It’s All in the Mix

We want the the Payne Gap Schoolhouse and Cemetery “campus” to encourage and facilitate experimentation. Think of a model like Black Mountain College, which continued the Bauhaus tradition by offering a curriculum focused on art. “Black Mountain was experimental in nature and committed to an interdisciplinary approach, prioritizing art-making as a necessary component of education and attracting faculty and lecturers that included many of America’s leading visual artists, composers, poets, and designers.” It’s a shame that a school cast from the same mold, Mills College, recently announced that it was ending its degree programs. It’s a particularly strong blow to the book arts community since Mills was the only program in the country that offered an advanced degree in the field.

Today we made a sludge of dirt, cement, and water. We dug a hole then poured in the mixture. We want to see how the cement mixture interacts with the soil, hoping it will shape itself as it oozes into and bonds with the dirt. We hope to unveil an interesting sculpture when it dries. **

Maybe we’ll call this series of earth-produced sculptures Accretion. Or maybe Heavy Smoke. Regardless, the one we created today is number one.

** A (mostly) locally sourced project

See also: Why Are We Still Talking About Black Mountain College?