Instrumentality as a material practice is interested in the ways that operating tools engaged with the landscape medium can generate the conditions for recreation and industry. For field research this project is undertaking two studies of wildly different scales- the operation of earthmovers and backhoes for constructing a strip mall next to the suburban office headquarters at the Northrop Grunman facility on highway 29 near Charlottesville, Virginia, and pruning a hedge with a pair of Felco pruning shears. The method here is one of collage; aligning and overlaying a photo series, with some transparency, and color focus on the major operable parts that seems to be forming spaces, altering the material, changing the behavior of adjacent humans- in short, making landscape. These images are then overlaid with a layer of data- dimensions and lists- which are more typically reserved for the spatial orthographic drawings such as plan and section. The intent is to lend some specificity and immediacy to the operation of the tools visibly at work. Backhoe excavation at the Northrop Grunman facility:
the operating backhoe adjacent to the city sidewalk and the cars of highway 29 creates a moment of interest, and pehaps perceived danger on the road. Here the backhoe is being used to excavate a trench for a sewer pipe. It is then used to lower segments of the precast pipe into place with a cable attached to the articulated arm, while workers shuffle around its bucket shovel to guide the pipe segment. Cars and people pass only a few feet away; admittedly many more cars than people while an ailanthus tree sprouts in the forground, protected from trampling by the guardrail. The powerful, graceful movements of the triple-articulated arm of the backhoe works steadily to excavate the land it rests on; the views it frames, the raidii it creates, and the interaction moments with people, machines, and material work to generate landscape while excavating for building footers or utility pipes. The process of the backhoe excavating and dropping its payload into an earthmover not only changes the actual ground in the fore, it frames and activates the background and the atmosphere, releases dust and earth into the air and heaping piles of dirt around the exchange point; the specific arcs and lines created by the operating tools are the objects that work to create this provisional landscape.
Felco pruners on carpinus carolinia:
Michael pruning a carpinus caroliniana- ironwood. the pruners are the most extreme tip of the entire tool- the human body that ducks in and out of the vegetation choosing the right limbs to prune, pushing the others aside
most of the radii and power are provided by the human body; the pruners add a cutting edge, leverage, and one additional radius
the pruner, the tree, and the person are all in total motion when pruning is taking place; though the scale is much small, the involvement is total
These instances of instrumentality as a material practice are representative examples meant to examine activities operating at different economic, expertise, and spatial scales: the operation of backhoes and construction of commercial research facilities are typically considered industrial operations, whereas the use of felco pruners are usually a maintenance or recreational activity. The working of these tools lends an immediacy and agency to the inhabitants of the landscape- it is a form of actualized potential. The confrontation between material and tool creates views, establishes safety zones, demarcates areas for working and walking, and generates new habitats and materials.
conclusion: Two facts germane to a working theory of landscape instrumentalism immediately spring to the fore through this study- 1) the engagement of machines, tools, and implements can create and generate landscape; framing views, making micro-topographies, habitats, new forms, and 2) the disparate scales must immediately be grappled with. Our representational technique seemed interesting when dealing with a large landscape in general stasis, but when the landscape was a single tree canopy and small scale tool moving all over the place the effect is nauseating.
