(CURRENT) DECOY - Expanding the idea of an ecological uncanny valley, a “crisis of the natural” in aesthetics applied to our habitat, by investigating ‘pyroplastic pebbles’ : a new form of burnt plastic beach pollution with a geogenic appearance that evade ready detection and would be considered to be normal pebbles to the untrained eye. A kind of stealth pebble hiding in plain sight who’s purpose is to lure or entice us away from our intended course.
Mineral luminosity and folklore surrounding luminous gemstones is incredibly prevalent across global cultures. Some stories about light-emitting gems may have been based on luminescent and phosphorescent minerals, some of which are activated by holding them in your hands. The first discoveries (Sydney Hobart Ball: Luminous Gems, Mythical and Real 1938) speak of luminous gems being used to illuminate buildings, for navigation lights on ships os sometimes as guiding lights for lost persons. This project considers these strange pyroplastic pebbles as a kind of ‘future myth’ , the historical purpose they could hold for future generations, and as a kind of moral way-finding tool.
There is a specific example of an ancient Chinese phosphorescent mineral known as a Dragon or Phoenix pearl, a real stone now almost impossible to find and once legally protected in the country, Ye Ming Zhu became synonymous with mythical creatures who were thought to have created it, being used to decorate spiritual places and gardens, it began to be re-created in order to offer it to the public sometime in the 1960’s. It was first reproduced as a fake version of the stone using radioactive elements such as radium, since banned, it is now made using ceramics with the chemical compound Strontium Aluminate that has a very high phosphorescence value. (Strontium Aluminate is used to mimic bioluminescence and reduce unnatural light in sensitive areas such as around observatories or shores with drifting plankton.) A future Decoy is born as it hints at mythical and ancient stones but becomes a fake of itself over time, sometimes toxic, at other times magic.
To be continued...
R&D supported by an Open Fund Grant for Individuals from Creative Scotland and an Artists Bursary from The Artists Information Company
With thanks to Dr Lonneke Goddijn-Murphy, a research fellow at the UHI Environmental Research Unit for doing experiments with Thermal infrared imaging. Also specialist museum artefact scanners ThinkSEE 3D to scan and model pebbles from my pyroplastic beach finds, and biomaterials artist Kaitlin Ferguson for test 3d printing new pebbles in biomaterials such as coffee, seaweed, sodium alienate, chalk and wood, incorporating the compound strontium aluminate to make them glow.
