Deep Listening

Tending Future Soil Song

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/2292-4736/40448

Abstract

The ground is the surface we call home. Inscribed in it is a record of geologic and social life. It is a site of earthly memory. The soil is marked by the now 400-year-long social and ecological crisis of colonial capitalism. Land dispossession, the plantation model of agriculture, chattel slavery, and the imposition of these modes of extraction and unfreedom worldwide leave the planets soils severely degraded. If current rates of degradation continue, the world’s topsoil will be gone in sixty years, according to a UN official (Arsenault, 2014).

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Author Biography

RL Martens, Independent Scholar

RL Martens is a conceptual artist and transdisciplinary scholar. They perform historical, place-based, and often idiosyncratic research, producing ceramic objects that act as mnemonic devices and tools for thinking, in addition to text, images, and video. Recent publications include “Digging and the Doctrine of Discovery,” a pamphlet on ceramist’s responsibilities to the land, and the essay “Material Witness: Sediment and Carceral Architecture in Lorton, Virginia,” published in Room One Thousand. Martens is a founding member of Urban Soils Institute’s Art Extension Service, and helped design Project: Soils, a collaborative initiative between artists and soil scientists.

References

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Mohamed, A., Sanchez, E., Sanchez, N., Friesen, M. L., & Beyenal, H. (2021). Electrochemically active biofilms as an indicator of soil health. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 168, 087511. https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac1e56 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac1e56

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Published

2025-02-24

How to Cite

Martens, R. (2025). Deep Listening: Tending Future Soil Song. UnderCurrents: Journal of Critical Environmental Studies, 22, 103–110. https://doi.org/10.25071/2292-4736/40448

Issue

Vol. 22 (2025): Below

Section

Conference Transcripts

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Copyright (c) 2025 RL Martens

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