In July 2024, members of the Boyle lab (led by Noelle Schumann) invited participants of varying backgrounds on the art and ecology spectrum to join for a day of observation, creation, and discussion. We created this event in conjunction with our experimental research on virtual fencing as a tool for conservation. This is conducted in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy, Walter Dodd’s lab, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, and the Mushrush Ranches. (Listen to an NPR article about this project here for more info!) We convened this event because we were interested in fostering appreciation and opportunities for the exchange of perspectives on this landscape. The day provided participants an opportunity to explore and observe prairie in portions of the virtual fence experiment at the preserve where they were introduced to both control and experimental sites. Later, participants gathered information and produced inspired pieces at Matfield Green Works. Following the creation of the pieces featured below, participants engaged in discussion groups to explore the way in which art and ecology interact and enrich each other as fields, and where there is room for growth.
Here are some scenes from the event
We took participants to areas where cattle had been excluded….
…and areas where they had been allowed to graze heavily.
Annie Wilson with a flowering Big Bluestem
Participants shared knowledge of plants, grazing lands health, ranching culture, arthropods, birds, soils, and many other aspects of the prairie.
Despite the cool, rainy conditions, there were so many grasshoppers!
The grazed areas created just the right amount of bare ground to allow Grasshopper Sparrows (such as this young one) to forage easily. They were absent from the ungrazed areas.
Creating art at Matfield Green
Short introduction to the site from Bill McBride
Exchanging perspectives on art and ecology
Here are some of the pieces that people created and a short reflection on the artists’ inspiration
“This is a blind contour drawing of the trails at Matfield Station overlaid with estimations of the size and shape of the two field sites from the Tallgrass Preserve, an attempt at accurately depicting data with only having access to the tools of one’s own body and senses. In these two pieces, the blind contour method is reminiscent of the experience of “tracing” the field sites without contextual information, paths, or orientation beyond one’s own self. We were told the metal marker indicated a boundary of some kind, but beyond that its meaning was unknown (right). I learned from a participant that ironweed is an indicator of heavily grazed or disturbed areas (left).” –Kelly Yarbrough
“This piece was made by cutting up the contact sheet made of the film shot on the morning of the event and pasting the individual frames on a plain sheet of paper.” –Don Wolfe
“As we explored the area of the Virtual Fence (VF) Project, I found myself first looking for the birds, which surprised me because, in the past, I would have first gone for the plants or soils. I found myself reflecting on my summer with the VF Project and all the ways I now interact with and know the prairie because of these birds, for whom I am forever grateful.” –Theo Michaels
“The gloomy skies hovered over us as the grass enveloped us in lushness, and in the distance, we could see rolling hills and watersheds” –Crystal Li
“I started with a map of the Tallgrass Prairie site we had just visited and using a small bit of soil from the site, as well as other Kansas soils as my medium, I tried to visualize what this area might look like with x-ray vision, to see the soil underneath the prairie. I also included some of the restored ag fields across the highway, and the varied qualities of soils that they might contain, due to historic farming practices.” –Rhonda Janke
“The remains of the old railroad corral, which represent the bygone era of rail shipping – in the past a place of such intense activity and effort by cowboys to gather and load herds of cattle fattened after summers on tallgrass prairie, now still, quiet, and being recolonized by native plants – juxtaposed against the image in the distance of the modern home of an artist and visionary working to celebrate the land and its legacy and build a new type of community.” –Annie Wilson
“My inspiration was both the datasheets that I usually write on in the field, and the structural heterogeneity of the prairie patches we visited. Moving L to R, I envisage a transition from the grazed areas to the places where cattle had been excluded.” –Alice Boyle
“It’s a Three Lubber Day!” –Zoë Colatarci–
“Entrance to the prairie” –Gloria Gibler
Audio: “wind dispersal: Composed by using field recordings taken from a survey area within the Tallgrass Prairie Nature Preserve, this piece was inspired by slow looking and listening with the prairie as part of the Art and Ecology program. As listeners, we encounter the acoustic sounds of the prairie first, then the synths, like the tall grasses, gently grow and spread into the distant horizon, which encouraged this piece to grow from the gentle magic of being immersed in the prairie.” –Veronica Anne Salinas
Take a listen here to the audio work described in the above caption.
