ecotopia conversation
Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach (1975) is a novel about an ecological utopia that was influential on the counterculture and green movements in the 1970s. Callenbach said the society he depicted in the story was not an ideal, but rather ‘imperfect and in-process.’
This outdoor installation was in response to Callenbach’s prompt and Byrdcliffe Colony architectural ruins during my artist residency, Summer 2023. Using dry stone stacking techniques, I used cast blocks of live mycelium — known for its remedial properties in ecosystems — to extend the stone plinths that once supported a porch off the front of Villetta, the main residence hall.
Thinking about the legacy of care and repair at Byrdcliffe over the years — founded in 1902 as a ‘textbook vision of a utopian arts colony,’ falling into disrepair midcentury, and it’s current reincarnation as a leading AiR program in the Hudson Valley — I’m interested in the unseen and unacknowledged labor it has taken for 120 years to keep Byrdcliffe relevant, a haven, and meaningful for the contemporary creatives who enliven this community today.
Stone walls and their ruins permeate the Hudson Valley, remnants of 18th century deforestation and agriculture. To orient to this region, I’ve been reading William Cronin’s Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (2003). His work has opened my eyes to the impact of English and European settlers on the land. The stone walls scattered in the woodlands are markers of land that was cleared for farmland and then abandoned to regrowth, with dramatic impact on ecosystems. Apparently many of these walls were built by enslaved servants and indentured indigenous people.
The stacked stone walls in front of Byrdcliffe founders’ home White Pines and stone plinth ruins at Villetta are beautiful and interesting, representative of materials at hand for building at a later time. When were they built and by whose hands? What impact has Byrdcliffe had on the land through the years? How has Utopia been lived here, and utopia for whom? Especially with the Villetta porch ruins, is repair possible or wanted? What does care mean here?
Please listen to my delightful ecotopia conversation with Howard Altarescu on his podcast, Bookworms in the Wild. When the title for this installation popped into my head, I had no idea what that meant or how to have one, but Howard guided us through a rich and far-ranging conversation.
