BIG DITCH
at
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO
Fall / Winter 2017
Zero-Craft Corp. is engaged in a four year residency at the University of Northern Colorado’s School of Art & Design. As artists in residence, Zero-Craft Corp. coordinates land-based projects in conjunction with the ART 308/501 Seminar in Art & Ideas: Land Art course taught by UNC faculty Lynn Cornelius and Art and Design Program Director Andrew Liccardo.
Zero-Craft Corp.’s primary interest is in people’s relationship to the land of Weld County, its interpretation as a resource for civilization, and its subsequent mechanization to achieve requisite yield. Over the course of the residency, we will explore conditions of land use in and around the city of Greeley, seat of Weld County. Our research will investigate the social, political, economic, and environmental forces that have shaped such land use. Each fall semester, Zero-Craft Corp. will identify a uniquely mechanized element of the landscape to explore; water, energy/power, agriculture, shelter, etc. At the end of the residency, it is our intent to produce a
culminating project that addresses (directly or indirectly) our four year study of land use issues.
In the Fall of 2017, Zero-Craft Corp. developed a multifaceted project related to Greeley’s historical #3 Ditch. The #3 Ditch was built in 1870 to bring water from the Rocky Mountains to the eastern steppe of Colorado in support of the budding utopian community of Greeley, CO. Later, usage of the ditch by communities upstream resulted in a lawsuit over water rights and subsequently, the establishment of the United States’ first water laws. Students studied the history of the #3 Ditch and researched it’s engineering, ecology, and cultural relationship to Greeley. The coursework culminated with a workshop lead by Zero-Craft Corp. in which students aided in the production of an exhibition entitled “Big Ditch”, a multimedia survey of multiple sites along the #3 Ditch.
