Thinking with Soils

Thinking with Soils Material Politics and Social Theory, 2020

This essay ponders the theoretical bases for the project of a social history of soil. A case is made that soil history is fundamental to any and all environmental history, not only to agricultural history where soil studies are often relegated. Conversely, history is argued to be essential for scientists to understand the state of soil. Reviewing the state of the literature, it concludes that environmental history has so far paid strikingly little attention to the history of soil. What has been written, including several recent volumes, has concentrated heavily on the history of soil science rather than on the history of soil itself, and tends to adopt a mechanistic interpretation of the relationship between societies and soil, often with a focus on fertility and degradation defined in simple additive terms. Several scientifically outmoded ideas have minimized possible ways of conceptualizing the interactions of society and soil and contributed to the lack of historians' study of soil: the idea of soil as a geological given rather than as a historical product; conceptions of nature in general as homeostatic and cyclic rather than linear and historical; and conceptions of soil as an inert mineral material rather than as a living body. Other social sciences such as archaeology and geology have already progressed significantly along the path of writing a history of the social production of soil. Environmental historians should become conversant in contemporary soil science and engage this neglected but essential field with the particular expertise and approach that historians can bring.

Interactions

The problem that I have identified during my research for this dissertation is the quantifiable depletion and exhaustion of large percentages of the world's soils through human activity in agriculture and other industrial practices. In the course of researching this problem I have looked closely at some of the primary causes, and a range of proposed and applied solutions in the field of ecology. The primary focus of the research has been in looking at how artists have responded to ecological issues and have engaged in environmental activism in their practices. Integral to the research has been direct participation in collaborative art practices that investigate and strive to raise public awareness about issues related to soil ecology. It has proceeded through reading established texts, interviewing expert practitioners, publishing my findings, and presenting at numerous conferences, concurrently with direct participation in ecologically oriented practices, related artistic projects, professional art exhibits, activist events, and working in the field of professional organic farming. During the research phase I attended nine Planetary Collegium Sessions with fellow researchers and received valuable direction from supervising professors. The result is a written, theoretical dissertation that documents the research through text and photography in seven chapters. It has also produced a body of sculptures and documented physical experiments and performances that are motivated by, and speak directly to issues of soil ecology. The efficacy of the artwork that has been made in the course of researching problems in soil ecology comes from its continuation of, and direct participation in, established, contemporary art projects and movements that have had a demonstrable influence of society. The contribution that it makes to new knowledge is by addressing in unique ways the emerging subject of soils, which have tended to be overlooked in many ecological discussions, and in so doing it also brings to bear a unique combination of influences in its practice. These include: Art practice, Situationist performances, Core Shamanic practice (as developed by Michael Harner), soil science, inspiration drawn from a number of continental theorists, participation in sustainable agriculture, and political activism, applied simultaneously in a transdisciplinary body of work described herein specifically on behalf of soils. In this endeavor the dissertation and its body of produced objects and performances has also sought to blur some of the conventional lines between theoretical research, contemplation and practice, as appropriate to a trans-disciplinary project. Numerous discoveries have been made in the course of the research, chief among them that the new transdisciplinary approach to soil studies that my collaborators and I have taken turns out to be of necessity if we are to avert large-scale collapses of agriculture due to soil degradation on a global scale in the course of this century.

Topos the International Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, 2014

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The rise of industrial agriculture paired with a global demographic shift of populations from rural to urban settings has diminished everyday interaction with soil for most members of society. This has led to a deterioration of the aesthetic image and cultural value of soil. Among other efforts to increase soil awareness, concerned artists have been reclaiming the image of soil as a culturally, aesthetically and ecologically invaluable common good. From the early environmental art of the 60s and 70s to more recent artworks on urban and industrial brownfields, soil functions such as growth medium and habitat, archive and contamination filter have become subject matter for artistic expression and public discourse. In the following paper we present soil in the context of the environmental arts movement as well as art in the context soil science. How can art contribute to soil conservation – both with the aim of generating greater public understanding and promoting cultural values, but also by developing creative methods to directly confront problems such as contamination, erosion, or humus loss? Based on a brief review of well-known artworks, a survey of soil scientists, interviews with artists, and our own creative field experiments, we address the use of art in bridging communication gaps between soil conservation and the general public.

This paper presents a range of contemporary artworks with the aim of expanding the scientific portrait of soil as a pedogenetic body. Together, the works deconstruct conventions of genetic classification by inventing new methodologies of understanding defined by sensory experience, cultural contextualization, and an intuitive collaboration with the soil itself as material guide. The chapter is loosely organized by genre, including: painting, pigmenting, printing, and art- ists’ archives. Beyond these categories, aesthetic awareness is also created with installation, per- formance, and different types of participatory engagement. By blending a range of contemporary artistic positions with scientific concepts, an attempt is made to reimagine and reevaluate the soil.

2017

The article discusses the relationship between soils, land modern man and his concern and responsibility for sustainable land management. The main problems, which limit the rational use and protection of land are analyzed and also on the first place among them the improper and unfair distribution of fertile soils and lands, and the resulting problems on a different nature – geographic, demographic, ecological, food consumption and social onece The significance of the triadic paradigms "soil-land-people", "capital-labor-science" and "wisdom-harmony-prosperity" is noted as well as the maxims that oblige us to work on them. It is also emphasized that soils in Bulgaria are subject to natural, anthropogenic and technogenic pressures. Problems are outlined which are related to arable land, recommendations, guidelines and critical assessments of the soil scientists and the European institutions (European Parliament and European Commission on Agriculture and De...

2022

Soils play fundamental roles in the functioning of the Earth's ecosystems. Despite numerous initiatives to protect soils, it continues to be generally perceived as dirt or, at best, the surface we walk on. To better understand soil perception by the public, we conducted a survey with 99 participants from Poland and Brazil. We applied an opportunity sampling and conducted semi-structured interviews with 40 respondents from Poland and 30 from Brazil, and 29 unstructured interviews in Brazil. Most of the respondents (53%) of the semi-structured interviews associated soil with the surface where plants grow while 27% said that it is the ground we step on. When asked about pro-environmental campaigns, none of the respondents pointed to soil-related initiative. Most of the respondents (99%) claimed that there is a need to increase the knowledge about the importance of soils, mostly through education (30%). The majority of the respondents of the unstructured interviews in Brazil indicated provision services provided by soils and pointed to the need for youth engagement on soil communication, corroborating the results from the semi-structured interviews. To address this, present the results on artistic workshops as an experimental model for teaching and dissemination. We present two short documentary movies presenting the results from unstructured interviews and the artistic workshops which can be used as data gathering tool, teaching tool and for dissemination purposes. This paper not only presents primary data on the crucial problem of soil recognition but also presents a range of transdisciplinary approaches to help problem solving.

This article was originally published in the Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment, 2nd Edition by Elsevier, and the attached copy is provided by Elsevier for the author's benefit and for the benefit of the author's institution, for non-commercial research and educational use, including without limitation, use in instruction at your institution, sending it to specific colleagues who you know, and providing a copy to your institution's administrator.