Collecting Materials together
A collage of ‘stuff’ being gathered together to be explored in forthcoming enquiries. Olivine – derived into ‘ hemeB’ the complex Fe molecule at the heart of haemoglobin (and similar transport fluids in other animal and plant organisms). Iron oxides – oxidation of iron thought to be what made it’s uptake possible by bacteria and thus evolving across bio/geo-logical divide. Also an egg – introducing calcium to the story. Iron oxide powder, chlorophyll in liquid and powdered form and mineralised animal remains – fossils in limestone.
What to do next? Not sure in practical terms but ideas are buzzing around after an interesting tutorial around some of the reading I’d been pointed towards after the proposal presentations. Currently mulling over this…..
“…categorical distinctions between the “brute materiality” of geology’s “external world” (rocks, minerals, mountains) and the soft, “inner” worlds of biology’s living things. According to current scientific narratives about life, earth, and life on earth, it’s possible to claim, without taking too much poetic license, that we humans are walking rocks. We may be living creatures, but our aliveness is composed of geologic materials such as calcium, iron, and phosphorous. And the comparatively tiny living organisms that inhabit the earth’s surface, be they humans, lichen or bacteria, are now seen to be key players in setting up and precipitating monumental geologic processes and planetary-scale chemical transformations in geologic materials. The earth would have a completely different geologic self if there were no life on it.”
Ellsworth & Kruse, 2013. p.17
