Related Projects and Resources

Excerpt from a summary of the project,  "Field Day – Rehabilitation Tools for the Post-Industrial Rural Environment"

I Hear This Once Was A Prairie - Elizabeth Walden
The poem by Elizabeth Walden (2013) was included in a presentation of the work at the Westbrook Artists’ Site (WAS), Field Day – Rehabilitation Tools for the Post-Industrial Rural Environment. This work is an interdisciplinary inquiry to foster creative potential in the post-industrial rural environment. The potential can be realized by challenging the entrenched, dominating paradigms that have shaped the settlement of the land, the rise of industrial agriculture, and rural culture. Incorporating the frame of the post-industrial is central to the mission of the Westbrook Artists’ Site (WAS) in Madison County, Iowa. We overlook the richness of ecological history in our current practices. Grassroots initiatives are essential to promoting these emerging practices. Design helps us to reflect upon the tools and methods we use to ascribe meaning and value to the world. 

Introduction
The creative potential in the post-industrial rural environment can be realized by challenging the entrenched, dominating paradigms that have shaped the settlement of the land, the rise of industrial agriculture, and rural culture. Incorporating the frame of the post-industrial is central to the mission of the Westbrook Artists’ Site (WAS) in Madison County, Iowa. The WAS is a legacy farm that has been undergoing a slow transformation from production agriculture to a post-industrial site. The WAS has deepened its mission, focusing on the history and condition of the land itself, to provide an experiential laboratory for exploration of the post-industrial rural condition. The post-industrial condition is defined by interdependencies not the isolation of elements within discrete parts---the model characteristic of industrial practices.  The establishment, transgression and transformation of boundaries and the role of human engagement, management and control of the environment are the dominant themes that emerged during our exploration.

The challenge of this endeavor begins with the difficulty of recognizing the paradigms we use which may be cocooned in our unconscious and relied upon without reflection. Even with the best intentions, we often fail to appreciate the consequences of our actions. Rural environments typically exist outside the frame of the cities and the people they support. We overlook the richness of ecological history in our current practices. Design helps us to reflect upon the tools and methods we use to ascribe meaning and value to the world. Design is critical to enabling change. Therefore, as designers we must be versed in multiple ways of knowing the world and be capable of synthesizing knowledge from art, science and culture into creative work and
further acts of discovery.