At one stage, not long ago, it may have seemed that we were leaving the landscape behind, or drafting it in only in as a support or substrate for the flickering patterns of real-time culture. Even now, that seems possible: the monthly figure for new housing construction, a bellwether for economic growth, is imposed on the landscape by earthmovers and roadbuilders, underscored by raw mounds of earth. The works presented here suggest an alternative role, perhaps an alternative future for the landscape; as slow data and slow instrument, a complex material system that can be subtly designed into self-revelation.

This essay for Kerb 17 looks at the relationship between data, landscape and long time-scales through case studies including my own Watching the Sky, Driessens and Verstappen's Tschumi Tulips project, and Usman Haque and Robert Davis' Huey-Dewey-Louie Climate Clock.

Full text over on the blog