100 Years.....

the Natural History Museum celebrated it's 100th Birthday this week and we got to be part of the history making photo....we promise we're in there! (click on the image for a larger view)

We spent some time talking to some of the mineral scientists this week who have a fascinating understanding of the development of minerals and crystals, we're plotting some more interviews with them. We've also been organising samples to experiment with in the Cathode Luminescence instrument used to image minerals natural spectral properties. We've been transferring some of Bill Melson's recordings of people describing eruptions, it took ages to find a cassette player!! but the hunt was worth it. We also did some tutorials this week and a presentation at George Washington University, felt liberating to talk art since we've been immersed in our lab bubble for a while now. Have a couple more talks next week on the cards at National Academy of Sciences which should be interesting and at the Hirshhorn, will be doing early mornings and late nights at the lab too as time is drawing in and the list keeps growing. We're going to take the Columbus Day holiday on Monday to go back over our interviews, recordings and filming to re-assess where we're at.

End of week six...

Steve analysing...

Our time here is becoming richer, as relationships with the scientists develop and our creative endeavours evolve, bringing with them an excitement and quiet satisfaction of the journey we're on. Scientists are approaching us quite regularly now, offering their knowledge and experiences. They are generous gestures and during these times we become immersed in their language,

processes, materials, archives, recordings, documents, inspiration and enthusiasm.

This week has seen us; filming Dick talking about the various 'tephra' he's been collecting on Hawai'i over the past 18 years, observing Steve use the scanning electron microscope to study some of Dicks 'scoria', interviewing the volcanologist Tom Wright, (he is the famous architects grandson of the same name.woo!), Lee Seibert gave the weekly seminar on Volcanoes of the world, (these occasions are really great for seeing all the department together and discussing each others work), worked out with Tim Rose what we should be looking at in the Cathode Luminescence instrument (for a potential animation work, yes we're being let loose on an instrument!), Bill Melson, volcano sound documenter extraordinaire came by with some recordings on cassette of volcanoes and an amazing log kept whilst listening to erupting volcanoes, (now we have to find a cassette player!), sat in on the meteor working group, (many of whom have spent time in Antarctic collecting meteorites), spent more time filming in the wonderful materials processing lab., and to top it off Tim McCoy gave us an in depth low-down on Meteorites and how you can tell their histories.

We've also been working with the volcano archive, creating a piece in three parts which explores phenomena, the spectacle and the taming of it.