Janie Day Whitworth
EXTRACTING AN OBELISK
Interpreting the Accumulated Histories of Earth as it sits at “Milton”
In Three Parts:PART IDisplacement of Ground Powers – Stories|Magic – an obelisk as a portal to the novels of the undergroundPART IIOccupation of the Underland – how the intentional extraction of storiesinforms further interactionsPART IIIExtraction and Compression of Time – What does it mean for our human understandings of the landscape and its life-blood?This is a story, performed in three parts, of questioning one’s own relationship to the soil. It is the story of my positioning in Earth’s multiple novels as presented in the soils of what’s now called “Milton Airfield”. Stories are fundamental to our physical selves. The marks we (multispecies) leave in the ground are our collective story. We curate the marks, take care of the soil, and the life-blood that courses through the Earth. How is it performed at Milton? The Extraction of an Obelisk is an exploration of our multispecies positioning as it relates to the site’s soils and as I expand and compress expressions of time. This play (performance? story?) is in contrast to the vast majority of professional practice today. It requires a slowing down, a gentle and delicate dealing with the land, that heightens attention and awareness as it re-presents histories of the site and region, inverting time in rammed masses, and allowing for speculative musings regarding Milton’s past, present, and future as all become visible upon sediment extractio
