Site / Non-site — KATE DAVENPORT

Developing a palette.

The mapping process.

Bench step mining.

Disturbance.

Saturation.

Edge condition.

Map lexicon.

Path series.

SITE / NON-SITE explores the rich relationship between representational media and the actual making of landscape. Looking at Adams County 88th Avenue Open Space in Denver (former Aggregate Industries Thornton Sand and Gravel Mine), I explored mapping as a mechanism to reveal site history and process. Along with frequent site visits and research on site history, ecology, and gravel mining process I created a lexicon of marks and materials that could function as analogs for processes and conditions on the site. Using this lexicon I constructed a parallel site, a method similar to land artist Robert Smithson’s approach described in his “Provisional Theory of Non-sites” in which an abstract logical picture functions as a metaphor for an actual site.

Fall 2012 // Studio 01 instructed by Anthony Mazzeo and Leila Tolderlund // University of Colorado Denver