This short video is based on the Visual Soil Assessment by Graham Shepherd — a simple yet powerful way to read the life and structure of soil.
I’ve used this technique for years, first in the Netherlands, then across Africa. It helps farmers recognize the signs of fertility with just a look and a touch — something almost forgotten in an increasingly technical world.
Filmed in Burgos (northern Spain) , but applicable to soils everywhere.
Soil images speak clearly.
Through chromatograms, we could see in the Dutch Pavilion what the soil feels — its health, its memory, its silence.
Reading these patterns together opened conversations that go beyond science — between art, culture, and the ground we all share. https://whoiswe.nl/events
Who is We? — Venice 2021
In Venice, we read the soil together — with artist Debra Solomon and So Young Han from We are Venice.
Through chromatograms, the soil revealed its own stories: traces of life, care, and time.
Here in Venice, soil binds art with science. — showing how every living soil holds a piece of our shared culture.
Last 3rd and 4th October 2020 Italian NGO Deafal and Rockinsoils organized the second edition of the applied soil microbiology course. The course combined theory and practice, building up from the basics of soil microbiology giving sets of tools to assess soil condition, humus and biology. The workshop on microscopy was especially interesting as allowed participants to identify different elements that play a role in the soil fertility such as minerals, biodiversity and organic matter in different stages of degradation.
Participants are now able to reproduce several types of soil beneficial microbes and to apply them accordingly to specific farm processes.
A film crew from Bosco di Ogigia filmed us this time. Have a look here
Photos by Filippo Bellantoni
Thanks to Deafal for making this course possible.
ROCKINSOILS 