HET VELDLAKEN

In no less than 170 years, the Peel has transformed from an expansive raised bog area into a fragmented industrial landscape that produces food for the global market. How do people feel connected to this region, its land, through all these transitions? And what do we need in order to live ‘well’ here in the future? 

With these questions, I started a land-connected dialogue in the region to shift the often distant planning perspective on the large transition challenges towards the ‘dwelling perspective.’ This dwelling perspective (borrowed from anthropologist Tim Ingold) is the environment perceived by the people who live in it - an eye height perspective of immersion. To achieve this I developed the field blanket - het veldlaken - in collaboration with product designer Elza Berzina. 

‘Het veldlaken’ is a tool to literally step out of the system world into the landscape and cultivate a kaleidoscopic view together: the field blanket is an invitation to ground (planning) meetings around the transitions of the Peel in the actual landscape, the collective memory, and human encounters. An instrument for a process that approaches complexity and pressure from the quality of the existing and the imagination rooted in the love for a cultural landscape – 'het Peel-zijn'.

On the large canvas of 5x3 meters, we see an aerial view of a fictional landscape consisting of typical elements of the Peel: the villages from the period of the enclosures, the food distribution centers, the remaining raised bog, the protected heathland, the newly 'constructed river', the production forest… Surrounding this is a collection of anecdotes arising from numerous conversations during fieldwork in the Peel. And at the edge, ‘the coordinates’: a vocabulary of concepts and themes that can provoke different readings of this ‘map.’ 

The reflective fabric responds to the angle of the sun in relation to the eye of the viewer – everyone standing around it sees a slightly different image. The weather and the properties of the ground affect the visual qualities of the landscape on the map. A kaleidoscope of different perspectives emerges, influenced by the subtle differences in perception.