ABSTRACT

Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene is an investigation of the cultural meanings, representations, and values of soil in a time of planetary change. The book offers critical reflections on some of the most challenging environmental problems of our time, including land take, groundwater pollution, desertification, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, the book celebrates diverse forms of resilience in the face of such challenges, beginning with its title as a way of honoring locally controlled food production methods championed by "field to plate" movements worldwide. By focusing on concepts of soil functionality, the book weaves together different disciplinary perspectives in a collection of dialogue texts between artists and scientists, interviews by the editors and invited curators, essays and poems by earth scientists and humanities scholars, soil recipes, maps, and DIY experiments. With contributions from over 100 internationally renowned researchers and practitioners, Field to Palette presents a set of visual methodologies and worldviews that expand our understanding of soil and encourage readers to develop their own interpretations of the ground beneath our feet.

section 1|122 pages

Sustenance: Soil as provider of food, biomass and all forms of nourishment

chapter |14 pages

Urban Farming

The New Green Revolution?

chapter |10 pages

Taste of Place

Terroir as Experience

chapter |16 pages

Artisanal Soil

chapter |5 pages

Black Gold

chapter |14 pages

Temple of Holy Shit

On Human–Soil Nutrient Cycles and the Future of Sustainable Sanitation

chapter |10 pages

S.OIL

chapter |14 pages

Murray River Punch

A Conversation on Changes along the River

chapter |14 pages

Yield

section 2|116 pages

Repository: Soil as source of energy, raw materials, pigments, and poetry

chapter |9 pages

Soil Genesis

A Dialogue for Creation

chapter |12 pages

Painting with Earth

Earth Pigments in North Devon; A Guide for Teachers and Artists

chapter |7 pages

From Earth

chapter |10 pages

Mineral Traces

The Aesthetic and Environmental Transcendence of Soil Mineral Properties

chapter 18|11 pages

A Snapshot in Time

The Dynamic and Ephemeral Structure of Peatland Soils

chapter |12 pages

Carbon

chapter |12 pages

Deep-Time Moles

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Geological Archiving

section 3|110 pages

Interface: Soil as site of environmental interaction, filtration and transformation

chapter |18 pages

The Waterviz for Hubbard Brook

The Confluence of Science, Art, and Music at Long-Term Ecological Research Sites

chapter |11 pages

Aesthetic Engineering

Giving Visual Credence to Restoration Processes

chapter |10 pages

Rocks, Radishes, and Restoration

On the Relationships between Clean Water and Healthy Soil

chapter |16 pages

Dirt Dialogue

chapter |12 pages

Backyard Portals

A Solutions-Oriented Approach to Understanding and Valuing Soil

chapter |10 pages

The Art of Decay

Soil Decomposition Explored through the Visual Arts

section 4|94 pages

Home: Soil as habitat, biological hotspot, and gene pool

chapter |10 pages

Exploring the Invisible

The Exemplary Life of Soil

chapter |10 pages

Soiled

Reflecting a Natural Body through Socioaesthetical and Biopolitical Viewpoints

chapter |11 pages

Nematode State of Mind

chapter |8 pages

On Color Hunting

The Rhizosphere Pigment Lab

chapter |15 pages

Soil Macrocosms

Microbes, People, and Our Cumulative Effects

chapter |10 pages

Soil Procession

A Seed Journey to Preserve Genetic Diversity

chapter |14 pages

Future Worlds

Intelligent Soil, Technospheric Colonization, and a Habitat of Emotional Particles

section 5|112 pages

Heritage: Soil as embodiment of cultural memory, identity, and spirit

chapter |10 pages

Reframing Heritage

Cultural Soilscapes and Soil Memory

chapter |15 pages

Stories from the Hills

Tales of the Lowland

chapter |12 pages

Lessons from Emma Lake

A Metamorphosis of Science and Art in Landscape and Local Color

chapter |9 pages

Soil Connoisseurship

chapter |8 pages

Underground Roots

section 6|123 pages

Stabilizer: Soil as platform for structures, infrastructures, and socioeconomic systems

chapter |13 pages

Seeing the Soil Platform

chapter |6 pages

Perpetual Architecture

Uranium Disposal Cells of the Southwest

chapter |10 pages

Wastelands

chapter |13 pages

The Earth Print Archive

A Forensic Documentation of Land Take

chapter |19 pages

Soil in the City

The Socio-Environmental Substrate

chapter |11 pages

The Soil Assembly and Dissemination Authority (SADA)

A Thought Experiment in Building Tomorrow's Soils Today

chapter |9 pages

Hybrid Landscapes

Ideas about Soil Chemistry and Urban Design from the United States and South China

chapter |17 pages

The City as Forest

Cartographic Reflections on Land Use in Brazil

chapter |13 pages

Island Urbanism

The City as Soil System