Pangea: A Multimedia Epoch

Hannah Newman, Lumps That Leak / Soft Bodies, 2021, epoxy clay, flocking, smartphones, charging cables, single-channel videos, vinyl, and paint (detail). Image courtesy Mario Gallucci.

The body is porous—
a lumpy, lukewarm accumulation
of soft-bodied life.[1]

On closer inspection,
the lumps bulge
upward to collect the rising
oil and gas. They welcome[2]
a daylight that works
freely upon them.[3]

A body is an idea—
atoms loosely clumped
together, vibrating
in empty space.

Bodies without surface,
whether once buried
in the mountain, imprisoned
in the nugget, embedded
in a global supply chain,
or swallowed
in the mud, circulate.[4]

Without being seen,
they are discernible only
by the objects they move
through and erode.[5]

These viral bodies flow–
polymorphous–
an ongoing stream
of data and events.[6]

They leak
radiation into the space
and objects surrounding them.[7]

Solid matter is the end
result of long processes
of a natural historical kind.[8]

Soft bodies and hard
plastics take an era
to assemble.

[1] Bishop, Ellen Morris. In Search of Ancient Oregon: A Geological and Natural History, (Portland: Timber Press, 2006), 29.

[2] Ibid, 88, 97.

[3] Focillon, Henri. The Life of Forms in Art, (New York: Wittenborn, Schultz, 1948), 362.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Hunt, Jamer. “Just Re-Do It: Tactical Formlessness and Everyday Consumption,” (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2003), 56, quoting Michel De Certeau.

[6] Hunt. “Just Re-Do It,” 57-58.

[7] Puntar, Diana. (@helzergallery Instagram, Feb. 21, 2020).

[8] Parikka, Jussi. A Geology of Media, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015), 60.

Erosion marks the passage
of time on land and bodies.

Streams dutifully erode
the landscape, carrying[1]
sands that have been worked
and reworked by algorithms.[2]

Data disintegrates
in the wind and rain,
breaking into luscious,
lossy chunks—pulverized.

Bits of matter
provide traces
of an analog landscape.

The atmosphere is heavy
with metals and minerals[3]
gone viral, atomized dust—[4]
residue from polished ipads,
circulating as memes.[5]

There is no line of narration
more concrete than a stream of dust.[6]

Each particle of dust
carries with it
a unique vision
of matter, movement and interaction.[7]

Dust does not stay
outside a body,
but rather is a history
that enters in.[8]

It is the residue
of a utopian promise registered
in the soft tissue
of a globally distributed,
cheap labor force.[9]

Lungs work in tandem,
easily exhausted[10]
by the coal-fired computing
that supports the existence
of glossy and glassy products.[11]

All the dust settles
on your shoulders:
an as-yet-thin
layer of sediment,
which will grow thicker,
until you disappear.[12]

[1] Bishop, Ellen Morris. In Search of Ancient Oregon: A Geological and Natural History, (Portland: Timber Press, 2006), 98.

[2] King, Hobart M. “Sandstone,” https://geology.com/rocks/sandstone.shtml.

[3] Parikka, Jussi. A Geology of Media, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015),  92.

[4] Ibid, 46.

[5] Ibid, 103.

[6] Ibid, quoting writer and philosopher Reza Negarestani, 102.

[7] Ibid, quoting Negarestani.

[8] Ibid, 201.

[9] Ibid, 89.

[10] Ibid, 86.

[11] Ibid, 101.

[12] Chevillard, Eric. Prehistoric Times, (New York: Archipelago, 2012), 75.

Energy is hard to come by
originating from the sun,
and other slowly dying stars.

The microchipped world burns
in intensity like millions
of tiny suns.[1]

Precarious bodies
need to constantly prove
economically viable.[2]

Unstable horizons
harness energy for the production
of free-form algorithms
that shift in and out of focus.

Hard work and hardware,[3]
earth is a massive heat engine,
cooled by millions of computer
server exhaust fans.

We receive energy,
and a supply of lava,
from the stones that slip
constantly down
into the earth’s molten core.[4]

A metal is defined
by what it can do.[5]
Most rocks have,
as yet, proven
of little economic value.[6]

Instability is a gold mine
without a bottom.[7]

A laboring body transforms
energy from potential
to kinetic, releasing
energy back to the sun
in usable packets.

My smartphone puts itself to sleep,
going into energy-saving mode.[8]

We should not expect
easy heroism from such acts.[9]

We are all tired.

[1] Parikka, Jussi. A Geology of Media, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015), 138.

[2] Pereira, Lidia. “Towards An Incoherent Refusal of Efficiency,” (Pervasive Labour Union Zine #11, 2018), https://iluservus.at/towards-an-incoherent-refusal-of-efficienty.html.

[3] Parikka. A Geology, 88.

[4] Bishop, Ellen Morris. In Search of Ancient Oregon: A Geological and Natural History, (Portland: Timber Press, 2006) 29.

[5] Parikka. A Geology, 62.

[6] Bishop. In Search, 100.

[7] Steyerl, Hito. Duty-Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War, (London: Verso, 2017), 3.

[8] Parikka. A Geology, page not found.

[9] Haiven, Max. “Currencies of the Undercommons: The Hidden Ledger of Proletarian Money Sabotage,” (State Machines: Reflections and Actions at the Edge of Digital Citizenship, Finance, and Art, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2019), 104.