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America Invertida
This 1934 ink on paper drawing by Uruguayan Joaquín Torres-García challenged the notion that Europe and North America are always centered and rendered as the most important land masses in cartographic drawings. In flipping the South American continent and establishing South as the main cardinal direction to follow, Torres-Garcia is challenging the artistic and pedagogic frames that reaffirm the global North as the source of knowledge. Moving back after 40 years abroad Torres-Garcia established the School of the South to develop and promote Uruguay-centric design in the face of the expanding design influence of Europe and the United States. Although drawn early in the 20th century, this piece begins to…
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Conservation
The act of demarcating and enclosing a specific area of land for the sole purpose of maintaining its ecological functions intact and away from the possibility of development. In setting apart a certain area, no matter the size, it is set on a different ecological trajectory through the societal action of legislature. “To choose one place and not another alters the evolutionary path of human and nonhuman communities along the way. This means that conservation areas form artifacts of the past, present, and future.” (Waklid) Conservation is meant to protect flora and fauna and the natural resources that they hinge on such as soils, hydrology for the enjoyment of future…
