This work is inspired by a deep love for Southern California Native Plants, their remarkable beauty, palettes, and strength.
It serves in reverence to the landscapes, biodiversities, and watersheds as cared for by Indigenous Peoples - when an ethos of emerging from, and supporting the life within lands and ecosystems, was central to daily life.
Case Study Earth as a design practice seeks to broaden its mission continually, with the nomination of additional land parcels to be researched and protected.
Joining ecology, art, land use, climate issues, and education, this practice can take on various forms depending upon the context.
The work exists as landscape design, documentation of sites and processes, bureaucratic wayfinding, habitat restoration, tribal outreach and engagement, consultation with state and federal agencies, non-profit organizations, as well as thoughtful coordination with scientists, architects, designers, engineers, artists, and contractors.
Through community outreach, organizational growth, and continuous research, the studio works to expand value systems, languages, and futures for perpetual stewardship, forging meaningful connections between lands, ecosystems, and their caretakers.
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s words from ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ are a guiding aspiration for this work:
“I’m dreaming of a time when the land might give thanks for the people ”
Who
Case Study Earth was founded by Emily Lacy to encapsulate a shifting art practice in which traditional studio spaces no longer provided a proper context for developing work. Transitioning to a land and plant-based practice, in which observation, design, and stewardship are essential, has become her focus. She works with various stakeholders and communities to bridge art, ecology, and design.
Her longtime friend and collaborator Dominic Ciccodicola has been a central catalyst to encouraging and realizing this work, through land stewardship processes they have undertaken together.
Adding to her B.A. in Cinema Studies from USC, and M.F.A in Film and Integrated Media from CalArts, she is now enrolled in the Landscape Architecture Certificate Program at UCLA, while working actively in the dual fields of Design and Ecology to gain mentorship, knowledge, and experience.
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