Composting boundaries

Scale 1500:1 Based off a scanning electron micrograph from Landweert et al. 2001. Captures “branching hyphae that embrace and penetrate a mineral particle.” Fungi seem to enter the particle at upper left and center left.

At what scales is a moving landscape and ecology uninhibited by human imposed boundaries? How to comingle within and around the boundaries between ways of knowing?

spores ~40000:1

In the far back corner of the garden, under the olive tree (2), leaves build up against the old brick wall and a spider has made its home in the furthest weep hole. The brick wall runs along the east and south boundary line, holding back the steep slope across the land. It is also falling apart. No sharp edges are left and the grey mortar is chipped. In some places bricks have been cut to match odd angles and mortar has been lathered on to fill large holes. Down the side of the house the bottom half is a deep purple while the top is an reddish shade where one wall has been patched onto another. The subject of many repairs and worn away by the wind, rain and runoff the surface of the wall has a multitude of crevices and cracks.

Dependent on quality, climate and site a brick retaining wall can last 100 years or more. Made up of silica (sand), alumina (clay) and a small amount of lime the bricks are held together with mortar (cement, sand, lime and water). Mortar is meant to be less dense to more easily allow the moisture in the brick to expand and contract in response to the temperature and weep holes also reduce pressure. However over time this cycle with water still causes the brick to loss its outer layers. Hairline cracks commonly occur where separate materials meet and are often a result of shifts in the surrounding area such as trees planted or removed, construction and unstable soil.

Many fungi are ogliotrophic, capable of growing in environments with very low nutrients by scavenging what they can from the air and rainwater. They are also able to inhabit these spaces due to symbiotic relationships with algae and other plant life.

Like the ink on crumpled paper fungal hyphae seek out these grooves and grow towards the weak points. They work their way in by slowing tunneling, mining through mineral material to break down surfaces and in doing so create space for soil and seeds to rest.

Lichen – a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae or cyanobacteria – are the first organisms to colonize and weather a mineral surface. It is through such processes of mineral weathering that all essential elements except nitrogen and carbon are made available to the ecosystem. This weathering is achieved in different ways. Biomechanical weathering is where fungal hyphae tunnel into otherwise intact mineral material and is aided by certain tropisms. Thigmotropism is where fungal growth is directed towards grooves, ridges and pores while chemotropism depends on the chemical composition of the rock or minerals. Biochemical weathering is how fungi can solubilize minerals and metal compounds by releasing acid forming chemicals.

As plants make the most of these gaps an assortment of greens are scattered throughout the mosaic of hodge podge brickwork. Some are just clinging on while others grow with vibrancy and forcefulness, staking out a place of intended permanency. At certain points mosses haven taken hold, adding an extra furry depth.

Under constant pressure from fungi, soil and spreading tree roots the boundary is once again dismissed with the necessities of everyday life. Washing is left to hang on the metal railing above the wall meant to seperate one lot of land from another. Small trees and vines are tied to its rungs for support and trach jas spills over. Garden tools are left along its edge and birds come and go as they please jumping from one gardens veggie patch to the next. Afternoon chatter carries across the block as small snippets of conversation are shared in passing and at 5pm without fail a black and white cat walks casually along the boundary wall, the clearest path through the suburban maze.

“Here our position is not merely critical; rather it is tentative, investigative and imaginative. We are interested in how the flux, the infinite nature of landscapes, can allow for new appropriations, new identities, and new projects, projects that work with negotiated boundaries rather than enforced limits, and that emphasize adaptation not control.” Anu Mathur and Dilip da Cunha

When presented as a thin straight line within thousands on a cadastral map this boundary has a certain dominance. Its presence sets out a clear hiearachy within the landscape about who lays claim to the white space it bounds. However a shift in scale makes this meeting much more vibrant. This boundary has a thickness, a movement and a porosity. It is where ways of knowing meet and mingle so that what initially seemed to be a hard edge is actually in a continual state of flux, being made and unmade, inhabited and bypassed. From the scale of the mineral degraded by the fungal hyphae to the brick pushed out of place by the olive tree root. The wall dismissed by the passing fauna, the leaf giving way to the soil or the mismatched reassembly of new bricks on top of old. The boundary serves a purpose and there is a security in knowing the extent of something. Occupying a space of clear parameters provides a layer of protection. But when this boundary becomes ingrained in closed and reductive ways of knowing a shift in scale and slight decay can again let a glimpse of vitality seep through.

At what scales is a moving landscape and ecology uninhibited by human imposed boundaries? How to comingle within and around the boundaries between ways of knowing?

spores ~40000:1