Soil Aesthetics - an Undervalued Dimension of Soil Security?.

Soil security is a novel term invented to synthesise the diversity of soil matters, to assist with an older mission to protect and manage soil resources, and to elevate the importance of soil to a level equivalent to that of energy, food and water security. Every individual in human society, has to solve their daily material needs for food, water and energy, so these matters are uppermost in consciousness. For all of us, our connections (connectivity) to these are real, tangible, immediate and intimate – we know when we need them, when we have them and when we don’t. Yet even though soil is strongly implicated in the supply of these and other services it is, for the most part, a hidden and unacknowledged servant. Except for those who choose to engage in acquainting themselves with soil, handling, studying and manipulating it, soil is little more than an abstract idea for the majority of humankind, albeit clearly a physical material that cannot be avoided each time an individual leaves the confines of the concrete and bitumen components of our mostly urban habitat. The dimensions of soil security presented in the literature stress the utilitarian aspects of this material – the processes and functions that occur in soil and how they need to be understood and managed to ensure sustained delivery of service. Thus, soil security, its definition and promotion sits firmly in the domain of soil scientists, some land managers and environmentalists. How can this limitation be overcome?

The challenge for those who would achieve society’s full connectivity to soil (security) lies in finding answers to the question posed by McBratney, Field and Koch in their 2014 Geoderma paper ‘The Dimensions of Soil Security’:

“The second, and some might argue even more important, aspect of connectivity is ‘How does or can society connect to the soil?’ How do individuals in society who are not managing or directly dependent on the soil have or develop a relationship with the soil? How does soil project itself into society? Underlying this is the notion that those who know care, and those who care lobby.”

Aesthetics, in particular a ‘soil aesthetic’, may hold some clues to a solution. A dictionary definition of ‘aesthetics’ is: “a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, and, the branch of philosophy which deals with questions of beauty and artistic taste.” This is a huge, deep, and often highly specialised topic in itself, and not one that soil scientists, or even many others, specialise in. So what could constitute soil aesthetics? A basic answer could be that soil aesthetics are the sensory appreciations that derive from texture, colours, shapes and smells of soil, and the transformation or use of soil materials in artistic constructs, paintings, installations or symbolic works. But soil aesthetic appreciation of this nature requires contact with the soil or an artistic rendering and, in this respect, it is transient belonging mostly to the moment or time of the experience after which it fades into memory. It certainly has value but does not have the intimacy of hunger or thirst that connect us to food and water security.

How do we achieve a sensibility to soil, an aesthetic, that is more enduring and persists beyond the direct contact with soil or soil art? And, why should we want to pursue an aesthetic in addition to utilitarian persuasions? An answer lies in understanding the dynamism of relationships that subsist in the triad of beauty, love and knowledge: it is in the nature of beauty that it attracts and is loved otherwise we would not call it beautiful; and it is in the loving of the object of beauty that knowledge is sought – this is a cyclic and reinforcing process, a positive feedback loop: the more that is known about the object of love (beauty), the more it is loved, the more that object is loved and known, the more the beauty of the object becomes apparent to the lover/knower of that object. This supports the statement by McBratney et al that ‘Underlying this is the notion that those who know care…’.

An example of a connectivity solution for soil security is therefore to encourage activities in very young children that, through contact and play with soil, encourage curiosity with, and appreciation of, soil in all its qualities; building from that to creative activities (some into science) and, as they grow older, understanding of the utilitarian services that soil provides. This can bring about generational change both in more broad aesthetic sensibilities as well as an awareness of the diversity of soil matters and their importance. ‘Those who know care.’