#sandmotor

[technoecologies]

Finds

All the fossils I've found in November and December at the Sandmotor.

[technoecologies]

Rib

This huge fossil was found during an early December storm. One of it's ends stuck out of the sand in the surf on the Sandmotor. I couldn't believe my eyes. Once I started dragging it out off the sand, it turned out to be what looks like a massive rib.

[technoecologies]

Primordial Soup

I would like to explore what can be revealed of their past, to which animals they belonged, and somehow experience their origins. This leads me to suggest an experiment, to see if any taste can still be teased from these bones after such a long time? Is it possible to use ingredients of 35 thousand years old? Is it possible to taste the last Ice Age?

It is clear even to an untrained eye that these bones belong to different species. It would be great to get to know which animals they belonged to. They certainly include fragments of bones from mammoth and other mega fauna. I would be interested to prepare the bones with vegetables that were eaten by palaeolithic Europeans, such as parsnip. My knowledge of these ingredients is limited though. Any feedback is much appreciated..

[technoecologies]

Fossil Remains

These remnants of ancient creatures evidently present an attraction to a certain type of elderly males readily identifiable by a non-linear walking pattern and the presence of some kind of bag. It's a thouroughly despiriting sight to behold. Moving from one attractor to another they mimic the 'brownian motion' of foraging coastbirds and absolutely comb the damned place from one end to the other. Unwittingly a novel fossil-searcher becomes part of a complex web of competition.

The first step is to check the Sandmotor webpage for accurate timing of the tides. To be sure you go at least an hour before low tide. Walking to the coastline the place seems deserted, until you reach over the last ridge of sand. Thats when your hart sinks. Looking down to the edge of the water at least two or three of these grey menaces already actively scanning the place. Now your only option is finding areas they haven't been scuttling around yet. Moving around fast desperate to find an end to the bloody footsteps.

Suddenly you realise there are two low tides each day. So sporting a small wind-up light-torch the hunt shifts to the dark of the night. The noise of the sea and light of the little torch makes you feel very much exposed. The only other lights are the blinking lights of ships at the horizon. Only an absolute idiot would come out at 11 at night with a shitty torch to look for any signs of the massive bones that must be here when the other guys are away. The full absurdity becomes evident when a police patrol shows up and you hide behind the only other object around, which is a large wooden pole. They've spotted you anyway ofcourse. Then comes the short interview about what the hell you're doing there. You go for the 'just having a night strole' option. That seems to work. Luckily they bugger off. And there's about 5 medium sized fragments in your bag, so not too bad right!

[technoecologies]

Containment as a myth.

With the impact in mind, of sucking up 21 million cubic meters of benthic ecosystems from the North Sea and pouring them out on the coast, it may be hard to interpret the maxim 'building with nature' in the Sandmotor project description, but after spending a few weeks there a picture is taking shape.

A post on the open character of geoengineering.

The research methodologies applied to analyze the emergent island also reflect this ambition for openness. Scientists have exposed their research subjects and instruments to various levels of the onslaught that is the general public. Fragile wooden sticks marking out a research-area may be the only line of defense against the more sizable passers-by such as quads, kitebuggies, and the occasional teenage joyrider. Human pressures are taken as a given on the Sandmotor, both in terms of ecosystem dynamics and research conditions. The place is covered by a rich tapestry of tracks marking out various patterns of human activity. It's striking to see researchers driving straight through the fieldwork of others. At some scales anthropogenic markings almost fully erode the environmental exchanges. This level of openness must be challenging to research. Perhaps that is why indigenous research methods preclude full objectivity, because there are always particulars, disturbances and contributing factors.

Philosopher and critical theorist Timothy Morton coined the term “hyperobject" to describe objects so massively distributed in time and space that they transcend localization, like global warming or radioactive plutonium. To the mammoths, rhinos and other extinct megafauna that now lie scrambled all over the motor it probably would feel like that. It's a 4 million ton monster that slowly self-organizes like aggregate architectures, carrying an array of sensor-technology on its back. Excited scientists admit they aren't quite sure what its up to.. The semi-aquatic research arena with it's public sculpture garden of data harvesting devices represents a brave effort by the scientific community towards a shared space. Hopefully its reflected in the methodologies applied by us artists.

Epilogue: At the center of the anthropocene is a dazzling dichotomy; our influence on nonhuman life and natural processes is becoming apparent at a time when these 'other lives' have moved so far from our direct daily experience. David Attenborough can show them to us, but they are distant. We don't breath the same air. Our eyes don't meet on neutral terms. Maybe we are starting to let more life back in. Creating landscapes that do not contain life but allow it to find its way.

[technoecologies]

Sandmotor Squared

A morphological analysis of the Sandmotor based on it's shape in July 2011 and March 2013. In the black images on the right the geometry is multiplied by itself to flush out the increase of morphological complexity of the island due to sea currents and windflows.

July 2011:

March 2013: