UNdisciplinary Research - The Soil Factory

Back in 2019, a small group of scientists at Cornell University’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences reached out with an interest in art/science collaborations and interdisciplinary research. ALI began facilitating a process of reflective collaboration to understand how to encourage the kinds of knowledge sharing and interaction that could advance scientific, cultural, social, and scholarly practices. The process involved convenings, analysis, reflection, reporting, workshops, and community building. It grew into an initiative we began to understand as undisciplinary research, and rather than grow into yet another branch of an academic institution, the participants rented a former potting soil warehouse and established The Soil Factory, an extra-institutional undisciplinary research center in Ithaca, NY.

In 2021 we coauthored a paper, Undisciplining the University Through Shared Purpose, Practice, and Place, and have since held regular workshops, assemblies, and gatherings on subjects like the Circular Bionutrient Economy and Labs/Studios-Schools/Farms. The Soil Factory is now a fully fledged undisciplinary research center and community space, open to the public and serving not just the Cornell academic community, but all of Ithaca and the surrounding regions - as well as functioning as the hub of the Soil Factory Network, a loose web of related and affiliate communities and organizations exploring holistic ways of knowing and relating to the planet and one another. ALI’s advisory and participatory partnership with the Soil Factory is ongoing.