Deep Time Environments: Art and the Materiality of Life Beyond the Human (title of the talk)
Elizabeth grosz
Temporal dimensions of life beyond the human
Kathryn yusoff ‘… our ways of being as geological rather than biological per se’
Fossil necklace – the layman viewer won’t be able to distinguish oldest from the youngest fossil – a prescriptive map and a magnifying glass provided
Stromatolites=living rocks
Humans fossils not part of the necklace, although other organisms are in the necklace from a similar time
Henry gee in search of deep time – ‘fossils, such as the fossils that we hail as our ancestors, constitute primary evidence for the history of life, but each fossil is an infinitesimal dot, lost in the fathomless sea of time, whose relationship with other fossil and organisms living in the present day is obscure’ – fossils not building up a complete picture by any means
Oliver kellhammer neo-eocene – living fossils, things that have lived through deep time – questions around what is a native species when considering deep time
Adam brown rebiogenesys – origins of life – performative, a re-enactment unlike katie paterson’s piece – ‘artistic re-enactments do not simply affirm what has happened in the past, but question the present by taking recourse to historical events that have left their traces in collective memory (ink earns) – reenactment of the nonhuman past (although using human equipment and actions)
We can’t presume life will emerge more than once on earth – we may well not know what we’re looking for, it could be here now
Anna Harris 