CRUMBLING LAND
Noah Gotlib
2024 Fall Residency
Crumbling Land is a project studying climate migration and its impact on the cultural perceptions of property, nature, and sovereignty in North America.
As Climate Change accelerates, governments are quietly falling back to politically unpalatable initiatives, commonly known under the euphemism of “Managed Retreat”. Across the continent, governments are beginning to relocate and abandon towns, neighborhoods, farms, and infrastructure that can no longer be sustained in their current locations due to rising seas, intensifying storms, or other environmental threats.
In the wake of these relocations, decaying streets and crumbling homes transform into wetlands and forests. These empty lands left behind fall outside the interest of either governments or individuals to enforce ownership through policing and maintenance. New internal frontiers, created by climate change and organized by Managed Retreat, will manifest within wider culture far differently than the colonial frontiers of previous eras. From vast flood plains to a small gully within a field, landscapes are emerging whose uninhabitability can create a new space for migration and common ownership. New societies will soon arise across spaces stripped of their speculative value.
Crumbling Land takes the form of a multi-channel video installation of travels to spaces whose residents are on the move. From ancient indigenous cities to utopian settler communities fleeing from society to modern suburbs submerged by unruly rivers and rising seas, the project documents examples of relocation and migration in the Midwest and New York City. Through immersive visuals and layered soundscapes, the installation reflects on how cultural and legal understandings of land and belonging are being rewritten in real time.
As Climate Change accelerates, governments are quietly falling back to politically unpalatable initiatives, commonly known under the euphemism of “Managed Retreat”. Across the continent, governments are beginning to relocate and abandon towns, neighborhoods, farms, and infrastructure that can no longer be sustained in their current locations due to rising seas, intensifying storms, or other environmental threats.
In the wake of these relocations, decaying streets and crumbling homes transform into wetlands and forests. These empty lands left behind fall outside the interest of either governments or individuals to enforce ownership through policing and maintenance. New internal frontiers, created by climate change and organized by Managed Retreat, will manifest within wider culture far differently than the colonial frontiers of previous eras. From vast flood plains to a small gully within a field, landscapes are emerging whose uninhabitability can create a new space for migration and common ownership. New societies will soon arise across spaces stripped of their speculative value.
Crumbling Land takes the form of a multi-channel video installation of travels to spaces whose residents are on the move. From ancient indigenous cities to utopian settler communities fleeing from society to modern suburbs submerged by unruly rivers and rising seas, the project documents examples of relocation and migration in the Midwest and New York City. Through immersive visuals and layered soundscapes, the installation reflects on how cultural and legal understandings of land and belonging are being rewritten in real time.
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