Landscape is never finished

A bit more on Smithson... more about the process of creating art or work and the idea that work being finished.  This in landscape terms is 'anti-landscape'.  A beautiful formal garden could be argue is anti-landscape as its meticulous maintenance is against the natural order of the wild. Equally, from an interactive point of view, the a formal garden is relatively static.

Smithson believed that gallery artists were separated from their art, somewhat cheated, as the focus was was on the art 'object'  If we consider process, and process art, famous protagonists being Jackson Pollock - the work was secondary and the pocess, the artist time and methodology primary.

Personally I think formal, neat a tidy gardens with are akin to gallery art that Smithson denounced. Landscape schemes demand a resolution that at somehow capture the ephemeral and temporal -  a space that is adaptable never finished (like Parc de la Villette).

So, if parks are finished landscapes for finished art, what are to processes that I need to employ or maintain in order to amplify and natural and social foces on my site?

In conducting "areosurveying" from a plane) for his site specific works, Smithson found examples of heavy constructions, such as dams, in many ways more astonishing than the intended finished project. The diagrams above are a quick illustration of this in relationship to my site. The digging and excavations expose the land.. the exposed areas are the 'unknow' areas of site that can be explored by the artist (or landscape architect).

North American Dams under construction, the monument scale of the earthworks and engineering was of interest to Smithson.  The site mid -construction, in its exposed state is like Tschumi's points, lines and surfaces.  I'm interested how I can design a site that is a similar state of flux.  Arguably, more interesting before the final imposition (the dam) is finished.

The dialogue between the natural and built environment on my site... how can this be manipulated?

Pile driving at dam construction sites... a bits like Tschumi's follies! Open to interpretation.  Organising space.

Looking at the piles, made me think of Mr Serra again... master of space organisation! Also, seems he to agree with the idea of the unfinished:

"Works are only interesting if they don’t reach closure."