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dust_and_shadow:objects_and_cairns [2018-03-02 11:35] – majadust_and_shadow:objects_and_cairns [2019-08-30 10:18] – maja
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 ==== Hiking: Surfaces, Contact, and Encounters ==== ==== Hiking: Surfaces, Contact, and Encounters ====
 +
 +By Ron Broglio
  
  
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 –William Blake</blockquote> –William Blake</blockquote>
  
-{{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/34976618376/}}\\+{{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/34976618376/ ?maxwidth=1000}}\\
  
 When going on a hike, it is common to find interesting things in the landscape—a large or small rock, a plant, a leaf, a feather, etc. Rather than collecting and possessing these thing, it is best to leave them in their place both for their own sake and for others to enjoy. But the memory of the entities can stay with you. Memories are a trace of an encounter that lingers in the mind. With this exercise, you make a physical rubbing or a tracing of the object on paper. The collection of tracings and rubbings from a hike give you a physical collection of encounters that you can take with you as reminders of contact with the landscape. Duration: time and length of a hike. When going on a hike, it is common to find interesting things in the landscape—a large or small rock, a plant, a leaf, a feather, etc. Rather than collecting and possessing these thing, it is best to leave them in their place both for their own sake and for others to enjoy. But the memory of the entities can stay with you. Memories are a trace of an encounter that lingers in the mind. With this exercise, you make a physical rubbing or a tracing of the object on paper. The collection of tracings and rubbings from a hike give you a physical collection of encounters that you can take with you as reminders of contact with the landscape. Duration: time and length of a hike.
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 –Alphonso Lingis, The Imperative</blockquote> –Alphonso Lingis, The Imperative</blockquote>
  
-–Ron Broglio 
  
  
 ==== Natural History Lesson: Cairns ==== ==== Natural History Lesson: Cairns ====
 +
 +By Ron Broglio
  
 <blockquote>We do not dislike everything that shines, but we do prefer a pensive luster to a shallow brilliance, a murky light that, whether in a stone or an artifact, bespeaks a sheen of antiquity. <blockquote>We do not dislike everything that shines, but we do prefer a pensive luster to a shallow brilliance, a murky light that, whether in a stone or an artifact, bespeaks a sheen of antiquity.
 –Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. In Praise of Shadows –Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. In Praise of Shadows
 +</blockquote>
  
-{{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/34206276373/in/album-72157681429258454/}}</blockquote>+{{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/34206276373/in/album-72157681429258454/ ?maxwidth=1000}}
  
  
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 Placed there at some point in the past for passers-by to witness (in their ‘now’) and holding forth into a future, the cairn is a technology of social signaling. Cairns are antennae between their ecological surrounds and the social. Or they are beacons of transmission and reception linked across space and time. They are born of geological time, stand currently within a human present, and then will tumble again into a geological time beyond the human. The grouping of rocks is more-than-human technology as the more interesting cairns call attention to the rocks themselves as an animate geological presence.  Placed there at some point in the past for passers-by to witness (in their ‘now’) and holding forth into a future, the cairn is a technology of social signaling. Cairns are antennae between their ecological surrounds and the social. Or they are beacons of transmission and reception linked across space and time. They are born of geological time, stand currently within a human present, and then will tumble again into a geological time beyond the human. The grouping of rocks is more-than-human technology as the more interesting cairns call attention to the rocks themselves as an animate geological presence. 
  
-–Ron Broglio 
  
 <blockquote>Here’s how direct-air carbon capture works: Giant turbines pull in huge quantities of air, hoovering up molecules of carbon dioxide so we can store it somewhere that’s NOT the atmosphere. The Icelandic pilot program can remove an estimated 50 metric tons of CO2 from the air in a year. It pumps the collected gas deep into the island’s volcanic bedrock, where it reacts with basalt and essentially turns into limestone. Voilà! No massive reservoirs to manage for millennia — just a lot of rock. <blockquote>Here’s how direct-air carbon capture works: Giant turbines pull in huge quantities of air, hoovering up molecules of carbon dioxide so we can store it somewhere that’s NOT the atmosphere. The Icelandic pilot program can remove an estimated 50 metric tons of CO2 from the air in a year. It pumps the collected gas deep into the island’s volcanic bedrock, where it reacts with basalt and essentially turns into limestone. Voilà! No massive reservoirs to manage for millennia — just a lot of rock.
 –Amelia Urry, The first negative emissions carbon capture plant is up and running</blockquote> –Amelia Urry, The first negative emissions carbon capture plant is up and running</blockquote>
  
-{{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/34885059841/ }}\\+{{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/34885059841/  ?maxwidth=1000}}\\
  
 <blockquote>We have nothing in common with the Geometers. No shared experiences, no common culture. Until that changes, we can't communicate with them. Why not? Because language is nothing more than a stream of symbols that are perfectly meaningless until we associate them, in our minds, with meaning; a process of acculturation. Until we share experiences with the Geometers, and thereby begin to develop a shared culture - in effect, to merge our culture with theirs - we cannot communicate with them, and their efforts to communicate with us will continue to be just as incomprehensible as the gestures they've made so far: throwing the Warden of Heaven out the airlock, dropping a fresh murder victim into a cult site and rodding a volcano. <blockquote>We have nothing in common with the Geometers. No shared experiences, no common culture. Until that changes, we can't communicate with them. Why not? Because language is nothing more than a stream of symbols that are perfectly meaningless until we associate them, in our minds, with meaning; a process of acculturation. Until we share experiences with the Geometers, and thereby begin to develop a shared culture - in effect, to merge our culture with theirs - we cannot communicate with them, and their efforts to communicate with us will continue to be just as incomprehensible as the gestures they've made so far: throwing the Warden of Heaven out the airlock, dropping a fresh murder victim into a cult site and rodding a volcano.
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 ---- ----
  
-Dust and Shadow Reader Vol. 1 
  
-[[fieldnotes 1]]\\ +Dust and Shadow [[reader_1|Reader Vol. 1]]. Previous: [[objects and cairns]]. Next: [[designing bridges]]. 
-[[alternative awareness]]\\ + 
-[[ways of listening]]\\ +References: [[bibliography]] 
-[[objects and cairns]]\\ +
-[[designing bridges]]\\ +
-[[walking exercises]]\\ +
-[[recipes]]\\ +
-[[fieldnotes 2]]\\ +
-[[bibliography]]\\+
  • dust_and_shadow/objects_and_cairns.txt
  • Last modified: 2019-09-10 08:31
  • by maja