Hello RadioLab!
I am a spatial analyst, water science communicator, crafter,
puppeteer and wetlands soils naturalist that has discovered amazing beauty in
soil patterns at large spatial scales, by adding color and combining
2-dimensional layers of land descriptors in my computer system.
I can envision these beautiful images hanging in a big office
lobby in San Francisco or Portland... or lined along a wall of my local
organic-foods restaurant. I have made art with nature! But across many miles.
I realize: the mesmerizing patterns that I often notice in
decaying leaves or on the tummies of turtles, are as beautiful across a
watershed or several counties, knowable with color-coded aspects of soils;
recognizable when looking at maps of patterns of characteristics of something
that is under us all the time, though covered by lawn, pavement or forest. And
the two must be related - patterns of the small with the patterns of the land.
Is there a law about this, or just intuition?
It is fun to picture, the lone tawny soil scientist, who,
maybe in the 1950s, worked days on end, traveling a region - auger in hand - to
map what was under us: how fast it drained, the colors of the layers, the
minerals and organics making up the soil. Who would have guessed that their
interpolated curves and polygons would have yielded such colorable muralable art
that speaks to my deep sense of natural harmony that I feel when I see so many
patterns in life, that we emulate in on our socks, wallpapers and upholstery?
Maybe my socks don’t have a river running through them as you see in these
images attached.
I want to attract someone to the art of the image and when
they are admiring the red-brown serpentine shapes, tell them about the ancient
trace of a river that has disappeared.
I wrote to you because I think of you as someone who
appreciates how science has so much art in it, especially in the form of
patterns. Let me know if we can make a show about something like this. Or maybe
you know of a site/community that would be into these kinds of images and
linkages and the amazingness of patterns in nature at lots of scales.
Much admiration for your ideas and expression,
Kathleen McKee
