forgotten space / the sea as non-space
Research Blog | August 21, 2014
I hadn’t quite connected big box stores to container ships, and the idea of non-space and non-place, til i came across this still. Marc Augé writes about non-place in his eponymous book on Supermodernity , and Robert Smithson of course said it first (“non-site, the gallery as a kind of blank): which is from the movie The…
plastic beaches, the polymer vortex
Research Blog | August 13, 2013
10 days ago I went to the OR coast – around Astoria, the mouth of the mighty Columbia River, with 15 Japanese continuing ed students to survey the beach plastics and look at and for tsunami debris. Oregon is twinned, connected to Japan through a strong east/west current. In addition, long-livin’ plastics suspended in the…
Grant Burgess, The DOVE Marine Laboratory
Research Blog | June 12, 2009
I had a tour, some lessons and an intense conversation with Grant Burgess, Director of the DOVE Marine Laboratory in Cullercoats, Northumberland (it’s part of Newcastle University’s Marine Biology Dept). This is one of the few labs that has a steady supply of seawater pumped through the building’s plumbing. It flows through the lab taps!…
The Anthropocene Era (1)
Research Blog | April 11, 2009
New geological ages are characterized by changes in global environmental conditions and large scale shifts in types of species. Recently Earth has entered into a new geological age: The Anthropocene, from anthropo / man and cene / new [geological age]. Humans are now changing the world on a global scale and ushering in the new…