242 A New Vision for Public Art and Functional Landscape Design Young Imm Kang Song Abstract This article explores how Johanson’s ecological Keywords public art and landscape design addresses public art, landscape design, art and design, current social issues and community necessi- ecological art, community art, environmental ties. It also examines how her designs may education, Patricia Johanson serve as a communication tool for the surround- ing society, and how her public art may provide new perspectives for community members, scientists, artists, engineers, architects and government officials in shaping the future of their communities. The purpose of this study was to inspire art and design students in think- ing about their future projects. This phenome- nological case study highlights Johanson’s works as a model for these students. Further- more, it discusses some educational implica- tions as seen among university students who first studied Johanson’s works and then designed their own public art projects. iJADE 33.2 (2014) © 2014 The Author. iJADE © 2014 NSEAD/John Wiley & Sons Ltd BW148 jade 33.2_text_AW03.indd 242 11/07/2014 12:06 Introduction learned from the projects and went on to create 243 ‘Biological evolution – like much contemporary their own public art works. Young Imm art – is based on time, process, and chance. Kang Song Both art and science have moved away from Review of literature concepts of self-sufficient isolated entities Humans have come to be an extraordinarily toward open-ended ideas of natural related- destructive force, over-consuming resources ness, organization, and systems’ (Johanson and severely altering the physical landscape 2002, 1). If this assessment of evolution is true, (Turner et al. 1991). By changing habitats and then the relationship between ecological public ecosystems, the composition of species inhab- art and landscape design is shifting into a more iting an area becomes transformed (McKinney ‘open-ended’ partnership. This shift has 2002). Alberti (2003, 172) stated: ‘The greatest perhaps come about from the work of ecologi- challenge for ecology in the coming decades is cal artists like Patricia Johanson. Her work has to fully and productively integrate the complex- for many years brought together both science ity and global scale of human activity into and art, and has suggested a new perspective ecological research.’ Now, a decade later, more and a new vision for public art designers. people than ever are indeed acknowledging Artist Patricia Johanson was born in New the intricacy of humans’ devastating relations York City and currently lives in a farmhouse in with the earth with their ecological research to Buskirk, New York, near the Green Mountain try to find solutions. This is an effort that needs National Forest and not far from the Mohawk a multidimensional approach, incorporating Trail. With a background in fine arts, Johanson scientists, engineers, politicians, architects began her foray into ecologically and socially and artists. Green landscape design, which aware landscape design in 1969 when the strives to minimise harm to natural ecosys- magazine House & Garden invited her to design tems, is one example of this effort. ‘There is an a garden. She sketched about 150 garden enormous untapped potential for such things designs that emphasised her vision for function- as the design of roads that are less harmful to ality and practical value in combination with animal migration, of buildings that kill fewer aesthetics, instead of art-for-art’s sake. This birds, and of landscaping that promotes native approach became the foundation for her large- species conservation’ (McKinney 2003. 1132). scale landscape designs. Johanson specifies These types of innovative approaches four goals for her ecological public art designs: acknowledge and address human needs while (1) the aesthetic experience, (2) the functionality also prioritising the needs of the ecosystem for preserving ecosystems, (3) its usefulness for that surround them. humans, and (4) to facilitate wildlife food chains. Promoting environmental awareness and Since the 1960s, Patricia Johanson has been working to protect the environment are multidi- interested in creating multifunctional ecological mensional processes. While scientists develop public art as a way of public landscaping. new ideas and inventions to protect the environ- She firmly believes that artists should seriously ment, artists simultaneously develop new consider the ecological survival and aesthetic approaches to affect people’s conscience and implications in designing or shaping public raise their environmental awareness. Some of landscapes. these artists are environmental artists (Song This article explores Johanson’s works as a 2009). Beginning with the environmental art lens through which one may understand current movement of the 1960s, some artists began to social and community issues. It describes the engage more actively in these trends. ways in which her works may have helped vari- What was the environmental art move- ous community members see their own society ment? According to Clive Adams, Director of with new perspectives. It also discusses how the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natu- university students who studied her works ral World: iJADE 33.2 (2014) © 2014 The Author. iJADE © 2014 NSEAD/John Wiley & Sons Ltd BW148 jade 33.2_text_AW03.indd 243 11/07/2014 12:06 244 During the political and social upheavals of the and Tree Chaining exercises in Eco-Logic, Sulli- Young Imm 1960s, a group of artists in the United States and van County, New York in 1968. In the same year, Kang Song Europe increasingly questioned the restriction of Patricia Johanson installed a 1,600 ft long work painting and experimented with radical new ways along the railroad in Buskirk, New York that was of responding to the environment and its ecology. a light-responsive artwork. The next year, Rather than paint the landscape, their experiences Haacke created Grass Grows in response to his were realized by sculpting the land itself, by photo­ own 1965 manifesto in Ithaca, New York. graphic sequences and in sculpture made from In the meantime, Alan Sonfist and Betty natural materials. (Adams 2002, 3) Beaumont sought to heighten the public’s awareness of the state of environmental pollu- There are several ways to define ecological and tion. In 1969, Sonfist monitored and posted environmental art. Greenmuseum.org defines results of air quality of various locations through- ecological art as ‘artwork created by artists out New York City. Beaumont documented the concerned with the state of our environment clean-up of the worst oil spill to date in the coun- worldwide, and with their local situation’ (green- try, in Santa Barbara, California. That same year, museum 2003, 4). They argue that ‘artists inter- Johanson produced hundreds of innovative pret nature and create artworks to inform us designs for ecologically integrated gardens. The about nature and its processes or about environ- movement carried on throughout the early mental problems we face’ (greenmuseum 2003, 1970s as well, with Haacke creating Bowery 4). Some researchers have also defined ecologi- Seeds to attract airborne seeds in New York cal art as restorative art that promotes aware- City, and Robert Smithson constructing Spiral ness, engagement and activism around major Hill/Broken Circle in Emmen, the Netherlands. environmental issues (Blandy et al.1998; Today, many artists understand that the crea- Cembalest 1991). Other researchers emphasise tion of ecological public art is an effective tool the relational approach of ecological art in terms that helps a community collectively identify and of integrating art with nature. In particular, resolve local environmental issues and foster Barbara Matlisky (1992, 57) asserts that ‘ecolog- connectedness through stewardship (Anderson ical art does not isolate and interpret aspects of 2000; Erzen2005; Taylor 2002). There are many nature but rather integrates them into a total reasons why ecological public art is able to network of relationships’. increase people’s awareness and interest about Since the environmental art movements of environmental issues. In particular, site-specific the 1960s, artists have been creating artworks installations invite the viewer to begin a dialogue that draw viewers into thinking beyond their about various local environmental issues. Public daily observations of the earth in action and to art is a gateway for community members to the larger natural forces that exist (Boetzkes rethink various local issues and take ownership 2007; Gablik 1995; Matilsky 1992). According to of an area (Gablik 1991; Spaid 2002; Weintraub Sue Spaid’s (2002) book entitled Ecovention: 1996). Because ecological public art is inher- Current Art to Transform Ecologies, several ently designed for widespread viewing, it can artists from the 1960s began to undertake spark dialogues from various stakeholders and projects that sought to physically transform the locations in the community. environment. One of the earliest artists to do so Both artists and students of art and design was Joseph Beuys, who proposed in 1962 that can play an important role in creating functional people take ‘action’ to partake in a clean-up ecosystems for the local wildlife and useful effort of the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany. In spaces for people by participating in landscape 1965, Hans Haacke wrote a manifesto that design: called for ‘time-based, dynamic, natural, inde-