Mineral Convolutions
This banner conveys the categorical confusion characteristic of the Anthropocene; the once clearly demarcated differences among rocks, life, and humans are dissolving. The image sets news from the frontiers of geology against a teal background, in front of which float conglomerated crystal-like forms.
The backdrop texts recast geologic history as mineral evolution, which studies the intertwined co-evolution of geosphere and biosphere. At top, a possible discovery of primeval fossils shows how “life begets rock, rocks beget life.” Skeptics classify them as “dubiofossils,” structures in rock that resemble fossils but may not be biogenic in origin. At bottom, evidence of the Anthropocene is found in ‘human-mediated minerals,’ new kinds of crystals found in mines, shipwrecks, and museum storage.
The enigmatic amalgamated geophysical chunks are composed of three mineralogical materials cited in the news reports (Hematite tubes, Fiedlerite (formed by slag meeting seawater), Simonkolleite (formed by weathering of zinc-bearing slag)), attached to a piece of Fordite, or Motor Agate (built up layers of enamel auto paint slag, cut and polished).
