An Artist A Farmer and a Scientist Walk into a Bar
by Alex Wisser
From 2018 to 2020 I worked with my best mates at Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation (ksca) on a long term project engaging eight artists with farmers, scientists, aboriginal custodians, and rural stakeholders on a project that engaged with the efforts of farmers to transition from conventional, industrial methods of farming to more sustainable forms, often called regenerative farming. The project began with a stakeholder engagement in which ksca members met with members of the rural community of Bingara to discuss what we might do. The rather awkward title came out of our observation of the level of frustration and at times animosity that the Bingara folk expressed when talking about the scientists who could potentially validate their work. I had to admit that I was also naively surprised at the tension between those I thought would be natural allies in the endeavour to discover working methods for land management that would result in healthier landscapes and soil, increased resilience against drought, and a decreased resilience on the chemical inputs, monocultural planting and high soil disturbance practices that have seen a steady decline in the health of arable land across the globe.
There are many reasons for this dissonance, which we were to discover across the two year journey of the project but into this contradiction, we thought we could contribute as artists to bridge the failings of communication and the incommensurability of perspectives that seemed to be at play. It is important to remember that we also did not know what we were doing, which is at once a condition for making art and at the same time a liability when attempting to achieve tangible outcomes in the world. This was perhaps the contradiction that we brought to the situation, and one which I will hopefully grapple with for the rest of my life. What can art do to contribute to cultural change in the world as opposed to the cultural change we expect it to perform within the rarified crucible of the artworld?
It was clear that the farmers wanted us to perform some kind of communications function, to help them promote their cause. While this was not something that was off the table for us, the artists were resistant to being reduced to such a limited function. In fact, this is a common experience when engaging as artists with groups that will have little to no experience of art: their expectations are often constrained by their experience and understanding of art. There was also a desire that the project would produce some kind of lasting footprint, in the form of a public sculpture. This was nearly impossible as none of us make sculpture in the traditional sense. These misunderstandings are natural and can contribute meaningfully to the development of the project. My own work for AFS was to dig a three metre hole by hand at The Living Classroom, a facility run by the Bingara cohort to teach about regenerative and sustainable landcare. This work was an adaptation of a previous work of mine with the innovation that the hole I dug was meant to become a permanent classroom for a pedagogy that would take place in the earth itself, allowing demonstrations of soil composition and even (so I dreamed) root and soil ecology. More of that in later posts…
As for the KSCA crew, it was clear that we were interested in doing something more than serving the cause as glorified graphic designers and marketeers. In the end we conceived of the project as an attempt to generate a more fruitful conversations between farmers and scientist through the mediacy of the artist. I will be doing several posts about this project as it was a long one, and a lot happened so there is no need to jump to any conclusions as to the success or frustrations of this project here. Whether we managed to progress the relationship between farmers and scientists remains to be seen, but I can assure you the project was interesting, fun, challenging, and rewarding. To wet your appetite, check out the newspaper we produced as an outcome of the project
Alex Wisser 