On Planting Fields

“It is by definition invisible, part of the background for other kinds of work,” writes Susan Leigh Star, the late scholar of science and technology, in a classic article, “The Ethnography of Infrastructure.” It is embedded, “sunk into and inside of other structures, social arrangements, and technologies,” she adds. It is “transparent to use, in th

In each, the artist creates a structure—whether that’s a map or a cordoned-off area (or even a lowly set of shelves!)—that holds open a contemplative space against the pressures of habit, familiarity, and distraction that constantly threaten to close it.

The ongoing work of making the spaces in which we live cultivates a kind of alchemy, in which stronger links between people and place can arise.