2023
Digital moving image
5:45

an entity for a while explores the unique qualities and temporality of Auckland's geological materials, investigating the topographies of the historic structures they occupy. In documenting and traversing their forms through digital point cloud systems, I explore the idea that even the most stable and static elements of our environment are subject to ongoing change and exist within a constant state of flux — whether perceivable or not.

The world around us, including its geological elements, is in a constant state of reorganisation, both through and outside of human influence. Constructed across a volcanic field, Tāmaki Makaurau has a unique material history as a city built on, around and from volcanic peaks. Many of its basalt and scoria structures, particularly rock walls, have been subject to multiple waves of deconstruction and reassembly throughout human history. As the places these walls were built to surround have since shifted or disappeared themselves, many are left as lone entities within their landscapes. Despite the distance between the stones used to build them and the mountains they were quarried from and their displacement throughout the cityscape, they remain mountainous and lively.

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The title of the work draws on a quote from science fiction author Ursula le Guin, who when reflecting on our atomic, material connection with other bodies in the known universe, states:

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"Parts of me that are stone, or star, or dust,… What came together to make me [is] the stuff of life… One is almost an accidental concatenation of a lot of stuff getting together and becoming an entity for a while."[1]

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[1] Parque Hudson, “Ursula K Le Guin debate con Donna Haraway”, 1:14:50, January 24 2018, 29:45 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59bLqzrM2r0.