Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 1:00 PM
sent by Chiara Giovando
A quick response to the LA Times piece David forwarded today...
This made me think of how much knowledge is being lost right now. I think we may be one of the last generations that will get to experience other human beings with a life long, direct connection to land and nature. The termination of indigenous peoples, small farmers, cowboys and other herders, will erase generations of knowledge that is not documented in writing but rather something learned and passed down through the body. I wonder if there is any way to save any of this knowledge, like grabbing as many books as you can while the fire at the Library of Alexandria is burning.
I know of a project in a small town in Northern CA, Occidental, that collects as many Heirloom seeds and even species of animals like chickens to create a kind of store house of diversity. I think spending time in wild places, real time would show you somethings. Maybe also seeking out a teacher from a dying breed...
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 9:52 PM
sent by Brica Wilcox
Reality…
In the introduction to Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire, he mentions Darwin's use of the word artificial not to reference a fake, but rather an artifact, "a thing reflecting human will." He claims that this artificial affect on nature from human desire is the more likely path to survival for nature than without it along for the ride. Certainly this description fits with much of what we understand of the history of the Deep End Ranch, whether we look from the point of view of some of its owners (starting a safari resort) or exterior forces (St. Francis Dam flood). Those two examples in terms of their fulfillment of human desire are seen as a failure and a disaster, but this seems to be exactly the "uncharted way" that Pollan sees as our current moment.
The chapter “Apples” as well as our discussion about the seedless tangerines revealed, the relationship between seed and plant is a mythologized one that bares little relationship to the reality of production. The simple story of the seed might maintain the belief we could grow our own food if we had to, but in any case, is this less true all the time with genetic modifications that include producing “suicide seeds”? But anyhow, I like this vegetable garden at the White House action.
-Brica
sent by Brica Wilcox
Reality…
In the introduction to Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire, he mentions Darwin's use of the word artificial not to reference a fake, but rather an artifact, "a thing reflecting human will." He claims that this artificial affect on nature from human desire is the more likely path to survival for nature than without it along for the ride. Certainly this description fits with much of what we understand of the history of the Deep End Ranch, whether we look from the point of view of some of its owners (starting a safari resort) or exterior forces (St. Francis Dam flood). Those two examples in terms of their fulfillment of human desire are seen as a failure and a disaster, but this seems to be exactly the "uncharted way" that Pollan sees as our current moment.
The chapter “Apples” as well as our discussion about the seedless tangerines revealed, the relationship between seed and plant is a mythologized one that bares little relationship to the reality of production. The simple story of the seed might maintain the belief we could grow our own food if we had to, but in any case, is this less true all the time with genetic modifications that include producing “suicide seeds”? But anyhow, I like this vegetable garden at the White House action.
-Brica
Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 12:17 PM
sent by David Bunn
Site Workers,
front page of sunday nytimes today "Remade in America" - check it out
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/us/15immig.html?_r=1&hp
Follow up on Gerardo's story and the discussion: your questions about the telling of Gerardo's story were perfectly appropriate. you were exactly right to call us on what we said about Gerardo's family history as it is /was not entirely our story to tell. As I said as we all left lunch to go outside, if we cannot ask any question or bring up any issue together in the seminar, then it's a failure. In hind sight Ellen and I both feel that we should have left out the personal details and told the Gerardo/David/Ellen story more generally, as we wanted it to be a story about us, too. But, in our minds it is such an integral part of the story, and integrated into a lot of our thoughts about the complications of this place and this time, about masculinity, stewardship and the incredible character we think Gerardo is. His reasons for being here are at odds with the cliche stereotype that all Mexicans are here "to make more money and feed off our system". For us the story also underscores the specific and individual and unimaginable catastrophes that all diasporas represent, but always and only in general terms. Gerardo might never have left mexico, he might have finished school, gone to college etc who knows, but he would not be here, working for us, flying under the La Migra radar, trying to put together a recognizable and honorable life in a foreign land that doesn't value him or acknowledge him. How many others are like him, and what are their choices?
If opening the ranch and the many complications of the place to the scrutiny of artists is a way of developing responsible and engaged involvements between art and living happens at the cost of mistakes, fuck ups and insensitivies as we figure out how to do it right, then so be it. Ellen and I are learning too. It's a journey. Please feel free to continue this discussion, either here on the blog or in class.
*NOTE - when you post back to the blog be sure to set your email to include the previous chain of emails or we won't have a "discussion blog"
This week we'll talk about the Residency. There is a directory of residency programs on reserve in the library. And, attached here is a DRAFT of our funding proposal description (This is not finished and is not a public document about the Residency). Please read this before our discussion and tour of the facilities. You will find it to be high on pictures and the basics of description. Our funding advisor kept sending our drafts back to us saying "less text and more pictures". I guess foundations with lots of $ would rather look than read too much. This is for you to see two things, more info on the residency and how we have been advised to package our financial pitch.
sent by David Bunn
Site Workers,
front page of sunday nytimes today "Remade in America" - check it out
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/us/15immig.html?_r=1&hp
Follow up on Gerardo's story and the discussion: your questions about the telling of Gerardo's story were perfectly appropriate. you were exactly right to call us on what we said about Gerardo's family history as it is /was not entirely our story to tell. As I said as we all left lunch to go outside, if we cannot ask any question or bring up any issue together in the seminar, then it's a failure. In hind sight Ellen and I both feel that we should have left out the personal details and told the Gerardo/David/Ellen story more generally, as we wanted it to be a story about us, too. But, in our minds it is such an integral part of the story, and integrated into a lot of our thoughts about the complications of this place and this time, about masculinity, stewardship and the incredible character we think Gerardo is. His reasons for being here are at odds with the cliche stereotype that all Mexicans are here "to make more money and feed off our system". For us the story also underscores the specific and individual and unimaginable catastrophes that all diasporas represent, but always and only in general terms. Gerardo might never have left mexico, he might have finished school, gone to college etc who knows, but he would not be here, working for us, flying under the La Migra radar, trying to put together a recognizable and honorable life in a foreign land that doesn't value him or acknowledge him. How many others are like him, and what are their choices?
If opening the ranch and the many complications of the place to the scrutiny of artists is a way of developing responsible and engaged involvements between art and living happens at the cost of mistakes, fuck ups and insensitivies as we figure out how to do it right, then so be it. Ellen and I are learning too. It's a journey. Please feel free to continue this discussion, either here on the blog or in class.
*NOTE - when you post back to the blog be sure to set your email to include the previous chain of emails or we won't have a "discussion blog"
This week we'll talk about the Residency. There is a directory of residency programs on reserve in the library. And, attached here is a DRAFT of our funding proposal description (This is not finished and is not a public document about the Residency). Please read this before our discussion and tour of the facilities. You will find it to be high on pictures and the basics of description. Our funding advisor kept sending our drafts back to us saying "less text and more pictures". I guess foundations with lots of $ would rather look than read too much. This is for you to see two things, more info on the residency and how we have been advised to package our financial pitch.
Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 4:24 AM
sent by Chiara Giovando
Reality is produced and echoed in our interaction with one another.
The reality of Los Angeles; psychic waves of ambition and hard bodies, bounces back from the reflective surfaces of metallic wrap-around sunglasses and rear veiw mirrors at high speed. The reality of my love shines from my eyes to those eyes and back again, making feed back loops of confirmation.
So then, what happens in the open spaces? What are the reflective surfaces of Wyoming? Big brown cow eyes? Land and land and more land? Open space and sky? What kind of reality do these things reflect?
Some slightly coherent thoughts from late at night... early in the morning
xoxoxC
sent by Chiara Giovando
Reality is produced and echoed in our interaction with one another.
The reality of Los Angeles; psychic waves of ambition and hard bodies, bounces back from the reflective surfaces of metallic wrap-around sunglasses and rear veiw mirrors at high speed. The reality of my love shines from my eyes to those eyes and back again, making feed back loops of confirmation.
So then, what happens in the open spaces? What are the reflective surfaces of Wyoming? Big brown cow eyes? Land and land and more land? Open space and sky? What kind of reality do these things reflect?
Some slightly coherent thoughts from late at night... early in the morning
xoxoxC
Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 7:55 PM
sent by David Bunn
On the drive down the 126 tomorrow, between Piru and Filmore, check out the farm on the right that has just put acres and acres of white netting over thousands of trees. That's a seedless tangerine orchard where seeds are showing up in the fruit from a neighboring valencia orange orchard. there is actually a quite war going on in the central valley where the majority of the seedless tangerine crop is being grown because the bees are cross polinating between other farms of valencia oranges. the tangerine farmers are at war with the orange farmers and with the bee keepers... the down to earth and grounded farmer cliche that Zach points out sounds a little more like the reality of flying off the handle and blowing sky high...
sent by David Bunn
On the drive down the 126 tomorrow, between Piru and Filmore, check out the farm on the right that has just put acres and acres of white netting over thousands of trees. That's a seedless tangerine orchard where seeds are showing up in the fruit from a neighboring valencia orange orchard. there is actually a quite war going on in the central valley where the majority of the seedless tangerine crop is being grown because the bees are cross polinating between other farms of valencia oranges. the tangerine farmers are at war with the orange farmers and with the bee keepers... the down to earth and grounded farmer cliche that Zach points out sounds a little more like the reality of flying off the handle and blowing sky high...
Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 7:41 PM
sent by Zachary Kleyn
Alright,
This quote, Reality's never been of much use out here, especially spoken
by a retired Wyoming rancher, struck me as odd.
It's odd to me because of the cliché we might use about people who work
on the land, as farmers or laborers: That they are "down to earth," or
"grounded," as opposed to dreamers or creative types that have their "head
in the clouds" or are "a million miles away." I'm not sure why there is a
relationship between these phrases and the working proximity to the earth.
Obviously farmers can be dreamers too, or not be able to focus on the task
at hand.
I am wondering though if the people who rely on the soil, on seasons, on
rain and the passage of time for their livelihood, are perhaps better
adapted at accepting the naturally slow unfolding that life takes, are
more "in-tune" to rhythms that are not quite as rushed as man tends to be.
I could be imagining an idyllic and nostalgic version of a farmer, perhaps
one that never really existed. Things have definitely changed in the last
century for farming, and just looking at the size of what the government
officially a "farm" (was it 300 acres?) gives us a markedly different
concept than the one-man-team with oxen plowing the field and eyeing the
oncoming clouds.
I grew up in a huge farming community, near Fresno in the central valley
of California. The myth (or is it reality?) that I learned there as a
child, and which still exists, is the farmer or rancher as being laid
back, easy-going, close to nature and always aware of his or her crop or
cattle on any given day.
Maybe this comes back to a definition of (or a problem defining) reality.
One man's dream is another man's reality.
I understand how it might be easy to bypass "reality" (I'm going to forego
a definition of this for now) if you are a millionaire cowboy or a
hollywood executive living on a smallish ranch, and you have the funds to
hire people to do all the "dirty work" for you (there's one of those
earthy cliches again), but what about farmers who actually still farm, as
in take part in working on the land, with or without hired help? Do these
people still exist? Did they ever exist?
Zach
sent by Zachary Kleyn
Alright,
This quote, Reality's never been of much use out here, especially spoken
by a retired Wyoming rancher, struck me as odd.
It's odd to me because of the cliché we might use about people who work
on the land, as farmers or laborers: That they are "down to earth," or
"grounded," as opposed to dreamers or creative types that have their "head
in the clouds" or are "a million miles away." I'm not sure why there is a
relationship between these phrases and the working proximity to the earth.
Obviously farmers can be dreamers too, or not be able to focus on the task
at hand.
I am wondering though if the people who rely on the soil, on seasons, on
rain and the passage of time for their livelihood, are perhaps better
adapted at accepting the naturally slow unfolding that life takes, are
more "in-tune" to rhythms that are not quite as rushed as man tends to be.
I could be imagining an idyllic and nostalgic version of a farmer, perhaps
one that never really existed. Things have definitely changed in the last
century for farming, and just looking at the size of what the government
officially a "farm" (was it 300 acres?) gives us a markedly different
concept than the one-man-team with oxen plowing the field and eyeing the
oncoming clouds.
I grew up in a huge farming community, near Fresno in the central valley
of California. The myth (or is it reality?) that I learned there as a
child, and which still exists, is the farmer or rancher as being laid
back, easy-going, close to nature and always aware of his or her crop or
cattle on any given day.
Maybe this comes back to a definition of (or a problem defining) reality.
One man's dream is another man's reality.
I understand how it might be easy to bypass "reality" (I'm going to forego
a definition of this for now) if you are a millionaire cowboy or a
hollywood executive living on a smallish ranch, and you have the funds to
hire people to do all the "dirty work" for you (there's one of those
earthy cliches again), but what about farmers who actually still farm, as
in take part in working on the land, with or without hired help? Do these
people still exist? Did they ever exist?
Zach
Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 9:36 PM
sent by David Bunn
The grafters were on the ranch today and I found out from them that we can graft more than one variety of citrus to one root stock... even several... even a complete variety tree, having each limb be a different citrus fruit! this answers Orlando's question about whether or not you can graft more than one variety at a time to a single tree. so, we're going to take at least one tree and graft a lemon, a lime, two varieties of navel orange, a tangerine... and more... wild!
David
sent by David Bunn
The grafters were on the ranch today and I found out from them that we can graft more than one variety of citrus to one root stock... even several... even a complete variety tree, having each limb be a different citrus fruit! this answers Orlando's question about whether or not you can graft more than one variety at a time to a single tree. so, we're going to take at least one tree and graft a lemon, a lime, two varieties of navel orange, a tangerine... and more... wild!
David
date Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 4:46 AM
sent by David Bunn
site workers,
as a vehicle for more discussion and perhaps a sharing of developing site project ideas I'd like to propose a discussion blog...
Annie Proulx begins Close Range with the following quote by a retired Wyoming rancher:
Reality's never been of much use out here
However, the issues and situations arising at Deep End Ranch are also intense confrontations with The Real.
using Proulx's quote and my added note about the real as a departure, write something from your point of view as it relates to this..., to the ranch, the farm, the west, the river, the landscape, or the history (any,all,part of the sessions/topics we've discussed, touched on, or something else inspired by or observed about "the territory" thus far) as serves your purpose. This can be abstract thinking or it can be specific to your developing idea for your site project. This can be brief or as long as you want. It does not have to be prose, it's about ideas...
Post it back to the group by email, cc'ing everyone, by "reply all" when you post. you may post it in sections or all at once.
also, please use this group email to post links to things you want to share or comments about readings or things you think of after leaving the seminar or driving down the 126, which you think about later. as we go forward we'll use the Deep End Blog as a continuing grad seminar discussion among us. (also, if anyone knows how to set up a real blog, we could do that if it's easier than email). You are encouraged to post as often and as much as you wish, but everyone must write at least once in response to what I've outlined above and you must write before next wednesday's seminar.
right on!
David
PS. current readings on reserve for next week are Michael Pollan, "Apples", and Annie Proulx newspaper interview "No longer at home on range". Film: Hertzog documentary, "Grizzly Man"
Soon I will also add a reading for the Immigration seminar next week.
sent by David Bunn
site workers,
as a vehicle for more discussion and perhaps a sharing of developing site project ideas I'd like to propose a discussion blog...
Annie Proulx begins Close Range with the following quote by a retired Wyoming rancher:
Reality's never been of much use out here
However, the issues and situations arising at Deep End Ranch are also intense confrontations with The Real.
using Proulx's quote and my added note about the real as a departure, write something from your point of view as it relates to this..., to the ranch, the farm, the west, the river, the landscape, or the history (any,all,part of the sessions/topics we've discussed, touched on, or something else inspired by or observed about "the territory" thus far) as serves your purpose. This can be abstract thinking or it can be specific to your developing idea for your site project. This can be brief or as long as you want. It does not have to be prose, it's about ideas...
Post it back to the group by email, cc'ing everyone, by "reply all" when you post. you may post it in sections or all at once.
also, please use this group email to post links to things you want to share or comments about readings or things you think of after leaving the seminar or driving down the 126, which you think about later. as we go forward we'll use the Deep End Blog as a continuing grad seminar discussion among us. (also, if anyone knows how to set up a real blog, we could do that if it's easier than email). You are encouraged to post as often and as much as you wish, but everyone must write at least once in response to what I've outlined above and you must write before next wednesday's seminar.
right on!
David
PS. current readings on reserve for next week are Michael Pollan, "Apples", and Annie Proulx newspaper interview "No longer at home on range". Film: Hertzog documentary, "Grizzly Man"
Soon I will also add a reading for the Immigration seminar next week.
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