In Chapter 3 of Earthworks, Susan Boetteger introduces Foucault's idea of "heterotopia" and its connection to earth work sites.
Foucault defines “heterotopia” in his 1986 article "Of Other Spaces":
“Places of these kind are outside of all places,even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak about, I shall call them by the way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias”
Boetteger also employs Foucault's description, while initially used to describe social institutions, as applicable to art works which “simultaneously represent, contest and invert” not only only literal vertical,circumscribed masses but also the social ideal of sculptured monuments”.
Robert Smithson provides a prime example of an artist who embraced Foucaultian ideas of place and projected them into his in his sculptured environments. His fascination with entropy in the physical landscape through unnatural processes is investigated by Boetteger and became of keen interest to myself. The author explains his compulsion with entropy as related to the death of Smithson's older brother, who died before Smithson was born. Boetteger argues that being a "replacement child" led him to his "morbid preoccupation with the topic of death and with naturally occurring catastrophes". Critics also argue that Smithson’s connection to entropy can also be related to his brother’s death from cancer: the body's interior and exterior entropic disintegration.
In his earlier work, Smithson maintained a preference towards crystalline structures and process rather than that of organic shapes and materials. In 1966 Smithson’s story, “Crystal Land” was published in Harper's Bazaar and chronicled a “rock hunting adventure” with his wife and another couple. This acted as the first publicised proclamation of his shifting interest from “discrete crystals to that of desolate land”. This was an important move in Smithson’s career that went on to influence his later and most important works.
toward the development of an air terminal site_
Towards the end of Chapter 3, Boettger goes on to critique Smithson's essay entitled “Towards the Development of an Air Terminal Site” which was written during the fated collaboration between Smithson and the T.A.M.S. development group in the late 60’s. Boetteger refers to the essay as a ,“a very ambitious piece, suffering from its juxtaposition of abstract thinking and only prosaic data…[the only thing to be extracted] was impressively detailed substantiation”.
I decided to review the article for myself.
I was immediately puzzled by the disjuncture of subject matter and contextual references. Smithson wanted to create a new kind of building that brought together “anthropology and linguistics through an esthetic methodology”. (in which non site provides an obvious model) However, he does not clearly explain how he is going to combine these disciplines. Smithson also fills the essay with tables and numerical data that dissect the text and create a piece that is difficult to navigate and therefore challenging comprehend the entirety of his conclusive(or non conclusive) ideas.
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