2025


Minerals: Scaffolders that Matter


Minerali: Materia e struttura, energia e vita


Theme 


Minerals are the silent architects of our world, crafting landscapes and influencing lives in ways often unseen. From the life-sustaining mineral salts within our bodies to the precious gems symbolizing wealth and power, and the rare earth metals which govern computer processing power, minerals are at the heart of numerous ecological, cultural, and technological processes. The meaning of the word “mineral” has evolved with our cultures and knowledge systems and can be used as a scientific term or as an adjective to describe waters, oils and even landscapes. In science minerals are defined as “naturally occurring inorganic elements or compounds having an orderly internal structure and characteristic chemical composition, crystal form, and physical properties” (as defined on the US Geological Survey), and studied through mineralogy and crystallography. The rate at which we continue to discover minerals today is exponential. While minerals themselves are static, the science behind them is not!

With this call, we seek proposals that uncover the stories, structures, and transformations of minerals, whether through the lens of environmental science, anthropology, art, or political ecology. We ask that fellows focus on the locality, exploring the topic within the Valleys, before incorporating global perspectives. Minerals can be found in the foods we eat, the water we drink, and the technologies we rely upon. They also challenge our perceptions of life and non-life, inviting us to reconsider the boundaries that define existence itself. Located in the heart of Val Taleggio, with its mineral-rich soils and ancient rock formations, this residency is an opportunity to engage with the mineral world not as mere spectators but as cohabitants, understanding the deep entanglements that minerals share with all forms of life.

NAHR’s multidisciplinary laboratory propels innovative and creative thinking. Annually, research is dedicated toward a specific natural element to examine the resiliency of the ecological systems specifically in the Taleggio Valley and Santa Ynez. NAHR is pleased to launch the 2025 residency, entitled Minerals: Scaffolders that Matter. This theme will explore the material that also constitutes the foundations of both valleys and can be seen expressed in many ways in the natural and built environment. Revealing connections between the natural and artificial, minerals are both a repository of the geological past as well as a material that shapes our future.


Minerals as rocks (geological)

In Val Taleggio the mountains, peaks and valleys, the nearby sand and rock quarries, and the canyon carved out through the ‘Orridi’ provide a rich and varying geological landscape. The minerals that define characteristics of these rocks can be read in their names from the calcite in limestones, to the dolomite in the abundant Dolomia Principale rocks and the clay and lime based argillites of the Argillite di Riva Solto.


Minerals as objects (cultural heritage) 

Over time a mainly extractive material culture has developed. Historically lime (’calce’ in Italian) was mined locally from ‘calchere’ (lime quarries) to be used as mortar in construction. Clay and silicates make up part of the Argillite di Riva Solto, which defines the vernacular black-stone roofs, or ‘piöde’, of the rural farm houses, or ‘baita’. Mixed stone dry walls define the cultivated fields. Construction skills, craftsmanship, and artistic decorations on Liberty style building facades have also been shaped by the minerals available to artisans and craftsmen. Minerals also provide the basis for pigments which have influenced the development of art and fashion.


Minerals and plants (edaphology)

Edaphology describes the affinities between plant species and mineral substrate. The soil is made up of organic but also inorganic materials which are leached from the underlying stones. The diverse bedrock and mineral rich soils nourishes a biodiverse ecosystem with a variety of flora across the terrain. Unique geologies provide unique habitats for flora on stones and in different soils.

Beyond this natural influence of minerals on flora lies the human use of mineral extracts, in the form of fossil fuels, to create fertilizers often used to blanket entire landscapes in crop monocultures.


Minerals in water

Water is the most abundant component of our body, making up about 50-70% of the total weight. It doesn’t provide calories, but it performs several functions, including transporting many nutrients to cells, carrying minerals to the blood and nervous system, and regulating body temperature. To maintain normal physical and cognitive functions, we should consume at least 2.0 L of water per day. Many mineral salts, drawn from rocks and soils, are present in the abundant potable waters of the Taleggio Valley. The periodic testing of local waters (2019-2024) show the four main springs which feed Sottochiesa’s aqueducts mainly contain: calcium, magnesium, sulfates, and iron, as well as small amounts of sodium, and potassium. Additionally, the nearby San Pellegrino springs are frequented by locals and tourists in search of their therapeutic properties, not to mention the millions who drink their water all around the world. 


Minerals in our body (biochemistry and toxicology)

Mineral salts are inorganic substances, which represent only 6.2% of body weight (all of which we get from our food and drink - the human body can’t make minerals), but perform essential functions for human life. Minerals in our body are defined in two terms - trace elements and macronutrients. The trace elements such as cobalt, chromium, copper and selenium are found in trace amounts, whereas the macronutrients such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfur, and others are found in discrete quantities.

Vegetables, legumes, fruit, milk, yogurt, meat, chicken and fish contain mineral salts. Milk, a product that has defined the economic and natural environment of many parts of Val Taleggio, is a food rich in mineral salts such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus. It also contains minimal amounts of iron, zinc, copper, iodine, selenium, chromium, cobalt, and fluorine.

Humans are an integral part of nature, not only understood as interactions with the environment, but what “constitutes” us is nature itself.

Conversely, if not monitored or managed, pollution in rivers and soils can lead to a bioaccumulation of potentially harmful or poisonous minerals in the bodies of plants and animals, which will often be passed on to human bodies in the food chain.


Minerals as Medium and Message (materials science)

The realm of media is deeply rooted in the earth's geology. Silver compounds render film photosensitive, capturing light and shadow, while minerals like barium and copper refine and preserve these images. Drawing from Jussi Parikka's concept of "medianatures," we recognize that these minerals are active participants in media's lifecycle, bridging nature and technology. Elisabeth Povinelli's notion of "geontopower" further blurs the lines between life and non-life, emphasizing minerals' agency in our cultural fabric. In this interplay, minerals emerge as essential co-creators in the medium of media, crafting images that resonate with the earth’s silent yet profound voice.


Minerals as Technology

While technologies such as the internet, smartphones, and expanded AI systems allow us to be more connected they are also a huge drain on the world’s global mineral resources. Solutions developed to reduce oil consumption, such as electric vehicles, use batteries which will also require the heightened extraction of minerals and rare earth metals such as cobalt, lithium and silicon. Large scale extraction is destructive, leaving behind voided mountains,  toxic sites with hazardous wastes, razing habitats and homes, sparking global and local diplomatic tensions, whilst also exploiting laborers working in poor and unhealthy environments. Though providing the basis for many advancements in our civilization, the discovery of minerals in a landscape can also deeply harm our connection to and care for the environment. The study of nano-particles and nanostructures heralds a new age of technology, where self assembling systems that emerge naturally from the laws of physics, may help to reduce energy use and waste. How else can we learn from nature, with an eye to biomimicry, to become regenerative rather than extractive in how we use the mineral world?

The XXI century is a time for further exploration, research, and development but also of extreme extractive activity that we now recognize as deeply troublesome. We are not yet completely invested in alternative forms of consumption and even less in decreasing consumption. We need to stop the extractive economy and we need to act now.
 
We suggest a reimagining of minerals that can represent the magic alchemy of a poetic unfolding through time and space, inasmuch as the minerals located in Taleggio Valley reflect seasonal changes, refractions and diffusions of light and shapes which find their way into the forms of local arts and crafts that continue to link us to a local cultural identity that sees.

We particularly encourage applications from First Nations peoples with indigenous cultural perspectives.


OUR EXPANDED INTERESTS
NAHR is also interested in developing work which seeks to create an empathic view of our environments. We aim to encourage work that addresses the role of empathy in advocating for the climate crisis at the speed needed through artistic co-operation and creation of novel art-projects. The exploration of the empathy-sustainability relationship through the arts may bring significant advances to the promotion of sustainability actions and pro-environmental behaviors.

We ask for our participant fellows to embrace sustainable practices that foster an empathic stance towards non-human beings and nature, and effectively incorporate the concept of sustainability in their artistic production. This will in turn develop the artist as the kind of empathic and resilient individual we need to help deal with in the post-pandemic social and economic crisis.

OUR QUESTIONS
NAHR aims to support the development and sharing of projects, conversations, and possible future collaborative research. With this in mind, the following are some initiating thoughts and provocations for applicants:

1. How might minerals help us rethink human-nature relationships?

2. Minerals are scaffolders for life but their extraction results in deforestation, destruction of habitats, and displacement of humans and more than human communities. How can our work help build  social movements for structural change and can our knowledge of mineral properties lead us to regenerative non-extractive processes?

3. How have mineral extraction and uses impacted and formed our built environment through cities, buildings, and products designed around their uses?

4. What information does the ‘microcosm’ analysis provide us with? What does the ‘microcosm’ reveal about the ‘macrocosm’?

5.  Minerals carry symbolic, poetic, and alchemic powers for the living and nonliving, how can these attributes help shift narratives in the XXI century?

6. How can we creatively map the emotional and sensory landscapes of erosion or mining sites?

7. How do we ‘experience’ minerals daily through touch, sight, or memory?

8. What cultural new myths, or new traditions, can be shaped by the ‘presence’ of minerals?


PROPOSALS
NAHR encourages experimental explorations based on globally relevant concepts, theories or methodologies about mineral-rich and depleted environments. Collaboration across disciplines, with other NAHR Fellows, is particularly encouraged and supported. These explorations can be done using a variety of media, and will be shared at the conclusion of NAHR in expressive forms including, but not limited to: dance performances, poetry recitations, promenade theater presentations, art installations, site-specific activations, and other creative products.

Given the immersive, site-specific context for NAHR, when drafting submissions applicants must demonstrate the ways in which their projects will seek to engage with Val Taleggio as a shifting, multi-dimensional space in which local characteristics intersect a global dynamic. Applicants should show how they intend to examine elements and ecosystems within the Val Taleggio, while scaling or linking their subjects to globally relevant concepts.

In accordance with this year’s theme, NAHR encourages applications that propose an inter- or trans-disciplinary approach across a range of creative forms and modes of expression, which might take the form of designs, actions, events, and so forth, in which the use of the ecosystem of the Valley will remain a key element of the proposal.

While the California set up enables a more reflective, retreat-like residency, in Italy, together with the NAHW (June Workshop) and other programs, NAHR (Residency) participants will visit high and low pastures, walk across the mountains, attend dedicated lectures by specialists in the area, and be guided across the surrounding landscapes (natural and built), in order to explore local interconnections and contrast these with those in the neighboring valleys of Brembilla, Brembana, Seriana and Imagna. By offering the opportunity for site-specific investigations, NAHR encourages participants to explore interactions and relationships within the Valley’s ecosystems. We seek to offer a fertile environment for a range of cross-disciplinary research and, in return for offering these opportunities, we expect NAHR Fellows to complete culminating presentations (designs, actions, events, so forth) at the conclusion of their time at NAHR.


OUR HABITATS, THE VALLEYS

TALEGGIO VALLEY, ITALY
The Taleggio Valley landscape in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy, with its dramatic scenery and secluded physical environment, is a rich source of inspiration for bio-inspired projects.

The Valley’s geomorphological characteristics support a local climate and provide a rich habitat for hundreds of species, both wild and domesticated, who thrive in the water, the soil and the air. The landscape has distinct and varied features at different elevations, from the bottom of ravines to the mountain pastures of the Parco delle Orobie, from high mountain open air to heavily covered forest lowlands and valleys. Recent climate events are affecting the animals and human activities in the region, for example droughts and loss of streams have led to more frequent wildfires, and the impact on various animal habitats is yet to be documented.

The Valley is an important hotspot for biodiversity and nature conservation (Natura 2000) fertilized by the minerals in the stones, soils and waters. The high dolomite mountains provide a lush landscape for grasses and pastures, while at the lower altitudes the clayey densely wooded areas provide for the life of the many, but are also zones vulnerable to human activity and to landslides. Indeed, often the cause of landslides is not spontaneous but malicious, triggered by human activities (past or recent) conducted without consideration for their impact on the ecosystem. All these characteristics can be readily observed and will serve as inspiration for the scientific and/or creative inquiries of the applicants.

The Valley’s villages and towns, all in close proximity, offer many opportunities to observe and study the ‘built’ environment of both natural phenomena and man-made construction. It provides a rich venue for studying the changes over the years of human and non-human strategies of habitation as these have shifted to adapt to ever-changing environmental, economic, and social factors. Recent impacts of climate change, agricultural patterns, land use change, forest management, lifestyle shifts, energy sources, technological opportunities, as well as legends and traditions about the mountains are just a few of the many themes that promise to inspire complex reasoning, critical evaluation, design responses, and other creative investigations during the residency.

SANTA YNEZ, CALIFORNIA
The Santa Ynez Valley is north of Santa Barbara in an inland valley, with rolling California mountains rimming heavily cultivated farmland. The Santa Ynez Mountains are on the south, the San Rafael Mountains on the north, with the Santa Ynez River running from east to west.

From a geological point of view, the consolidated rocks of the Tertiary age compose the surrounding hills. These consolidated rocks are marine in origin and consist of relatively impermeable fine-grained deposits. In addition, there are unconsolidated deposits of Pliocene and younger aged material, made chiefly of sand, gravel, silt, and clay.

The Santa Barbara coast has a mediterranean climate and a complex topography. It regularly succumbs to wildfire as it is prone to downslope windstorms. The abruptly rising Santa Ynez mountains which separate the ocean from the valley create spatiotemporally variable wind patterns. The large variability in land readings tells of the intricacy of the weather and wind patterns in this region (Signer & Katelyn 2022).

Ecologically, the river provides a rich habitat for various endangered birds. The lower Santa Ynez River supports a large and little-known population of Southwestern Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii extimus). Golden Eagles are always sighted in the summer, and the oak savannah supports grassland birds, including wintering raptors (Buteo regalis).

The vegetation consists mainly of brush interspersed with chaparral, live oak, and grassland. The native flora of the Valley is understood to be naturally renewed by fire, such as Adenostoma fasciculatum which produces a specialized lignotuber underground that allows it to resprout after fire has burned off its stems. In recent years this region has been managed and treated by the increased frequency and intensity of fires caused by different agents.

The farmland is mostly planted with wine grapes and the Valley is known for its wineries, as the soil in the Valley is well suited to the cultivation of certain grapes. This well-established viticulture economy has resulted in extensive research on the soil. The agriculture also includes significant groves of olive trees and fruit trees. The farms are typically small to medium sized. There is also a notable community of horse owners and equine-serving businesses. The Valley attracts visitors who come to experience a typical California viticulture landscape, taste and purchase wine, visit the small towns, and enjoy the temperate climate.

As such, the Valley is a particularly rich context for reflecting on minerals through its challenges and  regenerative properties.

EMBEDDED RESIDENCIES
NAHR believes that human perceptions of the world are enhanced by exploring it from below, from within, via the medium from which most life emerges. We believe there is insight to be gained from exploring the mechanisms other species have developed for sensing, mapping, and moving through the same territories as humans. As all senses are engaged in an exploration of the living eco-laboratory of each Valley, one starts to perceive the world differently. The residencies are premised on the notion that a shift in perception is the key for creative resilience, and will be the mechanism that allows ecosystems to create a sustainable life through adaptation and cooperation.

APPLY (all details at this link - no application fees!) -
Calls open 

Settings and Accommodation see here

REFERENCES and Further Readings

Government statistics on Minerals in Val Taleggio and Santa Ynez

Forcella, F, Jadoul, F, Bini, A & Ferliga, C 2000, Carta Geologica (Geological Map) della Provincia di Bergamo e Note illustrative, Servizio territorio della Provincia di Bergamo, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra  dell’Università degli Studi di Milano, Centro di Studio per la Geodinamica Alpina e Quaternaria del CNR

Long, KR, Alpers, CN, Orlando, J & Orris, GJ 2021, Update of the Mineral Resources Data System for California including Mineral Deposit Types: U.S. Geological Survey data release


Websites:

Environmental Protection Agency - “Superfund” 

International Mineralogical Association (IMA)

IMA - “Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification

Mindat.org - Mines, Minerals and More

US Geological Survey - “What is the difference between a rock and a mineral?


Podcast:

https://www.geologyflannelcast.com/podcasts/2021/6/20/98-minerals

There are more episodes on minerals and a youtube version of the podcasts


Books:

Allen, R (2024) Weathering. Ebury Press / Penguin Random House.

Minerals and spiritual/mental health - Geology as a way of understanding human life, trauma, emotion processing etc.

Angus, S (2024) Camera Geologica. Duke University Press. 

Minerals and technology - How they have aided the history of photography.

Bjornerud, M (2018) Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World. Princeton University Press, NJ.

Minerals and rock/stone/geology - Earth processes.

Boivin, N & Owoc, MA (2005) Soils, Stones and Symbols: Cultural Perceptions of the Mineral World. Routledge

Minerals and culture - Anthropological, archeological and philosophical views of minerals throughout history.

Cita, MB & Gelati, R (1990) Alpi e Prealpi Lombarde Vol. 1, BE-MA. Dipartimento di scienze della terra dell’Università di Milano, Italy.

Minerals and geology of the prealps - The local view to Val Taleggio.

Conway, E (2023) Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future. Knopf.

Minerals and technology - Focusing on how certain minerals have built and will continue to build our worlds.

Flynn, C (2021) Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Posthuman Landscape. William Collins.

Mineral extraction outcomes - Abandoned spaces and natural regeneration.

Gaines, RV, Skinner, HCW, Foord, EE, Mason, B, Rozenzweig, A (1997) Dana's New Mineralogy: The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana 8th Edition. Wiley-Blackwell.

A key text on mineralogy.

Hutton, J (2019) Reciprocal Landscapes. Stories of Material Movements. Routledge, Andover.

Minerals and material practices - Practices of stone, wood, fertilizer, steel and trees.

Kazys, V (2009) The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, Network Architecture Lab Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. Columbia University, Barcelona.

Minerals and architecture - An infrastructural view of LA.

Luisetti, F (2023) Nonhuman Subjects: An Ecology of Earth-Beings (Elements in Environmental Humanities). Cambridge University Press.
Minerals as non-living - The subjectivity of the non-living.

Luisetti, F (2023) Essere pietra. Ecologia di un mondo minerale. Wetlands. 

Povinelli, E (2016) Geontologies: A requiem to late liberalism. Duke University Press.

Minerals and politics - A search for ways to incorporate the non-living into western language and politics.

Ureta, S & Flores, P (2022) Worlds of Gray and Green: Mineral extraction as ecological practice. University of California Press.

Minerals and life - Chemicals, ecology and the anthropocene.


Articles/films:

The Salt of the Earth. (2014) A film about the life of Sebastiāo Salgado. Directed by Wim Wenders.


Suggested global topics

Salt March
Gandhi led a nonviolent march to collect salt when Britain banned the collection of salt forcing people to buy salt from Britain.

Gold
The Gold Rush’s environmental impacts

The recent impact of gold mining 

Cobalt and copper mining 
The human rights abuses from cobalt and copper mining Amnesty International
Yale Environment 360

Nuclear energy 
Uranium mining and nuclear energy

Metal color light therapy
An anthroposophic healing concept where the colors of metals are heightened to accentuate healing vibrations

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APPLY (all details at this link - no application fees!)

Settings and Accommodation see here
Testo 2025 Bando - vedasi testo in inglese completo.

MINERALI
è la tematica al centro dei programmi di NAHR 2025. I Fellows di quest’anno esploreranno la funzione critica dei minerali da una serie di prospettive naturali, ecologiche, sociali, politiche ed ecosistemiche, riflettendo su suoi impatti.

NAHR e’ interessata a ricevere proposte che riflettano approcci creativi e critici allo studio dei minerali quali elementi dinamici e resilienti e  critici, in grado di fornire uno sguardo innovativo per il futuro. L’obiettivo è quello di sviluppare dei percorsi che possano trasformare le azioni di sfruttamento sviluppate nell’Antropocene in un simposio di vita.

ISCRIVITI - bando aperto






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