Thoughts provoked in a city I love and despise at the same time.

Yesterday I finally went to visit Chicago’s Center for Architecture. I was impressed with the scale model of downtown with every single building represented in sharp detail. The accompanying short history of the city helps to understand the growth pattern and shape the city took.

On the second floor, the Center displays models of famous skyscrapers in Chicago and around the world as well as models of current projects provided by the architectural firms associated with them. I was deeply disappointed by the Jeanne Gang Vista towers reminding me of a bad interpretation of a Brancusi sculpture.

The O’Hare expansion models were on display as well, for me, there are only two worth considering – the Santiago Calatrava proposal and the ORD proposal, the others are way below par for a city that wishes to be a leader in architectural projects.  The Calatrava proposal has been described as the most ambitious, meaning the one that considers its surroundings as well as its footprint. It will most likely be discarded due to budget concerns and God help us if the SOM proposal is accepted sighting budgetary goals.

The new projects on display made me think how far we are from where we need to be in terms of urban ecological concerns and how time and again the issue seems to revolve around budgetary limitations. A thought came to mind – given the dismal outcomes of the current monetary system could there be a special branch of the federal mint dedicated to landmark projects such as the O’Hare expansion. This special branch would be charged to mint the money necessary to build such projects only earmarked for them. For example, if the Calatrava proposal is considered the most appropriate for Chicago, the city does not need to go borrow money for it. A request would be made to the Federal Mint and the proposal would be considered by a non-partisan committee in charge of infrastructure projects. The mint would then procure the money on a timely basis only to pay for the actual expenditures of that project and nothing else. There would be no middleman profiteering and no pay to play scheme the city is known for. This will not place Chicago in further debt and its citizens stuck with the interest payments. I know this will irate the current money lenders and banks that always make a killing at these projects but that is the point, these projects should not be fodder for the already rich to get richer. Many economists will cite how this will disturb the way the markets work. So what! Have the markets worked thus far? Every indication is that the current state of finances has promoted great injustice and environmental degradation at a pace where the planet is the victim. Expenditures should focus on procuring the best possible outcomes for the public and the environment and budgetary concerns should not get in the way of good works. As it is these projects are driven by bean counters and corrupt politicians rather than visionary talented designers.

Meditation on an embrace

Behold a man. He walks a tight rope, above him a light of euphoria, below him a dark abyss, to his right deceptions of dogmatic morals, to his left jesters juggling for power. Behind him linger songs of Valkyries, in front of him a path of many possibilities of overcoming his humanness. He wears dark green glasses to protect his faltering eyes, behind which a dark storm brews.

The tempest rocks the rope, his balance is compromised, his thoughts blown about like notes on tattered paper. He squints to focus, nearby a creature stands, perhaps if he reaches out he can prevent his fall. The creature stirs, made nervous by his approach. The man extends his hands to reassure the creature he is no threat. The creature is tied to a cart – he sees the cart filled with books – kneeling on the books Salome holds a whip. His Salome, adorned by a thousand veils of which none are of intimacy - his beloved salvation, his desired protégé, unrequited love. His only carnal warmth found in the arms of prostitutes. That unholy trinity, that would turn the mundane normal into one worthy of living never matured - its only remnant an infamous photograph turned into a weapon undermining his reputation. He had posed as one of two beasts of burden, an allegory of the trio embarking on a quest, then came the betrayal and wandering solitude. His trinity instead became the one he desperately tried to flee, what he called the chain–sickness of his pious mother and stubborn, resolute sister.  They pulled at him from both sides grasping at his clothes pushing him every direction, the nails tearing at his flesh, deforming his features.

Deep darkness presses all around, voices filter through in a foreign language, they want answers, he cannot find his thoughts in the emptiness - words are replaced by groans. Then a familiar voice, light begins to penetrate, shadows become defined, two police officers are by his side, one holds his walking stick, the other his hat. He turns to the familiar voice, finally a recognizable face. He rushes to embrace him. Tight in the other’s arms, he releases his anxiety.

Back in his room, he must make sense of things, he searches his notes but the scribbles, squirming like worms, make no sense. Who is he? What man has he become? Each time he turns, the abyss is there staring back, what monsters lurk in the shadows? What creature will he be by engaging them? His equine state finally surrenders to the care of others.

In years to follow, many have pondered on the horse’s pedigree, some insisting that it was no horse at all, rather a donkey, others a mule. Some scoffed at the whole event and declared that it was all fictitious nonsense. The man, after all, had stated that there are no facts, only interpretations. The matter is inconclusive, there are too many ‘perhaps’. The only thing agreed upon is that the abyss was and is there, to be swallowed in.

The Banksy Shuffle

Recently one of the most interesting artist working today, Banksy (interesting name connotation) played a trick at a Sotheby’s live auction, where he shredded one of the works and renamed it ‘Love is in the Bin’ commonly referred to now as the ‘Banksy Shred’. Notice that this comment by the artist on the art market was quickly absorbed by that market by selling the piece in its state of destruction - the artists’ act of defiance is itself marketed and bought, there is no escape.

It was this event that sparked a reconnection to my past. During my student days in Florence I was part of a group of student artists that, like Banksy today, created socially charged murals while maintaining a secret identity. Banksy uses stencils to facilitate his interventions in the need for speed and precision. We created our work on paper then used overhead projections at night, traced the work onto the wall and proceeded to color in the shapes as one does in a paint by numbers.  Guards would stand by to alert us of any passerby so that we could switch off to maintain our anonymity. The anonymity fueled a certain fame as newspapers tried to determine who was responsible for the works even connecting us to another group of performers named ‘Indiani Metropolitani’ to whom we had no connection whatsoever. They then decided on the name ‘Gruppo Murales’ inspired by a Siqueiros and Tamayo exhibit in Orsanmichele. However, the anonymity faded during our largest endeavor. We were painting a very large mural within the courtyard of a Florence institution when a documentary crew from the Netherlands showed up to interview us as part of the overall Italian student movement. The mural was a portrayal of the student movement as seen from our perspective. We were tired of the press coverage focus on the violence and ignoring the substantial good work being done by the students in their efforts to expose corruption and inequality. They put everything in the same pot, whether it was the violent acts of the ‘Brigate Rosse’ which we had no part in and most of us did not support or of the ‘Autonomi’ who always tried to entice peaceful demonstrations into violent ones. We saw ourselves as artists working for a good cause and for the good of the people. There is an additional connection to Banksy now that he has tried to mock a Sotheby’s live auction. During our student occupation, to keep up morale, we occasionally put on skits to entertain ourselves. One of these skits was precisely a mockery of a Sotheby’s art auction. It was intended to entertain but there was also a more somber and profound discussion that interested us: what is the role of the artist? Is it to entertain, to create beauty, to investigate the subconscious, to enlighten, etc.? This skit was part of a discussion on the role of the art market, certainly many artists depend on it; it is after all where your clients will be if by chance you make it to the big leagues. However, a Sotheby’s auction is more than that it is the stomping grounds of museums and the rich collectors. It is the blessing of the money market bestowed on works that may never see the light of day again if the collector prices the money value above all else. This is a true dilemma for many artists to dedicate their lives to their works. Is art only a way we cope with the sad realities of existence as Nietzsche proclaimed? Can it ever be more than that? These questions are still relevant and probably unanswerable since art does accomplish all of the above.

These are a few photographs I took regarding that performance by the name we preferred to be called ‘Cultural Intervention Group”- the performance took place in 1977 at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze.

setting the stage

slapping on the makeup

The auctioneer starts the bidding for the superb Guttuso

The second work on the auction block is Michelangelo's Pieta wrapped in bathroom tissue paper by Christo

A Tintoretto style work for which the artist is directing the final touches.

meanwhile, a lonely inspiration is wondering about ignored by everyone

the artist finally notices it and places it on the canvas

a primal scream 

then the retreat into the canvas

all the works follow suit

alas the artist contemplates the torn cloak of his life's work

however, the auctioneer persists and asks "how much am I bid for this original Fontana?"

Although the events took place decades apart and perhaps with somewhat different intent, the similarities of our play with the Banksy Sotheby's auction stint cannot be ignored. Our play ended with a torn canvas that was auctioned as is. Of course, we performed in our small place where Banksy took it to the international stage.

In Praise of the Gourd

Yesterday I submitted an abstract to the Living Future unConference happening in the Spring, 2019. Each year I submit one or two proposals to promote my urban ecology concepts. It was a bit disturbing to know that my first presentation on this topic was in 2004 at a SER conference in Victoria, B.C., Canada.  If I were to trace back the seed of these ideas it would be 1988 when I first started to contemplate my thesis topic, groundwater movement in the vadose zone. So it is a bit concerning that 30 years later I am still trying to get practically the same projects in the ground, would this classify as madness? Only on a few occasions during these years did I come close to building a pilot project. The closest was in 2017 with a project proposed for Downers Grove - which was foiled by Pruitt taking control of the EPA whose grants the work depended on. Each time though, the process followed a similar path, first an in-depth conversation with the client on the necessities of doing something novel to address the problems, since all they tried is not working. Followed by a short period of euphoria, when everyone is excited about breaking new ground, this is when you get the most compliments. Inevitably, it turns to an all too familiar dissection of the proposal through value engineering, a code phrase for cost-cutting. Then we enter into the phase of having to convince the engineering departments and the maintenance department and the village manager, all who have vested interest in not doing anything out of the routine that would cast any doubt on their own work and change the way they approach a problem, ‘turf wars’. If by chance, you are able to maneuver the landmines and convince everyone to give it a go the wall of maximum resistance is encountered – who will pay for this – ironically, there is never room in the budget for the new. The question that always seems to stop people in their tracks is:  “Has this been tried before?” Of course not, otherwise it would not be new. Now you are faced with all kinds of doubters coming out of the woodwork from top-level engineers to the maintenance staff. If by chance you manage to pass this ordeal, a list of cuts is inevitably presented to you so that the project can pass through the scrutiny of the board or the council who are usually business minded and rarely have a scientist or an environmentalist among them. OK, you met all the obstacles and finally there it is, the plans finished, ready to be built. NO, wait a minute, now all the plant lists and materials will be scrutinized to the last detail once again because now that it is a go everyone must stake a claim on something.  You have too many plants, 18” on center is the standard we use here! – yes, I know but then you have to spend lots of energy and money combatting weeds and nature does not follow such rules – too many species, we usually only use ten or fifteen – really?! The aim is to create an ecosystem, not a garden – people won’t like that, maintenance won’t like that – perhaps you can enlist volunteer groups like the Wild Ones to take care of it – No !! that won’t do, we need to have control and so on and on.  There are places in the world of course that do take chances and try new ideas like Singapore and the more progressive European countries, perhaps cities like Portland, OR and New York might be up for some risk but in the majority, it is a repeat of what has been tried somewhere first. For example, the green roofs that everyone is familiar with now took about forty years to make their way into Chicago building code. Chicago truly is a second city – of second-hand ideas, a far cry from the time it claimed many bold innovations. ‘Make no small plans’ is the motto as long as they reflect what has been tested elsewhere.

So, this time around, if my abstract is selected, I will be speaking in a venue that requests inspiration, innovative strategies, and cutting-edge technique, most creative ideas to inspire the audience. This is what I submitted:

SESSION DESCRIPTION

My presentation focuses on transforming existing urban core infrastructure into fully functioning ecosystems beyond the current LEED and BMP criteria, green roofs, and living walls. I will use examples of my regenerative design work to illustrate the process of creating vertical watersheds to achieve this transformation. The designs are scalable from a small site to a neighborhood level. 

Examples include:

•                    creation of biogeochemical cycles for treatment and recycling of black and grey water, the creation of habitat niches, food, and energy production, and sufficient biomass for percolation to recharge aquifers and evapotranspiration for modulating air temperature.

•                    vertical watersheds that mimic riparian corridors along urban core river corridors.

•                    water quality improvements of buried creeks trapped within storm runoff systems.

I base my presentation on the premise that we as a global human population have missed our window of opportunity to halt climate change, a conclusion many scientists have reached. Given the accepted 40-year time lag between cause and effect, we are now only feeling the consequences of emissions up to 1978. Therefore, the climate will continue to warm in response to emissions since 1978. If we were to stop all emissions today there will be 40 years, up to 2058, of a warming trend to contend with. Since it is obvious this will not happen, we can expect the acceleration of climate change to extend well into a century. Given natural feedback loops, this places us in an unpredictable and dire situation. Climate change catastrophes are stochastic in nature - they will not manifest in unison or spread evenly across the planet. Theoretically, this situation gives us opportunities to create regional oases for biodiverse life to persist. Given this premise, how would we deal with the built and social context? The crisis requires us to take bold leaps.

There is a boom of megacities occurring worldwide where each one has the equivalent of a small country’s population. For example, the estimated hourly growth according to UN World Urbanization Prospects is Lagos +85 inhabitants, Delhi +79, Mexico City +22 and New York +10. The available open spaces are no longer sufficient to biologically balance the quick pace needed for human habitation. Many natural systems design proposals that aim at meeting climate change challenges are confined to the horizontal plane - the traditional view of terrestrial ecosystems demonstrated in bioswales, rain gardens and below surface linear solutions for stormwater runoff and sewage disposal and treatment systems.  Expected sea level rise exposes the vulnerabilities of the existing below surface sewage and stormwater infrastructure, as well as cable and electrical services and transportation. I propose an additional focus, from a horizontal interpretation of natural systems to a vertical one, to incorporate into the urban context and create fully functioning, biodiverse ecosystems where each of the five kingdoms of nature, as described by Lynn Margulis, are present. The green build industry has already accepted green roofs and living walls as part of its vocabulary; ‘il bosco verticale’ – vertical woods- has contributed additional possibilities. I propose we take a further leap and establish above ground watershed ecosystems capable of treating black and grey water on site, provide geothermal, solar and biogeochemical energy production and create the necessary eco-habitat to influence microclimatic conditions. This will reduce dependence on high maintenance and energy-wasteful centralized grid systems, thereby empowering communities to govern their own interests and resulting in communal abundance and security.

Beneficial outcomes of green building criteria are now measured in percentages - 10%, 20%, 50% - usually in the lower ranges. These percentages reflect the benefit compared to a damaged state rather than an optimal state of biological health. The problem is that we are not framing the questions properly. We now ask how much we can afford, based on a failing market economic model. We should ask what we need to do? What are the benefit percentages we must attain to stem the tide of decline? Then create a market model to accommodate those needs.

The Living Future2019 unConference includes the arts in the topic area. As an artist, I am glad to see this recognition and will illustrate how I use artistic elements in my work to beautify, educate, explore and advocate for environmental and social awareness.

Recently I sent a letter to the Metropolitan Planning Council and the City of Chicago with my contribution to the River Edge Ideas Lab. The work of nine invited firms is currently being exhibited. I am concerned about the practice of 'invitation only' calls for designs dealing with public spaces. Independent small companies like mine are continually left out of these calls and the presumption that good ideas can only come from a few larger professional firms creates a limit of choice. In lieu of a more open, inclusive process I decided to act and see what happens. 

Reflections on the 9^th world environmental education congress 2017 and re-proposing an event

The weec2017 congress took place in Vancouver, BC, Canada from Sept.9 – 15.  This is the second time I visited this part of the globe for such a purpose. The last time was in 2004 when I presented at the Society for Ecological Restoration conference held in Victoria, BC. Back then I finished my presentation with a view of the Chicago River as seen from the Michigan Avenue Bridge. I wrote about this experience in a previous post found on this blog:

 http://urban-watersheds.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-view-from-michigan-avenue-bridge.html.

This was the beginning of my exploration into what I termed the Bioshaft® design process. It has been 13 years since that presentation in Victoria, ironically my talk at the weec2017 is the culmination of some design concepts that came out of this process, so you might say that it is the completion of a cycle introduced while on the unceded lands of the First Nations and revisited at an advanced stage on that very same landscape, buffered by Salish waters, this time across the Strait of Georgia from that 2004 conference.

I was curious to learn what the state of environmental education is around the globe; it was my first attendance at this conference. What I learned is that there are plenty of caring and intelligent individuals imparting environmental knowledge onto their students. This fact makes the state of the environmental degradation harder to accept. That despite all our efforts the world’s health is declining before our eyes. That despite the hard work and sacrifice made by good people we are still stuck in an economic model that does not value life-supporting processes and keeps striving only to achieve more accumulation of monetary wealth for a declining percentage of the population. I felt my talk titled ‘The Commons as Classrooms’ appropriate to partially meet this challenge. This is the handout I provided:

The Congress had some extraordinary people, opening ceremonies included Shane Pointe, first nation elder; Princess Lalla Hasnaa of Morocco; Judith Guichon, lieutenant governor of British Columbia; Ekaterina Grigolova, deputy minister of environment, Georgia;  Mario Salomone, secretary general WEEC; David Zandvliet, institute for environmental learning, Canada; Elliot Harris, UN environmental program, Julia Heiss, UNESCO team leader of education and sustainable development; Charles Hopkins, UNESCO chair -reorienting teacher education among others.

The list of plenary speakers was unequaled including Haida leader Guujaaw, Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, Wade Davis, Canadian Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and husband and wife team, Dr. Tara Cullis and Dr. David Suzuki - none disappointed.

Jeannette Armstrong spoke of the role of natural cycles and the way these are interpreted in the first nation’s traditional understanding of life and how we can impart environmental education through this understanding. Wade Davis who had already influenced my thesis work many years ago through his book ‘Shadows in the Sun’, once again stirred my thoughts with his presentation on the importance of rituals among indigenous people of the world. Guujaaw gave a candid and wise portrayal of things that truly matter. Elizabeth May and Tara Cullis tackled political and activist roles in defending environmental health and David Suzuki made a strong case for being diligent, resilient and perseverant in the face of all the challenges we face.

Jeannette Armstrong’s and Wade Davis’ presentations brought to mind a project I had conceived back in 2013 for commemorating the centennial of the death of Martha, the last of her species.  You can read my post at the time at this link:

http://urban-watersheds.blogspot.com/2013/06/fly-kite-for-endangered-species-event.html

I am reviving the project, this time not to commemorate Martha, the passenger pigeon, although it would do that, however, the emphasis is now on the conference theme of weaving. One of the topics common to most of the talks I attended and also touched upon by the plenary speakers. For my own talk I produced this sign:

Therefore given the ritual connections and the weaving theme I thought about reviving the Fly a Kite for Endangered Species event. In her slogan, ‘weave the we”, Naomi Klein means the “we” to be all species of life on Earth. So who speaks for those that have no voice in our current paradigm? Having attended many conferences before, each time feeling the comradery and synergy of ideas among colleagues and peers from around the globe to then return to a daily routine to face all the challenges usually alone was something I dreaded. Also, something else gnawed at me, the reference to rituals solely associated with indigenous cultures, as if we, the white Caucasian-derived cultures are above such things. If we were to take the words from all the talks seriously then a ritualistic and symbolic gesture could be accepted and acted upon.

So, the Fly a Kite for Endangered Species event entered my thoughts, what better venue to promote it? The attendees are all affiliated with educational institutions and all are already involved in ways to disseminate environmental awareness. The Kite itself is a traditional object shared by many cultures and kite flying is a popular activity around the globe. While Wade Davis spoke of rituals he participated in, my thoughts about the kites brought me to the symbolic connection between it and the prayer flags used in Bhutan and Tibet where a prayer or good thoughts are written on the flag which is then planted in the ground for the wind to carry the message across the landscape to all living things. As well as the Japanese tradition of the prayer tree, where messages are written on small scrolls of paper that are appended to the branches of trees so that a similar wind distribution can take place, much like wind pollinated seeds, it is hoped that they will spread and germinate into healthy plants and flowers. Is this not what we hope our students to be? The seeds of a social/ environmental awareness that take root and assemble into a global family that values all life forms and can speak for all those creatures whose plight goes mostly unnoticed? Imagine all the messages from each participant taken by the four winds and through the jet streams carried across the globe. Now, in my thoughts the kites took on a symbolic function of the threads that are woven together by the participating students and through the internet in the form of videos, photos and chat rooms can be woven into a cohesive hope for our planet’s biodiversity. The way I envision the project to proceed is as follows: 

1) students from schools around the globe are asked to select and research endangered plants and animals from their geographic region
2) students are tasked with creating a report that includes visuals 
3) each student is asked to create a kite with the image of the plant or creature they chose
4) the kites are flown on a selected date
5) videos, potographs, interviews taken at the event are shared on a website created for such purpose where chat rooms can connect the students and teachers directly to each other and perhaps even begin student exchange opportunities
6) the event is accessibe to anyone via the website to continue the conversation and plan for additional activities as well as get informed on the regions's cocerns

This will be an annual festival. It will be interesting how climate change will be interpreted and its devastating consequences handled and reported from those experiencing them directly.

An art work by Bill Reid came to mind, I had seen it just the day before when I visited the gallery named for him and whose work fills its space. The work is titled ‘Mythic Messengers’, it is a long sculpture piece depicting main Haida myths. What intrigued me was that each myth connected to the next through the tongues of its protagonists. The thread was the voice; of course, the myths were handed down by oral traditions. In his book ‘The Raven Steals the Light’ written in collaboration with Robert Bringhurst, Bill Reid relegates the ‘Myth of the Dogfish Woman’ as epilog; the reason is that this myth has been lost. There are carving and graphic portrayals of it, but its storyline lost forever due to the oppression by the European conquerors. The myth has no longer a voice, it’s meaning severed from its visual portrayals. Its function within the Haida culture diminished. If we substitute the myths with living species how willing are we to lose forever that link? We must become the bridging tongues that keep them in the conversation.

Therefore, here is the revised event flyer:

I hope that through the World Environmental Education organization this project takes flight. 

I welcome comments and support, please contact me at domenicodalessandro20@gmail.com and visit 
https://www.facebook.com/flyakiteforendangeredspeciesevent/