The Strata of Our Stories
(Invitation to Participate)
“Dirt is soil that has lost its sense of place.”
A friend of mine typed this in an e-mail and it instantly started to reverberate around in my mind. Evidently dirt and soil aren’t the same thing. My friend also linked to this article, in which the author asks a museum curator about the difference between the two:
As he described it, soil is the compilation of minerals, air, water, animals and other living matter (and their wastes or decaying bodies) that accumulate in layers and become compacted over time. Indeed, soils are laid down in discrete horizons (his name for those layers) and whose compositions vary over time and space.
When particles of that soil erode or are dug up, they lose the “history” of their place, he says — essentially their associations with particles that might have been above, below, and to their sides.
It sounds like he’s saying soil is the diverse but integrated community of living and inanimate things that make up the ground beneath our feet. And dirt? It’s a group of runaways or kidnapped individuals that can’t easily be associated with where they were born and grew up. In a sense, they’re particles that have been rendered anonymous.
There’s this moment in the film Saving Private Ryan when Tom Sizemore’s character collects a tin of dirt after storming the beach at Normandy. And as he packs the tin away in his supply bag, we get a glimpse of two other tins, scrawled with the labels “Italy” and “Africa.”
In one sense this sediment has become dirt: the particles have been dis-placed from their original setting and rendered anonymous. But by labeling them after their removal, I think Sizemore’s character gives them a new context within his own personal story – the dirt is re-placed, given a new set of strata to exist in and be in relationship to.
The phrase “can’t easily be associated with where they were born and grew up” might describe many of us. In our mobile society we move for jobs, for schools, for new opportunities. Former friends and relationships shift, erode. We attempt to make a go of things, to put down roots, but instead feel as though we’re just wandering from one week to the next, existentially aimless. We fail to re-contextualize. We lose our sense of place; we begin to feel anonymous. Our lives begin to feel like so much dis-placed dirt.
Our memories – although they exist abstractly in our minds – are the results of tangible, real-world events. And as such they are attached to specific places. I would like to collect the substrates of those places and attach them to their memories. And in so doing, I would like to initiate a collective reclaiming of our personal stories and the strata in which they are found.
This is where I need help.
I would like to create a collection of story-based soil samples. To do this I need volunteers. If you are interested in participating, this is what I need:
1 sample of soil (approx. 1 cup is ideal)
collection data of that location. This could be as general as gravel from ex-boyfriend/girlfriend’s driveway, dirt from the place where you had your first kiss, sand (and spent butts) from the cigarette bucket behind that bar where that one thing happened, a chunk of asphalt from the parking lot where everything started falling apart etc…or as specific as GPS coordinates from the exact spot you stood in that moment. Your choice.
the specific story associated with the sample (can vary from 1 sentence to 1 page in length).
And that’s it. It can be done completely anonymously as well: I don’t need any personal info for participation, just soil and a story.
Entries will be documented, photographed and shared online as they are received…and possibly displayed in a show if an appropriate location can be found.
If you would like to participate, please contact me via PM or by emailing chasinglinnaeus[at]gmail.com and I’ll provide you with an address to ship your story/sample to.
Participants and entries aren’t limited to the United States: wherever you are on this planet, I invite you to participate. (Also, I realize for some of us the ground is currently frozen and/or hidden under a layer of snow – I will keep this open through the spring as well, so everyone who wants to has a chance to participate.)
turnnoffyourmind
theartofmadeline
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tangentwithtanner
