Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
power equals work over time
“Mining […] has a very temporary, prosperous impact on a community and
particularly on the owners of the mine itself [...] But once it’s gone, it leaves a scar; it
leaves every kind of scar in the form of acid water in all the creeks, of barren
landscapes that have no topsoil whatsoever on them, or ancient veins left by interior
mines or canyons left by strip mining. Once the resource is gone, the communities that
were established because of the coal […] have to change or they die – and many of
them have died.”
Ora E. Anderson, A Forest Returns
With this quotation by Anderson as a contradistinction to the physical definition of power1,
explores “the entanglement of physical landscapes, ecological systems, and socioeconomic histories in
Appalachian Ohio...” 2 The exhibition will present a cross‐section of this collaborative research in
conjunction with the artistic productions inspired by it.
The following proposal is organized in segments, the headings of which are equations. The literary use of
a mathematical structure brings to mind the opening lines of Robert Smithson’s essay Language to be
Looked at and/or Things to be Read: “Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.
The power of a word lies in the very inadequacy of the context it is placed, in the unresolved or partially
resolved tension of disparates.” (Flam 1996) In this document, equations are used as figurative
metaphors that are intended to suggest a more interpretive reading of an apparently analytical system.
The title of the exhibition, is an excellent example of the fluidity of language when used in a
mathematical context. In the equation, power, work, and time have very flexible
definitions. Power connotes many things including but not limited to; the geological power of
1
Power is the rate at which work is performed or energy is converted. Power is equal to work divided by time.
2
McKee, Yates. (2010). Ohio University School of Art Critical Regionalism Initiative: Political Ecology Research Sites,
1. A document produced by Yates McKee for the “… in a most dangerous manner” exhibition at the Spaces Gallery
in Cleveland Ohio. Curated by Steven Lam and Sarah Ross, ““…in a most dangerous manner” features artworks,
screenings, discussions and a publication that question how “economic crises” have often been instrumentalized
to restore divisions in class and power. The exhibition examines the current economic conditions not as a crisis, a
temporal anomaly, nor a failure in governmental regulations, but rather a cycle of speculative overtures that are
common in the evolution of global financial markets. Featuring work by Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber, Julia
Christensen, Elaine Gan, Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hyashida, Lize Mogel, Claire Pentecost, Ohio University School of
Art Critical Regionalism Initiative (Kainaz Amaria, Matthew Friday, Jeff Lovett, Yates McKee, Jason Nein, and others,
Katya Sander, and Allan Sekula.”
Jeff Lovett Page 2 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
continents colliding, the pure mechanical power of machines, the electricity that is extracted from
power outlets3 and the social power engaged by politicians, managers, and individuals.
Work and time hold the same interpretative qualities; however the mathematical construction of the
equation allows for even more complex readings of the terms. When read in a non‐mathematical way,
the title to the exhibition reads, “power equals work over time.” The terms “over” and “time” are
verbally combined into the phrase over‐time. The concept of over‐time is capable of engaging issues of
labor and unions, but on a more personal level it can refer to the complex nature of sacrifice, describe
the efforts that individuals make in the name of power, and the value they place on gaining more power
within a system: topics which are central to the fabric of the region. These are merely cursory
examinations of the possible readings that can occur when combining such loaded words in an
interpretive manner and should not be mistaken as the correct, preferred, or even suggested readings.
Please observe the following segment headings in the same flexible and interpretive way as the title of
the exhibition. The segment headers, as subheadings under the broad framework of the exhibition, may
4
also be read as analogies with the title, . While this complicates the nature of reading a simple
title or heading, it highlights the interconnectedness and complex nature of the regional issues that my
work is addressing.
There is an aesthetic quality to the equation that cannot and should not be denied. An integral aspect of
my work centers on finding a home for complex emotional issues in the cold analytical aesthetics of
math and science. The juxtapositions of function, the emotive and the analytical, have the potential to
pull these disparate methods of observing the complexities of this region away from false and overly
subjective or objective responses towards a common ground that acknowledges the problematic nature
of analysis. In other words there is a world that exists between the cold analytical data that can be
obtained through maps, charts, surveys, measurement, etc. and the emotional responses derived from
personal experience, interviews, portraits, documentaries, etc. My work strives, by combining these
opposing forces, to find a middle ground that accepts, highlights and works within its communicative
deficiencies.
Coal is an archive of the indexical remains from an ancient time of prolific organic growth.5 For hundreds
of thousands of years, the biological growth in this region was covered with clay and compressed in to
3
Power is so fluidly interpreted that it can barely be discussed without referring to other interpretations of itself.
It is the cyclical and self‐reflexive nature of the term that makes it such an excellent framework for exploring the
social, economic, physical and ecological complexities of Appalachian Ohio.
4
Think of the literary equivalent of a differential equation: In this relationship,
power is equal to the variable X.
5
Both the archive and the index are integral aspects to my research and are discussed individually and in more
detail later in the proposal.
Jeff Lovett Page 3 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
the earth. This hermetic (oxygen‐deprived) environment prevented decomposition and preserved the
photosynthetic energy that these plants absorbed from the sun while pressure and time converted the
organic plant matter to inorganic coal. The bituminous coal found in Appalachia, when burned, releases
solar energy collected 330 million years ago and that energy is, in turn, converted to power.
The materiality of coal is something that is rarely experienced first‐hand, however, through some form
of mediation it is present in nearly every experience. It can be difficult to remember coal in the warm
glow of an incandescent lamp illuminating anything from a piece of artwork to an artifact in a museum,
but the biological effort put forth by the plants of the carboniferous period to convert sunlight into
usable energy is present in every photon of visible radiation, better known as light, which reflects off of
a given surface.
The invisible history of these photons is an undertone in much of my work but is explicitly addressed in
Bituminous Coal: from the Oxford mine near New Lexington6. This sculpture/specimen is simply a large
block of coal displayed on a tall pedestal directly below an exposed halogen flood‐light. In this piece
numerous geological and social complexities are referenced including; the unabashed glorification that
is inherent in scientific methods of presentation, the status of coal as a fossil fuel not a fossil, as well as
the art historical topics of the found object and the ready‐made. The diverse and complex nature of
southeast Ohio is most directly accessed through the relationship between the exposed halogen lamp
and the block of coal itself.
The process of observing and contemplating this specific block of coal and its relationship to the light
source that is illuminating it is the final link in a cycle of events that stretch back to the fusion in the sun
three‐hundred and thirty million years ago. This block is inherently complicit in the cultural and
ecological politics of the region but when it is placed on a pedestal beneath a showerhead of light,
invisible photons are projected down upon the coal and it is converted from a nearly worthless block
functional material into a beautiful fossil specimen. Massive quantities of time are illuminated and the
details embedded in the strata of the coal break‐down the fundamental categories of animal, plant, and
mineral.
In the carboniferous period, like footprints in the sand7 millions living organisms fell to the ground and
were covered by a dozens of feet of murky water and the silt that came with it. Despite the geologic
6
This particular piece of coal was given to me by the Oxford Mine near New Lexington. The majority of coal
harvested at this mine is sold to American Electric Power where it is used generate electricity for the region but the
mine retains a “small” amount of coal to sell to the public for heating at the rate of seventy‐five dollars per ton. It
is from this pile that I received this specimen of coal. It is a soft, sulfur rich, bituminous coal that is part of the
same as the coal deposits that brought prosperity to Appalachia nearly a hundred years ago.
7
The metaphor of footprints in the sand is a direct reference to the inspirational reading of Jennifer Allora and
Guillermo Calzadilla’s 2001 piece Landmark (footprints) by Yates McKee, “Something appears to have happened. A
photograph was taken, a freezing of time and a fragmentation of space, leaving us in the here and now with a
Jeff Lovett Page 4 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
forces that these organisms were subjected to, the evidence of their life remains as coal. The massive
quantity of coal in Appalachia is evidence of the incomprehensible abundance of biological life in the
carboniferous period. In its abundance the value of coal is reduced to a commodity and as such the
industry of its extraction is only focused on that aspect of its value. The impact of the coal industry can
be seen in every aspect of the region and its people; deforestation, reforestation, acid filled streams,
and mass population shifts that leave once decadent towns in crumbling ruins8. I have created a device
to record images of the marks left on this region.
The Mobile Platen Scanning Unit, (MPSU), consists of a flatbed or full platen scanner affixed to the
underside of a tablet pc. This device allows the collection of extremely high resolution images of a
surface. This image recording device, like all others, does not record an objective image of its subject.
The MPSU on the contrary records and displays its flaws in every scan including; the miniscule depth of
field, the ghostly graying out near the edges, the flattening effect created by the exposure surface
pressing down on the subject, digital artifacts caused by exposure situations that baffle the on‐board
computer. These mistakes offer an aesthetically honest and engaging reminder of the problematic
nature of documentary image recording.
The first subjects of the MPSU were the Shawnee Ohio scans which focused on the deep layers historical
information that fill every crevice of the town. These images recorded the indexical compression of
time that can be found in the ground at what was once one of the most prosperous mining towns in the
region. The images are layered with a visually compressed history; recent growth, decaying garbage,
errant mechanical parts, eroding street bricks and beneath it all the very earth is impregnated with coal
dust from years of production, consumption and distribution.
One of the scars referred to by Anderson in the opening quote of this document is the biochemical
phenomenon known as Acid Mine Drainage (AMD). AMD, a serious problem in southeast Ohio is caused
by water flowing out of coal mines, many of which were abandoned over a hundred years ago. AMD
carries with it the oxidized minerals that were trapped within the coal. The oxidized minerals leave
corrosive deposits at their point of departure and stain creeks red for miles killing all of the living
organisms in the process. The MPSU image series, Acid Mine Drainage records two of these AMD
deposits. The aesthetically pleasing qualities inherent in images of this type of environmental
destruction are self‐incriminating, in that the system used to capture, print and illuminate the images is
petrified shard of a there and then. Preserved and interrupted by the camera, it is evident that this past present
was never simply present to begin with. Then and there, at the actual click of the shutter, the moment and
location in question were already marked by the remains of another event, traces that survived the actuality of
their own genesis. These were traces, we can discern, that were destined to recession or oblivion, impressed into
the precarious medium of sand. Yet there they were and here they are, almost, not quite. Monuments of absence,
their origins are enigmatic.” (McKee n.d.)
8
This is in reference to an archival scan from the Wayne National Forest Archives. The full caption reads, “Aerial
view of Buchtel, Ohio, a stranded decadent coal mining community. Note the heavily over‐grazed and eroding hill
in the center of this view. – Athens R.D (Prater) Wayne P.U. 10/13/40 – Land Use‐Ghost Towns – #401553 Wayne‐
Hosier.
Jeff Lovett Page 5 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
based on the industry that created the disaster being recorded. They, like Eugéne Atget’s photos of the
deserted streets of Paris from 1900, are akin to crime scene photos. Walter Benjamin’s description of
Atget’s images is very pertinent and cyclically inspirational to this body of work9.
As miners probed the hills of this region they were sometimes plagued by veins of hard limestone. These
veins were broken, removed and discarded as valueless rocks. Coal balls, as they are referred to, are
permineralised fossils from the same period and made from the same raw material as the coal. On rare
occasions, water would flow through the not yet coalified organic matter bringing minerals with it. This
produced, in small pockets, an abundance of fossilized remains which embed these previously worthless
rocks with a tremendous value to paleobotanists10.
In the Coal Ball series of images, created with the MPSU, evidence of these organisms and the value
they have been given is most apparent. The paleobotany department at Ohio University executes a
complex process on these coal balls that results in thin peels from the surface of a cut rock embedded in
acetate. These peels are archived by the thousands and are an analog record of the diversity of life in
the carboniferous period. The MPSU images of these peels, digitally archives the biological information
available in each specimen but more excitingly, they liberate a select few from their analog archival
prison to exist as digitally reproducible representatives of the wealth of knowledge that is filed away in
cabinets.
The archive as a tangible entity is cyclical, in the words of Foucalt, “it is the system of its functioning.”11
The initial manifestation of this system utilizes the “archival impulse”12 to collaboratively develop an
9
“…Atget, who, around 1900, took photographs of deserted Paris streets. It has justly been said that he
photographed them like scenes of crimes. A crime scene, too, is deserted; it is photographed for the purpose of
establishing evidence. With Atget, photographic records begin to be evidence in the historical trial [Prozess]. This
constitutes their hidden political significance. They demand a specific kind of reception. Free‐floating
contemplation is no longer appropriate to them. They unsettle the viewer; he feels challenged to find a particular
way to approach them.” (Benjamin 1937)
10
“Pennsylvanian age plants, preserved by calcareous cellular permineralization (coal balls), are among the most
valuable of Paleozoic fossils. At localities where large quantities of material are available for study, features such
as anatomical structure and plant habitat can often be thoroughly examined… In instances where preservation is
especially good, developmental sequences and even reproductive mechanisms sometimes can be interpreted.”
(Rothwell 1976)
11
In the The Archaeology of Knowledge Foucalt, states that “The archive is not that which, despite its immediate
escape, safeguards the event of the statement, and preserves, for future memories, its status as an escapee; it is
that which, at the very root of the statement‐event, and in that which embodies it, defines at the outset the
system of its enunciability. Nor is the archive that which collects the dust of statements that have become inert
once more, and which may make possible the miracle of their resurrection; it is that which defines the mode of
occurrence of the statement‐thing; it is the system of its functioning… “It is obvious that the archive of a society, a
culture, or a civilization cannot be described exhaustively; or even, no doubt, the archive of a whole period. On the
other hand, it is not possible for us to describe our own archive, since it is from within these rules that we speak,
since it is that which gives to what we can say — and to itself, the object of our discourse — its modes of
Jeff Lovett Page 6 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
archive of the region and its network of influences through direct observation, exploration, collection,
and historical research. It is in the service of the archival impulse that the MPSU was developed as an
imaging device. Numerous site visits have been conducted, and the collections that culminated in
Bituminous Coal: from the Oxford mine near New Lexington and Acid Mine Drainage: Carbondale #2
Mine Remediation Facility were conducted.
Frequently, however, this path of discovery leads into existing archives as exemplified by the collection
of digital prints Wayne National Forest Archives. These images were found in a box of file folders at the
Wayne National Forest Headquarters with enticing categorical labels such as; “Ghost Towns”, “Timber
Management”, and “Job Corps”. The images are even more cryptically notated with numeric titles such
as: #401560 Wayne‐Hoosier. The intriguing and problematic essence of these categories and titles is
echoed in the title cards of individual works in .
As a cross section of the archive is a presentation of images, objects and texts. Inspired by the
likes of Walter Benjamin and Robert Smithson14, the exhibition of collections and productions engages
13
in a dialectical discourse that would be otherwise lost in the catacombs of the tangible archive. This is
evidenced in the relationships displayed between; Hypothetical segment of a typical molecule in a
bituminous coal, Bituminous Coal: from the Oxford mine near New Lexington and Carboniferous Forest
Diorama. In the same way that the strata of coal illuminates massive quantities of time and breaks down
the fundamental categories of animal, plant, and mineral, these three works illuminate the complex and
appearance, its forms of existence and coexistence, its system of accumulation, historicity, and disappearance. The
archive cannot be described in its totality; and in its presence it is unavoidable. It emerges in fragments, regions,
and levels, more fully, no doubt, and with greater sharpness, the greater the time that separates us from it: at
most, were it not for the rarity of the documents, the greater chronological distance would be necessary to analyze
it.” The Archaeology of Knowledge, (Foucalt 2002)
12
Foster, H. (2004). “An Archival Impulse”. October110, 3‐22. Foster describes the archival impulse as a “notion of
artistic practice as an idiosyncratic probing into particular figures, objects, and events in modern art, philosophy,
and history.”
13
In Susan Buck‐Morss’ The Dialectics of Seeing, she describes Walter Benjamin’s inspirational notes from the
conception of his final and incomplete work, Passagen‐Werk. “Benjamin’s early notes are fragments of
commentary in which the great majority of [Passagen]‐ project’s themes are stated in abbreviated fashion. They
are assembled in to particular order: Arcades, fashion, boredom, kitsch, souvenirs, wax figures, gaslight,
panoramas, iron construction, photography, prostitution, Jugendstil, flâneur, collector, gambling, streets, casings,
department stores, metros, railroads, street signs, perspective, mirrors, catacombs, interiors, weather, world
expositions, gateways, architecture, hashish, Marx, Haussmann, Saint‐Simon, Grandville, Wiertz, Redon, Sue,
Baudelaire, Proust. Central methodological concepts are also present in the notes: dream image, dreaming
collective, ur‐history, not‐of‐recognition, dialectical.
The list itself suggests the Surrealists’ fascination with urban phenomena, which they experienced both as
something objective and something dreamt.” (Buck‐Morss 1991)
14
The emphasis placed on the connection between images as the locus for meaning as opposed to the content of
the images themselves is most apparent in Robert Smithson’s sketch, King Kong Meets the Gem of Egypt. The lone
image of a giant earth moving machine, while imposing, is placed in context as a demolishing monster when
dialectally opposed to the futuristic iron clad King Kong who crushes any building in his path. At the same time the
morbid fascination associated with monstrous machinery is made apparent by the Gem of Egypt’s proximal
association to a fictional monster from a film.
Jeff Lovett Page 7 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
cyclical nature of the archive and break down the fundamental categories of objective, subjective, and
historical. Hypothetical segment of a typical molecule in a bituminous coal’s15 hexagonal structure is
echoed upon close inspection in the enlarged Ben‐Day dots of Carboniferous Forest Diorama16.
Separating the two institutionally created references to coal is the physically dominating presence of
Bituminous Coal: from the Oxford mine near New Lexington. The raw nature of this block of coal throws
into stark contrast the intuitional representations of a geologic phenomenon a relationship, again,
inspired by many of Robert Smithson’s works. This dialectic is most effectively illustrated by and in many
ways is analogous to his 1968 piece Nonsite (Oberhausen, Germany)17.
as an archive serves as a network of access points for the viewer and a web of influences for
the artistic productions that, when completed, are folded back into the archive from which they were
inspired. The cyclical methodology of research and production facilitates an archive that is continually
re‐informed and reflexive.
In the process of creating an archive, the primary point of labor is research. One of the first focal points
for exploration in southeast Ohio is the elevated second story porch, a unique element of architecture
prevalent in many of the once prosperous mining communities. The main street of Shawnee in particular
has many of these. This research began as simple photographic documentation and developed into a
series of detailed black and white silhouette drawings. The production of Shawnee Silouhettes began as
a method of research and developed into “a kind of spectral typological survey”18 The detailed profiles
of the cantilevered porches from Shawnee communicate the prosperous history and the dismal fall that
followed regional coal bust in a clear and concise way. This work has become the portal to the body of
research and functions as an anchor for more abstract data.
15
Hypothetical segment of a typical molecule in a bituminous coal is a wall sized reproduction of a hypothetical
coal molecule sourced from a nineteen‐sixties article detailing the chemical composition of coal and constructed
with electrical tape.
16
Carboniferous Forest Diorama is an 83” x 42” digital print. The imagery for this print was scanned from page 547
of The Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology the Third Edition by Tarbuck and Lutgens, 1990. The image
reproduced in The Earth was taken of a diorama on permanent exhibition at the Field Museum of Natural History
in Chicago. The Coal Forest Diorama was built in the 1931 and was the crowning achievement of the Plant
Reproduction Laboratory. Over time it has become, in many ways, the de facto example of a carboniferous forest.
17
In this Nonsite (Oberhausen, Germany), Smithson displays, on the wall, a series of black and white prints which
are, in their own right, rife with dialectical relationships between a map, photographs and hand written
annotations. The juxtaposition that is most relevant to the work in is completed by the manufactured,
minimalism referencing, crates positioned on the floor jutting out from the wall of prints. These crates are filled
with the harvested product from the site illustrated in the wall bound images.
18
“Spectral Typology” is a phrase coined by Yates McKee about Shawnee Silhouettes in his document Ohio
University School of Art Critical Regionalism Initiative: Political Ecology Research Sites.
Jeff Lovett Page 8 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
There is a desk included in the exhibition; it functions as a venue for the display of textual and statistical
research. The presentation and availability of this information in a more raw state functions on an
aesthetic and symbolic level, not unlike Robert Smithson’s works A Heap of Language and Strata A
Geographic Fiction. Initially the glut of statistical and literal information blended with numerous
interpretations can be overwhelming and potentially transform, into a strata or heap. This tendency is
one that can be analogous to the experience of subject on which it reports. Despite the fact that it is
harvested, crushed, and burned by the ton; coal is a stratified record of data from three‐hundred and
thirty million years ago.19
The collection of research on display is intended to function not only as an aesthetic marker of data but
as a portal into the broad and problematic complexities of the region and the world. This link to a
broader system of influences is a response to the possibility for radical metaphor that Smithson refers to
in the continuation of the previously quoted passage from Language to be Looked at and/or Things to be
Read. “A word fixed or a statement isolated without any decorative or ‘cubist’ visual format, becomes a
perception of similarity in dissimilars – in short a paradox. Congruity could be disrupted by a
metaphorical complexity within a literal system. Literal usage incantory when all metaphors are
suppressed. Here language is built, not written. Yet discursive literalness is apt to be a container for a
radical metaphor.” (Flam 1996)
“What passes as individual things are always collectives – heterogeneous assemblages – composed of
human and non‐human agents and systems.”20 (Thompson 2008) These three assemblages are
inherently incorporated in . The video loop Bridge to the Future was appropriated from and in
collaboration with the 1980 Exxon media department in the production of their video, Coal: A Bridge to
the Future. This collaboration includes the corporate motivation to create a video excusing Exxon from
the blame of perpetuating an industry with obvious negative effects on the environment. It also extends
to the corporate artist working on the most advanced of synthesizers available in 1980 envisioning a
sound track that was both futuristic and reassuring. Carboniferous Forest Diorama is in collaboration
with the Field Museum and The Earth An Introduction to Physical Geology in much the same way. In this
instance I am appropriating all the work and labor used to create a beautiful diorama of a primeval
forest and the massive infrastructure that is required to turn a simple diorama into the primary symbol
for a geologic time period.
19
Smithson explores the relationship between geologic strata and text on a page quite literally in Strata A
Geographic Fiction. In the Carboniferous layer of this work, Smithson piles thoughts and references on one another
in a way that evokes massive fronds piling up on the floor of the forest.
20
In this quotation Iain Kerr, a member of Spurse, is referring to problematized investigation into individualization
in relation to the Micromobilia project.
Jeff Lovett Page 9 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
The aforementioned collaborations with non‐human agents (or at least very removed and mediated
human agents) are balanced by a sense of human agency gained through group site visits to the Little
Cities of Black Diamonds21 with The Entangled Citizens22 and the World of Waste tour organized by Ohio
University’s Office of Sustainability. These were critical in establishing a collaborative network of
researchers including Dr. Bernhard Debatin, a journalism professor at Ohio University and Sonya
Marcus, the director of Ohio University’s Office of Sustainability, both of whom are engaging sources of
inspiration, information, and collaboration. Dr. Debatin has, over the course of several years, poured a
considerable amount of labor into developing a strong network within the community as well as a
working understanding of the physical and cultural systems at play. His experience and expertise is a
core benefit to the working archive of .
The collaborative entity Spurse and Matthew Friday, a member of Spurse and a professor of painting at
Ohio University, have through the participation in and development of the Entangled Citizens group
have created a venue for collaboration and exchange that would otherwise have remained
individualized to a higher degree. The most recent product of the experience gained from that collective
is the Ohio University School of Art Critical Regionalism Initiative. This collective has developed as a
conduit and pool for researching, collecting, distributing and exhibiting.23
The other major form of collaboration in is a systematic collaboration with the aesthetic
vocabulary of the modern science museum. Many years of institutional development have refined the
process of communicating complex information in an elegant and engaging system. By adopting a
21
“Between 1870 and 1920, four counties in the Appalachian region of southeastern Ohio were at the center of
the Buckeye State’s coal production. By the early 20th century, this region had more than 70 mining communities
large and small, which became known as the Little Cities of Black Diamonds. Developed primarily to serve coal
miners and their families, some were company towns, owned completely by the coal companies; others were
speculative real estate developments begun by promoters who saw the coal boom coming. As time went on, the
area gained a distinctive character and sense of place that arose from its severe topography, its resilient people,
and its unique architecture. Made up of the southern part of Perry County, the eastern part of Hocking County, the
northern part of Athens County, and the western edge of Morgan County, the Little Cities region measured about
15 miles square.” p.7 (Recchie 2009)
22
The Entangled Citizens is a collaborative project that focuses on the various entanglements of nature / culture
produced by the region of southeast Ohio.
23
The first exhibition of this initiative was in early 2010: “… in a most dangerous manner” exhibition at the Spaces
Gallery in Cleveland Ohio. Curated by Steven Lam and Sarah Ross, ““…in a most dangerous manner” features
artworks, screenings, discussions and a publication that question how “economic crises” have often been
instrumentalized to restore divisions in class and power. The exhibition examines the current economic conditions
not as a crisis, a temporal anomaly, nor a failure in governmental regulations, but rather a cycle of speculative
overtures that are common in the evolution of global financial markets. Featuring work by Sabine Bitter and
Helmut Weber, Julia Christensen, Elaine Gan, Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hyashida, Lize Mogel, Claire Pentecost,
Ohio University School of Art Critical Regionalism Initiative (Kainaz Amaria, Matthew Friday, Jeff Lovett, Yates
McKee, Jason Nein, and others, Katya Sander, and Allan Sekula.”
Jeff Lovett Page 10 of 10
Thesis Proposal
3‐29‐2010
scientistic aesthetic, this exhibition will appropriate and collaborate with an established set of tactics in
an attempt to mobilize both more traditional artistic and scientific settings. has an undeniable
pedagogical motivation however it does not cater to a specific audience. An exhibition in the
communities from which the archive was cultivated would vary greatly from an exhibition in a not for
profit gallery in Columbus or Cleveland. As the web of the archive is curated into a space it will be
tailored to that space and the community it serves to best break down the distinction between
reader/viewer and author/creator. To this point the words of Walter Benjamin have never been more
true, “… the distinction between author and public is about to lose its axiomatic character. The
difference becomes functional (…) At any moment, the reader is ready to become a writer.” (Benjamin
1937)
Bibliography
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility: Second Edition. Paris,
1937.
Buck‐Morss, Susan. The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades project. Boston: MIT,
1991.
Flam, Jack. Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1996.
Foster, Hal. "An Archival Impulse." October110, 2004: 3‐22.
Foucalt, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge . London: Routledge Classics, 2002.
McKee, Yates. "Art and The Ends of Environtmentalism: From the Biosphere to the Right to Survival."
Site, n.d.: 539.
Recchie, Jeffrey T. Darbee and Nancy A. Images of America The Little Cities of Black Diamonds.
Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2009.
Rothwell, Gar W. "Petrified Pennsylvanian Age Plants of Eastern Ohio." The Ohio Journal of Science
76(3), 1976: 128.
Thompson, Nato. Experimental Geography. Brooklyn: Melville House Publishing, 2008.