Studio Critic: Gia Daskalakis
Site: Elephant Rocks, MO
Fall 2016
As a living testament of space and time – from the early rock formation up until recent quarrying and current-day recreational activities – the Elephant Rocks State Park is embedded with a series of layered information in its territory that have spatial and temporal implications. In relating the site to topics to territorial regional scales, connections with space and time in topics of macroscopic concern are also made – including the site’s location with ecological and development on regional and national scale, as well as global patterns such as bird migrations, in which Elephant Rocks is located on a major migration path.
The exploration and proposal aim to reconcile these themes through a program that couples three elements: academic and professional research – including rock dating and aerial survey; public experience – including a “chrono chamber” – inspired by films & sculptures by Serra – that calibrates perception of space and time in relation to different entities; as well as ecological functions that monitor the environment and facilitate processes such as bird migration.
George H. Zhang 