Rocks’ Taxonomies

The workshop is free to attend. Please register per email at george.s@mzbaltazarslaboratory.org

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

In this workshop we will take a closer look into rocks, minerals, and other geological formations. Starting with a theoretical introduction into the history of geological taxonomies, and into concepts like deep time. In a practical part, we will grow crystals, explore their properties, and write about how they defy and challenge taxonomies and binaries.

Over 30% of the rocks on this planet are byproducts of life. The remaining 70% are stones, sand, magma, mountains, mud that are necessary for life to exist: the earth as a geological body cannot be divided from life. They are not twoentities, they don’t exist as a binary, they are one single, ongoing, self-organized process: volcanism gives rise tomountains that give rise to rivers, forests, creatures, which in turn erode the mountains, carving valleys, shaping soils, becoming roots, bugs, humans. Geology tells the story of the queerness of matter, especially when read through deep time: no stone is only a stone but a multiplicity of life, time, chemistry, and physical forces. Humanity has insisted on binaries, categories, and taxonomies, this makes them easier to exploit: 17% of the Amazon mined, 64,000 hectares in Colombia exploited for gold, 9,500 in Chile for copper. But life shapes geology and geology shapes life: all matter, mineral, biological, and even technological, is a temporary configuration of matter and energy, a shapeshifting, anarchic, inherently queer trajectory of matter in constant transformation.

Artist: daniela brill estrada

Host: Sarah Wilhelmy

This workshop is supported by BMWKMS and MA7

ABOUT THE ARTIST

daniela brill estrada is an artist and researcher from Bogotá, living and working in Vienna. in her artistic work, currently focused on origin of life research and astrobiology, daniela shows matter that mutates, changes and interacts, to question and challenge western hierarchical taxonomies, disciplines, and categories. in her installations and research daniela questions the apparent static, binary, linear and mechanical existence of bodies, humans, societies, and systems, and looks for the complex, chaotic elements that guide them. daniela is currently an artist in residence at theSETI institute, and a PhD candidate at the art x science school for transformation.