscaping the Deep Future, (2016, Invited Lecture), Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, Kent State University, Cleveland, Ohio.

IMPLEMENTS FOR FUTURE GLACIAL SCOURING

1) WE ALREADY KNOW GLACIERS USE STONES AS CUTTING TOOLS TO SHAPE LANDSCAPES AT DRAMATIC SCALES ACROSS REGIONS & CONTINENTS.

2) THESE STONES ARE MOVED BY GLACIERS LONG DISTANCES AND ARE LEFT BEHIND ERRATICALLY IN LANDSCAPES WHERE THEY OBVIOUSLY DON'T BELONG.

3) WHAT IF ERRATICS COULD BE PLACED INTO LANDSCAPES FOR GLACIERS TO USE IN THE DEEP-FUTURE?

4) AND IF THESE ERRATICS WERE ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES ACCORDING TO A DESIGN LANGUAGE THAT CONSIDERS SITE CONDITIONS,

5) THEN WHEN A FUTURE GLACIER MOVES THESE SEQUENCES OF ABRASIVE MATERIALS DURING THE NEXT ICE AGE,

6) THESE TOOLS WILL CARVE RELATIVELY PREDICTABLE PROFILE PATTERNS IN BEDROCK, JUST LIKE ICE FLOW DID WITH ERRATICS DURING THE LAST CONTINENTAL GLACIATIONS.

7) AND IF THESE FUTURE ERRATICS WERE PART OF EARTHWORKS AND ARRANGED IN LANDSCAPES IN PARTICULAR SEQUENCES,

8) THEN CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPES COULD BE PRIMED FOR SPECIFIC CHANGES TO OCCUR IN THE DEEP-FUTURE VIA COLLABORATION WITH THE PRESENT.

9) IMPLEMENTS FOR FUTURE GLACIAL SCOURING IS A PROJECT TO DESIGN AND DEPLOY A CATALOG OF LAND-FORMING TOOLS THAT WILL SIT DORMANT IN LANDSCAPES UNTIL THEY ARE ACTIVATED IN THE NEXT ICE AGE.

A DEEP FUTURE MARK-MAKING DESIGN LANGUAGE

LINES OF DESCENT

GLACIAL TILLS OF THE GREAT LAKES

BRIDGING BETWEEN THE LAST ICE AGE & THE NEXT IN A SERIES OF DEEP-FUTURE COLLABORATIONS WITH NATURE