Awareness

DEADLINE May 18, 2024

"…human beings are not in a separate compost pile. We are humus, not Homo, not anthropos; we are compost, not posthuman." Donna Haraway

Haraway’s call to reimagine human as humus reflects a recent 'soils turn' in the social sciences, humanities and arts that seeks to diversify mainstream soil knowledge and empower people to reconnect with soils. Heeding this call, SOILS TURN will be the 2025 ecoartspace annual online interactive + printed book, which will be realized as a compendium and directory of artists, scientists, designers, architects and writers who engage with soils. 

Under pressures of climate change, food sovereignty, pollution, and biodiversity loss, care of soils is urgently needed and must be addressed from multiple perspectives. Helen and Newton Harrison knew this already in 1969, with the creation of their first collaborative ecological work, Making Earth (above). Newton performed combining sand, clay, sewage, manure, leaves and worms to generate arable earth which he watered and turned over the course of four months. Helen documented this process and then used the soil to grow strawberries for her piece Making Strawberry Jam, 1972. Fifteen years later, Meg Webster began making sculpture with soils, both indoors and outdoors, beginning with Concave Earth, 1986. Since these important precusors, there has been a surge in soil-related initiatives in art, design, public programs, and academia, from the rise of “ecoart” in the 1990s to a range of activities during the 2015 UN International Year of Soils.

What soil-related issues, materials, inhabitants, and sites are artists, designers, curators and cultural institutions currently engaging with, and with what methodologies do they approach their work with soils? In 2021, ecoartspace launched a monthly Soil Dialogues on Zoom to find out. Since then, there have been over 100 artists active in these dialogues with 30 currently participating in a textile burial project. These works and the stories behind them will be presented at a pop-up exhibition and conference session in May 2024 on occasion of the 100th anniversary of the International Union of Soil Science in Florence, Italy. During the Dialogues practical insights on soil testing as well as artistic techniques were shared. It became clear that knowledge transfer beyond the scope of a single exhibition or single method (textile burial) was needed. From artists working with soil chromatography to designers making mycelial plastics, to musicians using piezoelectric sensors to sonify groundwater, the methods of working with soil materials and sites are as telling as the outcomes. 

We invite you to share your work ..... reimagining soils!

89 words for the word soil: Āferi, Ala, Augsne, Av, Bodem, Boden, Bodn, Buedem, Ciidda, Đất, Dheu, Din, Dirvožemio, Dojō, Édafos, Eleele, Erd, Gleba, Grond, Grundo, Grunt, Ħamrija, Hlieba, Hogh, Ierde, Ile, Inhlabathi, Ithir, Ivhu, Jarðvegur, Jord, Ƙasa, Khörs, Łeezh, Lemah, Lepo, Lupa, Lurzorua, Maaperää, Mannu, Maṇ, Maṇṇu, Mittee, Miṭī, Mobu, Mulda, Myayselwhar, Mātī, Māṭi, Māṭō, Niadagi, Nofon-tany, Nthaka, Nēla, Oneone, Pochva, Počvata, Pridd, Prst, Pôdy, Pāṁśu, Půda, Soil, Sol, Solo, Suelo, Suolo, Talaj, Tanah, Taneuh, Terra, Tla, Tlo, Toprak, Topurak, Topıraq, Torpaq, Toyang, Tuproq, Turba, Tè, Tǔrǎng, туфрак, Ubutaka, Udongo, Ùir, Umhlaba, Yuta, Zemlya