In June, 3E co-founder Erin Manning had an exhibition in London at the Richard Saltoun Gallery called “100 Acres.” The work was a 50 yards long by 5 feet wide (about 40 meters x 1.5 meters) two-sided textile with patterns produced by tufting, sewing and weaving. It snaked up and around throughout the gallery, creating a topology with rhythmic movements winding across the patterns that were conceived as non-representational renderings (transductions) of movements across the 3E land in a refusal of distantism (the belief that the world is given to us in the establishing shot of overview). There was protocol: at the end of the exhibition period, people were invited to cut a piece (5 feet by 5 feet) out of the work in return for a 2000-pound contribution to a land fund to enlarge the amount of land under protection as part of 3E: land that, at the time of this writing, is being unsettled, taken out of the property market and given back to itself. You can see more about the exhibit here and here.
We have been holding onto the contributions, waiting for an appropriate parcel to come onto the market. A few days ago, a neighbour who we have gotten to know very well, knowing of our desire to preserve more land around the core 3e land to safeguard its forest, offered to sell us some land adjoining the 3E land. The amount is not huge – just around 4 acres in two parcels – but it is strategically located in the potential path of encroaching development. These 4 acres will be added to the existing 3E land as part of the project of “giving the land back to itself” (taking it out of the private ownership and the property market into collective ownership with a mission of exploring sustainable land practices, radical pedagogy, and ecological thought). The parcels have frontage on the two dirt roads in the area, and are a bit peripheral to the core 3E land we want to keep as wild as possible. This makes them a good prospect for collective projects that might involve some sustainable building. One of the parcels borders on an electric line, which will allow us, for example, to bring government-subsidized cable internet within easy reach of the cabin that we always keep open for collaborators to stay in free (if we collectively decide it is a priority and can afford the monthly rates) and potentially install an EV charging station (we are keen to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels) without changing the off-grid, solar-powered nature of the cabin and guesthouse. We’re very happy to have these parcels added to 3E, and to have the margin of safety they help create for the core land.
