Charles Mary Kubricht

This series unfolds the multivalence of the landscape through an exploration of figure-ground relations. Such relations are far from being fixed or static. Gestalt is a continuously moving and changing experience. The project is about placement, displacement, movement, and immeasurable experiences. It questions what constitutes wholeness of form, shape, perceptual field, and viewpoint. “Slight Disturbances” is a term used by Border Patrol Trackers to describe ‘sign’ when in persuit in the field. Trackers do not look for footprints bit for slight disturbances on the ground - a moved pebble or a bent blade of grass. Mount Livermore is a landmark for drug traffickers and undocumented workers backpacking through the area and is also designated a “sky island” - or mountain ecosystem isolated by valleys and/or deserts that contain species which are unique to the surrounding area - by the Nature Conservancy. Scientists and environmentalist study the flora and fauna on the mountain. Archaeological teams have conducted excavations on and in the shadow of the mountain, uncovering artifacts thousands of years old. Several decades ago, surveyors from the National Geodetic Survey, seeking to make the data collected by a 107 inch telescope at McDonald Observatory more accurate, occupied Mt. Livermore to triangulate the telescope’s exact position using the distances from the peak of the mountain, the Observatoy, and Organ Pass, New Mexico. The team was part of the Lunar Laser Ranging project - the oldest “living” Apollo project. Currently an antenna on Livermore’s peak is used by the Border Patrol to receive and transmit information from thousands of sensors in the area; it is also used for emergency broadcasts. In short, many historical moments, technological stages, and political agendas converge at this site. In 2004, I set up an interview with a retired Border Patrol tracker that resulted in tracking lessons, information about drug corridors in the area, and a conversation about the topological significance of Mount Livermore. Since then, I have worked with the Border Patrol, the Nature Conservancy, a former moon rock curator at NASA, the lead archaeologist at Sul Ross University, the director and lead botanist for the Davis Mountain Preserve of the Nature Conservancy, an engineer from the McDonald Observatory, other naturalists, a pilot, and a holographic designer of military holograms. A documentary about this project has been made by the filmmaker, Karen Bernstein.