knowledges
Geologists state that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old—plus or minus 50 million years. That number is so large and abstract that within our experiences of time it simply means “a whole lot.” Even so, these details provide important context for understanding the planet’s dynamics and the roles humans play within them.
Deep Time Library & Archive is a scale-model of Earth’s deep geological history in which just one page front and back from one of these books represents 10,000 years. That is about the number of years that is thought to make up the history of human civilization. This installation uses approximately 454,000 book pages to represent the age of the Earth.
This bibliographic rock face creates layers of time and knowledge. What is preserved as part of a definitive record and what is discarded or transformed into something new? How is information best stored and retrieved over the long run, and what is the “long run”? These are questions that geologists and archaeologists ask about rocks and soils just as much as historians and librarians
consider them while archiving printed materials.
The books included in this exhibition have been through book sales and offered to secondary retailers. This installation is their last appearance before recycling, which keeps them out of landfills. The artist also understands their longer lives as part of the carbon cycle. A very warm thank you to KU Recycling, the Lawrence Public Library, and the John M. Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for their support of this work and for being responsible stewards of these cultural materials.
knowledges
Geologists state that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old—plus or minus 50 million years. That number is so large and abstract that within our experiences of time it simply means “a whole lot.” Even so, these details provide important context for understanding the planet’s dynamics and the roles humans play within them.
Deep Time Library & Archive is a scale-model of Earth’s deep geological history in which just one page front and back from one of these books represents 10,000 years. That is about the number of years that is thought to make up the history of human civilization. This installation uses approximately 454,000 book pages to represent the age of the Earth.
This bibliographic rock face creates layers of time and knowledge. What is preserved as part of a definitive record and what is discarded or transformed into something new? How is information best stored and retrieved over the long run, and what is the “long run”? These are questions that geologists and archaeologists ask about rocks and soils just as much as historians and librarians
consider them while archiving printed materials.
The books included in this exhibition have been through book sales and offered to secondary retailers. This installation is their last appearance before recycling, which keeps them out of landfills. The artist also understands their longer lives as part of the carbon cycle. A very warm thank you to KU Recycling, the Lawrence Public Library, and the John M. Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for their support of this work and for being responsible stewards of these cultural materials.
