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The Seeds of Exactitude

Part 1 Project 2004
Friedrich Graf Vitzthum
Declan O'Leary
 Oxford Brookes University Oxford | UK
We focus on the absurd consequences of measurement and efficiency, and the
landscapes thus generated. Our 'Seeds of exactitude' propose an accellerating
propagation of road networks that eventually conceal the lands surface below
ever more complex swirls of concrete highway loops, whose destinations become
irrelevant. Entire populations of floating laboratory technicians collect
abundant quantities of riverbed samples; their tidal existence becomes increasingly
precarious as they scrape away at the riverbed. Miniature robotic farmers
toil away on vast gardens of orchids only to collect a tiny amount of perfume; 'the fur of extinct life'.
Armies of cranes and agricultural machinery tend this farm, creating a mechanical ballet. In the floating restaurant, only the 'distillate of waste' from the seaweed farm is consumed.

Friedrich Graf Vitzthum
Declan O'Leary

Our brief for an 'accidental farm' was intended to provoke questions about
process, by considering the production of the architectural project as a
collective rather than an individual activity ('farming'). It also suggests a
collective programme for landscape. Fred and Declan made a 'manifesto-project' to
articulate their vision of the utopic (and dystopic) accidental farm.

In their project, Declan and Fred explored issues of cultivation and
production within the ambiguous paradigm of progress that is 'urban development'. The
'seeds' of production and consumption' they cultivate contain the 'seeds of
waste and destruction' that will inevitably be their downfall. Natural farming
processes are conflated with artificial abstractions such as efficiency,
mechanisation and measurement with preposterous results.

2004
An accellerating propagation of highway networks eventually conceal the land's surface; the destinations become irrelevant
Inhabitation of infrastructure leading to informal accidental farming
Floating implement no. 1 with riverbed mud sampling extraction mechanism and collection chambers
Floating implement no. 2: sample collection, analysis and testing platform showing tidal response arm activation
Miniature robotic farmers tend vast gardens of orchids to produce a tiny amount of perfume
Army of floating implements move from communal cluster to swarm positioning
Riverdwellers sampling and collection depot no.18:excessive scraping of riverbed leads to unpredictable tidal flows
Seaweed farm-decellerated crop propagation over ten year cycle
Orchid garden: resuscitating, irrigating,fertilising, harvesting, fermenting, bottling 'the fur of extinct life'.
Overture: floating seaweed fields enter mechanical ballet at ritual harvest station
Floating fields, tidal boundaries, time lines, territories, threshold fluctuations
Orchid farm and perfume factory mechanical ballet;scattering, irrigation, collection, processing, testing, distribution and removal processes
Armies of cranes and agricultural machinary tend the orchid farm in a choreographed dance
Floating restaurant prototype:thanks to Rupert, Nia, Alicia, Jimmy, Kohi, Mahmoud, Hashem, Ryan and Alistair P for collaboration in design development and construction
Construction materials:50 litres cast resin,500 linear metres SW,60sq m plywood,5 light fixtures,1 reel steel cable,500 coiled hooks,12 fishing rods,150 sausages,3 lb fried seaweed,200 boiled sweets and 30 wind dried bananas
• Page Hits: 3601         • Entry Date: 15 September 2004         • Last Update: 15 September 2004