Mississippi river morphology

Materials and dimensions:

Concrete

48” x 20”

 

This project explores the relationship between natural river morphology and humans’ geopolitical and infrastructural influence on the Mississippi River.  Referencing a collection of historical maps created by Harold Fisk at the Army Corps of Engineers and georeferencing these physical maps into GIS, vectors have been coded into robotic sand patterning motions that tell the story of river geomorphology and the commitment of humans to interrupt these cycles.  Stories emerge from these forms, first bringing in a viewer through the form itself, and then exposing the underlying environmental information.  This creates a dialog between nature and humans’ connection to it, exposing our tendency to try and overpower it rather than create infrastructure and political policies around it. 

 

The cast concrete river meander pieces oscillate between vertical spotlighting, accentuating the form itself, and historical map projections, exposing the morphological, geopolitical, and infrastructural information that builds the form.  This simple form created from a complex process helps to visualize and comprehend this larger societal conversation as we approach policy and design questions regarding climate change and reassess nature’s role in these topics. 

Concrete panel fabricated using an industrial robot, set with custom tool for imprinting sand. Lines and forms are from historical locations of the Mississippi River as it has meandered through time (see “Meandering Mississippi” project for more explanation). These vector lines representing river geomorphology were robotically drawn in the sand, with each line overlapping with the previous in a historically and spatially accurate manner.  The sand is then sprayed with silicate in order to create a hard top crust or mold. Finally, a concrete cast was created and pulled off of the mold.