Americans’ Sexy Landscape

In the neighborhoods of Chicago, it is not uncommon to see front lawns lining the front of residential streets. In fact, as a culture, the majority has taken to mowing their lawns without even thinking about the consequences of their actions. We have developed this idea that it is just what needs to be done and so basically everybody does it. Our obsession with keeping up with this culture has even reached the point where neighbors allow themselves to obsess over the appearance of others’ lawns that one could be fined for not “treating” their lawn.

The life of grass is one that I would not wish to live. Grass is meant to grow long and tall; its roots would then also continue to penetrate further into the soil. Ideally, grass would grow in loose soil where it has the ability to absorb more nutrients from the soil. If you think about it, each blade of grass works like a solar panel as each one retains energy from the sun that also helps it to grow. Lawn owners invest a good deal of time, money, and effort to water and weed their lawns to attain a beautifully luscious and green lawn. Except, even after all that hard work and the time it has taken grass to finally start growing again they take the lawn mower and chop of some more of it. Grass never gets to grow to its full potential the way we allow other plants to do. In addition, it is also expected to grow in compact soil that does not allow enough water to seep through.

So, why do we bother to maintain a landscape of grass? Especially when we are all aware of the massive rain showers we have been getting in Chicago lately. Why don’t we let the grass grow and let it and the soil be much happier? Let’s invest in the type of plants that will be more fruitful in bettering our quality of life and allowing all of the excessive amounts of water to have somewhere to go other than the sewer, or sitting along a curb because the sewer is overflowing. Let’s face it, we have been treating our front yard in so many ways only to get stepped on by children and serve as a place for dogs to relieve themselves.  Instead, let’s design a front yard with textures and colors that will provoke awe and also manage our excess storm water. Wouldn’t that make for a better front yard worth being proud of?  

Image: http://pugetsound.org/education/polluted-runoff/faqs-polluted-runoff

Landscape versus Urbanism

Image Credit: Dhiru Thadani (http://bettercities.net/images/14857/landscape-urbanism)

The battle of land development versus land preservation seems to be truly perpetual.  As a society the emphasis we place upon certain “territories”, such as national parks or open spaces, is a constant reminder of the struggle between our perception and reality in relation to the origins of our environment.  We perceive these territories in existence through ‘natural right’, or ‘unexplainable origin’, when in reality they were just as constructed as our urban environment. The free-flow of parts through the openness of our ecosystem really allows for urbanism to be considered just as much a part of nature as landscape.  So, truthfully the existence of such a line drawn between landscape and urbanism is faint and perforated at best.  The challenge here is determining whether nature with more landscape is more appropriate than nature with more urbanism, or if there can even be an “appropriate” amount of either.  As with much of nature, for this dilemma balance and perspective hold the key.

 

Contemporary Picturesque

Foster + Partners – Apple Headquarters in Cupertino

While the origins of the picturesque date back to 17^th Century landscape painter Claude Lorrain, the method continues today through the framed views of architectural renderings.  Ultimately, these renderings are meant to contain an experiential quality that transports a viewer into the scene, but many become washed down with false realities in favor of fantasy.  Take for instance the above rendering of Foster & Partners Apple Headquarters.  Here the scene is devoid of any “imperfections”, such as airplanes overhead, unclean air, animals, etc.  Truthfully, over time the style of picturesque hasn’t seen much development in terms of theory; use the landscape as a framework to portray what you want and leave out anything that doesn’t fit.  In striving for perfection with a non-temporal depiction of a temporal environment, there is actually a loss of perfection because this simply produces a picture of what nature might be “like”.  Through occupying the realm between the beautiful and the sublime, picturesque truly could be taken for an ‘ideal’ view, and in that light makes perfect sense as the candidate for representation of architectural renderings.  

 

Cultivate a Better World

The scarecrow campaign taken on by the fast food chain, Chipotle, is all about image and perception, with an acute attention to contemporary culture. In addition to this film, an interactive mobile game addresses how our entire culture views changes in nature. The intentions of such a venture seem rooted in good philosophy that can actually provide meaningful insight into how the world of food operates, and its’ potential for change. In the very beginning of the film, when the scarecrow walks through the advertisement of the traditional farm painted on the side of the building into the actual ‘streamlined-industrial’ factory, we can see this apparent smoke and mirrors tactic coming to the forefront. Unfortunately, this picturesque billboard has such a psychological stronghold through its’ powerfully accepted image that when the truth is exposed it almost taken as fantasy. However, not so subtly, the metallic cow display in the middle of the film that houses the mechanical cows pushes more imagery of what would be considered “natural”. In essence, the overarching theme here is about revealing the false façade employed by industrial agriculture to make consumers feel as though they are part of a natural process that is reminiscent of past traditions.

Sidewalk Swarm

Image Credit: http://www.bikewalklincolnpark.com/2013/03/observations-on-way-to-chicagos-sono.html

 Why is the human species incapable of swarming?  In recollection of my own various sidewalk experiences, there are countless times I can recall walking on the sidewalk and the people walking towards me have intentionally not made room for me to pass, even after making direct eye contact.  This clear disregard of another person to be mindful of the other’s intentions seems severely disappointing. Unfortunately, of the various types of swarming found in nature, such as decision-making, following a neighbor, or selfishly swarming, this type of behavior would have to occupy the last.  As a whole, the fact that we selfishly swarm may not be too surprising given the diverse individuality found in our species, but it is surprising in terms of our notion of having supreme intelligence.

In terms of communication, our development as a species has hinged on our use of language.  Interestingly however, this tends to be a crutch because if we had not developed language as our main form of communication, we might have learned to swarm in a more intelligent decision-making or follow-the-leader capacity.

Future Cities: Vertical > Horizontal

Ordos, China: The Kangbashi district, empty town meant for one million people

With major concern given to population growth throughout the world, our urban environments of the future tend to rest heavily on the issue of vertical development as opposed to horizontal.  On paper, this solution seems to have a strong base of logic.  However, the solution fails to take into account the well-established way of life our species has come to know, and for better or worse, love.  Also, in our ascent to grow taller cities we seemingly have lost sight of our necessity to connect with the outdoors.  To expect the same feeling when standing hundreds of stories above the earth as standing with two feet planted firmly on the ground is just preposterous.  Proposals such as the development in the Kangbashi district for a cluster of high-rise residential buildings show ignorance to the way in which people actually live their lives, and in fact suggests that economic interests out-weigh societal interests.  In addition, the vacancy of these residential units illustrates just how off target, wasteful, and truly unsustainable a planning scheme of this magnitude can be.  If vertical cities are the way of the future, attention must be given to the fact that even though technological means rapidly change we as a society are slow to change.

The Jellyfish Shredders

According to Hyun Myung, director of the Urban Robotics Lab at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, jellyfish were the source of an estimated $300 million in economic loss to marine-related industries in South Korea, 2009. Therefore, this Lab’s solution is a robot that can both search and destroy the dangerous invader. However, the interesting dynamic here is the war waged on a species whose potential population increase could be linked to a changing environment. An environment that we have most clearly had an apparent impact on through our various innovations and moves towards progress. Even with the jellyfish population considered to be on the rise due to warmer waters, the fact remains that this killer robot is now a reality. So, of course with any new technology the question will soon become a matter of when is enough, enough. Is the ultimate goal a controlled situation or the beginning of just another extinction?

Additional Information: http://www.fastcoexist.com/3019164/these-robots-hunt-jellyfish-and-then-liquify-them-with-rotating-blades-of-death#6

The Power of Weed(s)

As my classmates and I stand before a real prairie like the type we have been reading about, my professor makes it a point to say, “Plants will never lie to you.” After, he went on to point it how we could read the landscape as being a healthy one versus an unhealthy one. He pointed out the flowers that are often delicate and need a specific type of environment to thrive. Some plants can live in very damp soil while others prefer a little dryness and minimal moisture. He also goes on to point out the pretty plants we often find in our landscapes that are great at blending in with all of the “real” nice flowers, those that actually belong in a prairie landscape. All of this came to mind while I read Michael Pollan’s Weeds Are Us.

Ever since I became curious about working in the yard, I was always told to pull out the weeds and shown which of all the plants the weeds were. Now that I think back, I was never taught what the flowers were called but I knew how to distinguish a good green from a bad within a summer. I am sure I wondered how they ever got there if the person I was pulling weeds for clearly did not invite them. After reading Weeds Are Us, I actually sympathize with these plants.

“If we confine the concept of weeds to species adapted to human disturbance,

then man is by definition the first and primary weed under whose influence all other weeds have evolved.”

– Jack R. Harland in Crops and Man

Weeds were never native to the landscape to this country before the puritans arrived. They only grow and thrive in places where man has disturbed the land enough that native plants can no longer easily survive while weeds can. It is true when I recall the places where I see weeds growing the most. They arise from the cracks in the asphalt and pavement. They grow along the edges of buildings and in turf grass that has not yet been treated to get rid of weeds. We are in fact their creators and ignorantly struggle in vain to rid our desired landscapes of them. For these reasons, I feel that unless you are attempting to restore the landscape to what its native state would be you should be more patient with the weeds that come up before the rosebush. I feel that these guys deserve a chance or at least the time to be dealt with if you are providing the right environment for them unintentionally. I will no longer feel guilty about admiring the clovers, the dandelions, and the Queen Anne’s lace I come across. I will not refer to them as “wild” either as I have just learned that it wasn’t until the Puritans came over and expanded “civilization” that these plants arose.  

Image: http://www.coneflowertarot.com/  

Our Lawn

The sporting culture of hockey has its’ fair share of superstitions, and one that is evident today would the “playoff beard” through which fans take up the hockey player’s tradition of not shaving throughout the playoffs.  Well, during the Chicago Blackhawks 2013 playoffs, one resident of the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge took the superstition to a whole new level by embracing what he called the “playoff lawn”.  Although claiming this to be a shear happen-stance moment, the homeowner seemed at peace with the notion that their lawn would continue to become “unruly” in sacrifice for their team performing well in the playoffs.  As to be expected, the city of Park Ridge felt differently in the matter.  After sending notice that the lawn needed to be maintained, and still receiving no compliance by the resident, the city then sent someone to mow the lawn for the homeowner. 

If we treat the lawn as nature, then to say this “playoff lawn” needs to be one certain way over the other is to stake claim to only one suitable form of nature.  However, what I find compelling about this sequence of events is the apparent dichotomy of the lawn’s public and private ownership.

 

Article: http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on-hockey/22385643/blackhawks-fans-playoff-l

Conquering the Elements

Repeatedly, humans have tried to conquer natural phenomena and control ecosystems, small and large. 20% of The Netherlands lies below sea level, Venice has struggled to stay above water for centuries and continues to do so, and many large cities, Chicago included, were built on land previously unsuitable for building.

Despite these achievements, many events have proven that we have little defense against catastrophic events. Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy in the United States, and the recent typhoon in the Philippines have proven that. Despite all of these occurrences, people continue to try to conquer nature.

Shell, one of the largest fossil fuel extracting companies in the world has just completed the hull of a ship that is longer than the Empire State Building is tall. Used for nothing but natural gas extraction in the sea north of Australia, this behemoth, named Prelude, is built to withstand the cyclones of the region. Shell claims it will produce enough natural gas to power a city the size of Hong Kong.  It just makes you wonder, this ship is the prelude to what?