Relevance of Place: Shannon Jackson in Conversation with Walter Hood

Relevance of Place: Shannon Jackson in Conversation with Walter Hood

Relevance of Place is an online series of site-specific dialogues that explore the meaning of place at Tippet Rise Art Center. Guided by Shannon Jackson, Chair of the History of Art Department at UC-Berkeley and a scholar of socially-engaged art, Relevance of Place invites artists, architects, designers, and creative thinkers to engage in conversation about the ethics, aesthetics, and relevance of place. These conversations explore “place” as a global, local, and personal concept as well as “place” as it refers specifically to Tippet Rise, a site that brings together “art, music, land, sky, and poetry” creating an “algorithm that is greater than the sum of its parts.” In individual interviews and group dialogues, each guest offers stories and insights from their own practice. Together, they reflect on the historic past and sustainable future of Tippet Rise—as an environmental site, as a wide-ranging art center, and as a creative gathering space.

Here, Jackson interviews artist, designer, and MacArthur fellow, Walter Hood, on how his unique process reimagines the ethical and artistic possibilities of a landscape. In this episode, Hood recalls some of his earlier projects, reflecting upon how differing practices in the arts, in design, and in regional planning can be combined to redefine each other. Watch to hear him speculate further about community-engaged responses to landscape design and to hear his thoughts about the resonant forms of Francis Kéré’s Xylem.

Filmed in May 2022.