GROUND UP Journal announces issue02: GRIT, Call for Submissions

GROUND UP is an annual print and web publication created by students in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Each edition examines a critical theme arising from the tension between contemporary landscape architecture, ecology and pressing cultural issues. We operate on an open call with invited entries from academics, practitioners, students, designers, scientists, and activists.  Take part!

ISSUE 02:  GRIT // CREATIVE RESOLVE IN DESIGN
Grit is from the ground, abrasive and coarse. Grit erodes and accrues. Like sandpaper, Grit refines. Like the grain of sand that creates a pearl, Grit is an agitator and catalyst. After peering into Landscapes of Uncertainty, the second edition of GROUND UP explores Grit as a quality, material, texture and approach for negotiating change in our landscapes. Shifts in climate and society call for responses and interventions grounded in creative resolve. What does the material quality of Grit cultivate in design practice? Can the Grit of localism, informal settlements and guerrilla urbanism cross cultures and/or scales? Can Grit appropriate prevailing power structures toward the empowerment of the economically and ecologically vulnerable? How does the friction of Grit in design create ground for collaboration and when does it become too hot? Can the mutability of Grit translate into resilience in design? Can Grit be used to navigate between human desire for stable settlement and the inevitability of change?

SUBMISSION CRITERIA: We invite previously unpublished critical articles (2500 word maximum), built or speculative work, graphic responses, mappings, data visualizations, photo essays, anecdotes, manifestos or poetry related to the current prompt. Please email your submission to submissions@groundupjournal.org by midnight, PST on January 4, 2013. For more information, visit www.groundupjournal.org