Geology in Art

Google meets Geoart!

2012-01-10T16:22:00.000-08:00

Happy birdthday Nicolaus!

On occasion of his 374th birthday, Google devoted today's doodle to the pioneer of stratigraphy: Nicolaus Steno. The design is essential but elegant, and clearly refers to the law of superposition. Indeed Nicolaus Steno pioneered the idea that sedimentary layers are deposited in a time sequence, with the oldest at the bottom and the youngest at the top.

Today's doodle, devoted to NSteno

Steno's doodle is very artistic, but Steno himself used the visual language to express geological knowledge.

Geological history of Tuscany, according to Nicolaus Steno. Image from Earth Observatory.

Infact, Steno's works are often accompanied by visual material, fundamental for communicating his geological theories. There are no better words than those of Rudwick (1976) to comment this phenomenon: "the development of a distinctive visual language was a striking feature of the emergence of geology as a new science, and it has continued to be a prominent feature of the discoursse of geologists ever since".

In the formative years of geology, fossil shark teeth were named glossopetrae, or tongue-stones, and believed to have magical properties. Steno visually compared fossil teeth to recent ones, from the head of a modern shark.

REFERENCES
Rudwick, M. (1976). The emergence of a visual language for geological science.Hist. Sci., xiv: 149-195

Paleoartistic Highlights on the Web

2012-01-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

“The science of paleontology has always been inextricably tied to art.”
- Davidson (2008)

In 1995 Michael Brett-Surman, dinosaur collection manager of the Smithsonian, checked for damage after a pipe burst in the ceiling and discovered 1200 palaeontological illustrations on top of a specimen storage cabinet. After this manifestation of serendipity, the museum began to provide archival care for palaeontological illustration.

The PaleoArt website describes various artistic techniques.

The paleoartistic efforts of the Smithsonian are expressed through a comprehensive website: PaleoArt - Highlights from the Department of Paleobiology. The website is divided in three sections, each of which is presenting different aspects of paleoart with numerous practical examples. The first section is organized around the historical collection of the museum, including a Triceratops by Charles Knight and numerous illustrations prepared under the supervision of the famous 19th century paleontologist Othinel Charles Marsh.

The second section is devoted to paper conservation, applied to the paleoartistic treasure of the Smithsonian. The last section deals with the creative techniques for palaeontological illustration. From graphite pencil to digital illustration, this section is very rich in content and gives the idea of the tremendous amount of work and knowledge for producing palaeontological illustration.
In conclusion, “PaleoArt - Highlights from the Department of Paleobiology” gives a very vivid impression of palaeontological illustration, its evolution, techniques and conservation. Definitely a must-click for the art and palaeontology enthusiast!

The Smithsonian collection includes a wonderful painting by Charles Knight, comprehensively described in the website.

REFERENCES

Davidson, J., 2008. A History of Paleontology Illustration. Indiana University Press, 2008
217 pp.

See also:
Switek, Brian, 2009. [Review of A History of Paleontology Illustration]. Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 12, Issue 1, R3; 2pp.; http://palaeo-electronica.org/2009_1/index.html

A Wax Kaleidoscope for the Carboniferous

2011-12-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

More than 300 million ofyears ago, during the Carboniferous period, humongous insects andgigantic amphibians populated vast, swampy forests. Theseinextricable habitats originated vast deposits of coal – from whichthe name Carboniferous – and, in much more recent times, theyinspired the creativity of artists.

Among the artworksinspired by this geologic period, the wax habitats of Kenneth Parsons aresome of the most awe-inspiring creations. Abstract butrepresentational at the same time, these environments take thevisitor into the intricate atmospheres of the Carboniferous period.Wax is the vehicle of chronological exploration and kaleidoscopicpatterns are its language. In fact, the artist created a geologicnarrative entirely sculpted in wax, and experimented withillumination to obtain a totally immersive experience.

More in detail, there aretwo Carboniferous forests - one is a wall in 'The Wax Room' which wasexhibited at the Edinburgh Festival and Wolverhampton Art Gallery andone is a geodesic dome which was specially commissioned andexhibited, as part of a tour called 'Forest' at York, Nottingham andNewtown Art Galleries. The exhibition spaces were covered by thinsheets of wax, permeable to light, designed in 30 years of work.

I interviewed Ken Parsonsabout his peculiar and inspiring form of art.

At what age did youbecome an artist, and how did you know?

Made and painted a largebox when I was 15 but I suppose it all started when I was about 8. Mymother had to work so left me alone when I was off school withasthma. We had some very old lead toy cars. I would light a fire inthe grate put the cars on a shovel and watch them melt into abeautiful silver puddle – then I would pour the molten lead into aglass of cold water and hey presto – lots of lovely shiny abstractshapes.

Wax sculpture is a verypeculiar form of art. What career path did you take to get to whereyou are now?

Studied for a degree inGeography at Exeter University, dropped out and taught myself.

What inspired you tocreate the Wax Room? What were your goals?

Love stained glass windows– a room made of stained glass/wax seemed like something I wouldreally love to see…

Why have you chosen aCarboniferous Forest?

Mandala type designs caneasily be interpreted as trees and the wax comes from theCarboniferous era so hey!

Particular of the Carboniferous Forest.

Please give us someinsight on your journey in making this artistic project.

Long hours (3000) trickyproblems to solve, 2 good fellow workers, scraping up money to payfor it.

Carboniferous forestsare not the only geologic element inside the Wax Room. What is therole of volcanoes and lava in your artwork?

They are part of thenarrative from the big bang to the formation of the earth.

Sculpture, sound,vision... Please explain the narrative of the Wax Room.

3 narratives – one aphilosophic concept of splitting and bringing together, another ageography lesson for kids and another about the creation of the WaxRoom

The Wax Room. Picture from its official website.

Wax and CarboniferousForests are the axis of your “Wax Room” and “Wax Dome”. Whatis the (emotional) role of these elements in your artisticcreativity?

Very forgiving and plasticmaterial, love gardening and nature.

The Wax Dome: Whatmedia, what artistic metaphors have you used?

Time in a day andstretching through countless days.

What is the conceptbehind the Wax Dome?

Rebirth of the deadmaterial in wax to glow again with the light of the sun that createdit.

A review of the Wax Dome, from the official website.

The Wax Dome as anexperience: is it a progression or a static experience?

Progression through a dayin the Carboniferous era using different lighting.

Do you think your workreflects a specific fractal look?

Mandalas are a favouriteJungian motif and his concept of the collective unconscious isreflected in the connectivity in fractal patterns in say leaves anddeltas, ammonite shells and galaxies.

How important do youthink it is for artists to know about geology?

Just as important as anyknowledge

What projects are youworking on now, and what do you have in line for the future?

Lampshades and trying tofind homes for the Wax Room and the Wax Dome.

Dinosaurs invade the Visconti Castle

2011-11-16T04:39:00.001-08:00

The cover of 'The First Fossil Hunters' by Adrienne Mayor.

"The First Fossil Hunters" (Mayor, 2001) is one of the best books toexplore the wonders of ancient palaeontology. The first edition of this richhistorical portrayal starts with a gorgeous cover: the Corinthian vase paintingcommonly known as the “Monster of Troy”. This fine work of art – dating back tothe sixth century B.C. – depicts Hesione and Heracles, fighting against thelegendary monster that appeared nearby Troy.A question might arise: “What is the link between Heracles and palaeontology?”

Intriguingly, the artist depicted themonster with atypical features: the monster protrudes from a rocky cliff, it has a hollow eye socket with a ringof bony plates, it presents a clear jaw articulation and it is rendered with apale pigmentation. In other words, the “Monster of Troy” was inspired by afossil skull protruding from an outcrop, as confirmed by the rich fossil faunaof the Mediterranean coast (Mayor, 2001).

Fossils have fascinated artists not onlyin classical times. Many Renaissance naturalists depicted fossils and theirpioneering work is the base of Earth sciences as conceived today. Despite thesenotable examples, it was only in the 19th century that the reconstruction ofextinct animals entered its modern era. At that time one of the masters ofpaleontological illustration was Édouard Riou (1833-1900), well-known for hisdirect collaboration with Jules Verne. Riou, a former pupil of the famous engraverGustave Doré, illustrated both fictional and scientific works (Rudwick, 1995).His style has been called “realistic Romanticism” (Marcucci, 1956), and wecannot but agree when admiring the illustrations in Flammarion’s Le Monde Avantla Création de l’Homme and Figiuer’s La Terre Avant le Déluge. In that sameperiod other excellent artists were producing palaeontological illustrations,among which James Beard, Mary Mitchell and Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins.

Iguanodon and many others sculptures by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins are still preserved at Sydenham Hill (South London). Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

Hawkins’s name is intimately linked withthe Crystal Palace,the building originally erected in Hyde Park (London) to house the Great Exhibition of1851. After the Exhibition the building was moved to Sydenham, and it was suggestedto decorate the Crystal Palace park withreconstructions of dinosaurs.

This episode marks one of the mostsuccessful, ephemeral and famous marriages between geology and art. Thewell-known palaeontologist Owen was the project’s scientific coordinator; WaterhouseHawkins was chosen as the sculptor. At the end of 1853, Hawkins, who hadalready completed several dinosaurs, had a bizarre idea: he organized a galadinner inside a dinosaur. A sculpted Iguanodonwas prepared for the event; the back of the reptile hosted adining room, with a large table, chairs and chandeliers. The crème of British geology was invitedto the dinner, which was a great success. According to contemporary newspapers,in 1854 Crystal Park was visited by Queen Victoria, who greatly appreciated thedinosaurs (for more on the dinosaurs of Crystal Palacesee the excellent Ruggieri, 1975).

The famous gala dinner inside a sculpted Iguanodon: paleoart in the 1850s.

Recently, a modern equivalent of the Crystal Palace was hosted by the Visconti Castle (Pavia, Italy), anawe-inspiring fortified structure built by Galeazzo II Visconti in 1360. In fact, thetravelling exhibition Dinosauri in Carne ed Ossa ("Dinosaurs in the Flesh")colonized the park and the arcades of the ancient building. The exhibit emergedfrom the collaboration between palaeontologists (Simone Maganuco, Stefania Nosotti), artists(under the umbrella of GeoModel) and an active palaeontological association(APPI, represented by the palaeontologist Alessandro Carpana).

I mustadmit that I already visited a previous installation of the show, located at theUrban Center of Piacenza. I was really impressed by the quality of the Piacenza exhibit, therefore I went to Pavia to document thisamazing cross-pollination between art and science. Between a photographic report anda personal diary, here are my impressions of the exhibit.

Some of the highlights of 'Dinosauri in Carne ed Ossa'

“Dinosauriin Carne ed Ossa” was centered around several life-size models of prehistoricanimals, covering a time span from Palaeozoic to Quaternary. Scientific panelsexplained the scientific background behind the sculptures, excelling for theiraesthetic appearance. Indeed the prehistoric creatures appeared very dynamic and vividlycoloured, with very detailed textures.

What would Hawkins say if he had seen this haptic interface?

Alessandro Carpana explained me the innovativetechniques used to sculpt the models.

In fact, several reconstitutions were realized with the Clay Tools system. This system includes anhaptic device, that is a a true 3D joystick with force feedback. This technology enables artists to use their sense of touch to create virtual clay models. In other words, digital sculpting at itsbest. In other cases, traditional maquettes (scale models) were digitalized by 3D laserscanner.

Both techniques resulted in a digital 3D model, succesively sculpted at 1:1 scale by rapidprototypying equipment. Then, artists applied labor limae: textures, fine details and colors.

Nevertheless,these artistic and technical aspects would be mere appearance without an accurate scientificapproach. As concerns this aspect, the models are very accurate. It is not a case that Jack Horner – oneof the leading vertebrate palaeontologists of our times – officiallysupported the exhibit and presented several events linked to it.

It is worthto note that the exhibit gave a great allocation of space to paleoart. Infact “Dinosauriin Carne ed Ossa” presented several panels with the work of leading Italianpaleoartists, from Davide Belladonna to Fabio Pastori, from Troco toPrehistoric Minds, a team devoted to palaeontological illustration.

Paleoart played a significant role in the exhibit: from techniques to materials, from themes to artists.

Many events accompanied 'Dinosauri in Carne ed Ossa'. Among others, palaeoartists Troco and Lukas Panzarin discussed about palaeontological illustration, and the palaeontologists Andrea Cau and Alessandro Carpana dealt with the cultural heritage of Jurassic Park,

Paleoartists Troco and Lukas Panzarin held an interesting conference about palaeontological illustration.

This exhibit is surely a must-see for the art and palaeontology enthusiasts. However, after Piacenza, Cormayeur and Pavia, where will be the next installation? I will conclude this issue with a scoop: rumours saythat “Dinosauri in Carne ed Ossa” will be held very soon in Florence, the city which saw the activity of Leonardo da Vinci - artist, naturalist and pioneer of palaeontology!

When dinosaurs ruled the Visconti Castle of Pavia... See you soon in Florence!

...well, not only dinosaurs!

REFERENCES

Marcucci,E.,1956. Les Illustrations des Voyages Extraordinaires de Jules Verne.Bordeaux: Ed. Société Jules Verne, pp. 18–19.

Mayor,A. 2001. The first fossil hunters - paleontology in Greek and Roman times.Princeton Press, 361 pp.

Rudwick,M.J.S. 1995. Scenes from Deep Time: Early Pictorial Representations of thePrehistoric World. University Of Chicago Press, 294 pp.

Ruggieri,G. 1975. La scoperta dei fossili – il romanzo della paleontologia. ArnoldoMondadori Editore, 122 pp.

Links

2011-11-07T02:36:00.000-08:00

By the endof 1990, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee had developed the first web server, webbrowser and web pages. Nowadays, after more than 20 years of World Wide Web,hyperlinks are so pervasive to be invisible to the eyes. We are used todirectly follow a reference to a document as a way to access information.

However,today I felt the power of (hyper)links.

Climateresearcher Brandon Murphy was part of the Coldigioco scene, a uniquely vividscientific and geoartistic environment; for this reason he found this blog, sinceI had published a post about this geoartistic school. Then he came across an articleabout Luke Jerram, an artist who produces sculptures of 3D renderings ofseismographs, and signaled it to me.

That’s alinked information sharing!

Seismogram of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and its sculptural expression by Luke Jerram.

One of the most impressivesulptures by Jerram was made to contemplate the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake andtsunami in Japan.According to the artist’s webpage:

“To create the sculpture aseismogram of the earthquake, was rotated using computer aided design and thenprinted in 3 dimensions using rapid prototyping technology.”

This technique could be defined the tactile counterpart of geologic sonification, mastered by Alessandro Montanari, one of the main figures of the Coldigioco environment. Again, links.

From musical to technological fossils

2011-10-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

Fossils arenot only palaeontological objects, but evocative cultural symbols.

For instance,the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote The Carnival of theAnimals, a musical suite of fourteen movements, among which ‘fossils’. The sharp, vibrant sound of the xylophone represent magnificently theidea of fossil bones, analogously to Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre. Indeed the composer had a parodical intent, and alluded to many popular themes of his own times: TwinkleTwinkle Little Star, Au clair de la lune, J'ai du bontabac, Partant pour la Syrie, as well as Rossini's Una voce poco fa. As Hazel Gertrude Kinscella wrote in her Music and Romance, “Saint-Saëns took the opportunityto ridicule certain too-well known (as he asserted) melodies both of his ownand other’s writings”. Melodies as musical fossils.

The 'musical fossils' of Camille Saint-Saëns.

In more recent times, a contemporary artist embraced the same concept. In fact, Christopher Locke 'fossilized' some technological artifacts of our recent times, including a cassette tape, a walkman and a Nintendo controller. The artist used binomial nomenclature to refer to his own creations (i.e. the walkman is named Ambulephebus sonysymphonia).

Asportatio acroamatis, a modern fossil by Christopher Locke.

Modern fossils: Locke's

Repondicium antiquipotacium, or the 3.5'' floppy disk.

With the words of Locke himself: “These aremodern fossils. They are made from actual archaic technology that was oncecutting-edge.”

“Mostpeople attribute the shortened lifespan to aggressive predators or acceleratedevolution, but this is not necessarily true. It has been shown recently thatthe true demise of most of these specimens came from runaway consumerism andwastefulness at the high end of the food chain”.
Modern fossils are a paleobiological metaphor realized with a very special process. According to the website of Christopher Locke, "these items are reproduced in a proprietary blend of concrete and other secret ingredients, giving them the look and feel of real stone fossils".

The rotary dial telephone, or, according to Locke's nomenclature, Deferovoculae circumdactylos.

Hilarofustis atarium: the Atari joystick, fossilized by Christopher Locke.

The Mineralogical Record Museum of Art

2011-10-04T03:21:00.000-07:00

What happens to us
Is irrelevant to the world’s geology
But what happens to the world’s geology
Is not irrelevant to us.
We must reconcile ourselves to the stones,
Not the stones to us.
[…]

- Hugh MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid, one ofthe leading poets of the Scottish Renaissance, had an intellectual fascinationfor geology. Born in the burgh ofLangholm in 1892, MacDiarmid often celebrated the aesthetical and conceptualbeauty of geological objects. This aspect fiercely emerged in his volume StonyLimits (1934), where he described dense geological landscapes:

All is lithogenesis—orlochia,
Carpolite fruit of theforbidden tree,
Stones blacker than anyin the Caaba,
Cream-colouredcaen-stone, chatoyant pieces,
Celadon and corbeau,bistre and beige,
Glaucous, hoar,enfouldered, cyathiform,
[…]

- Hugh MacDiarmid, On a Raised Beach (to James H. Whyte)

Shetland Islands. Photo by Dave Wheeler.

Probably MacDiarmid’s ‘metaphorical geology’derived from his long travel to Shetland Islands.As Lyall (2006) says: “The poem [On a Raised Beach] drew genuine sustenancefrom the 1933 geological survey of Shetland conducted by GV Wilson, whosefive-strong team included Thomas Robertson, with whom MacDiarmid becamefriends”.

Despite his poetic uniqueness, MacDiarmid isnot the only poet fascinated by geology. From Wolfgang Goethe to May Kendall, literature had been populated by geologicimagery since remote times. Still nowadays, poetry finds successful applicationin mineralogical teaching: “A high school earth science teacher and a collegeeducation professor team-taught a lesson to ninth graders on using poetry tolearn about minerals” (Rule et al., 2004).

Visual arts particularly register the aestheticrecognition of minerals, prized objects of beauty. This aesthetic fascinationis wonderfully represented by the Mineralogical Record Museum of Art, a remarkableexample of the relationship between mineralogy and art. I interviewed WendellWilson, editor-in-chief of the Mineralogical Record and curator of the museum.

1. Tell us about your professional andscientific background.

I carried a double major of Art and Geology formy undergraduate (B.S.) degree at the University of Minnesota.I had always been an artist while growing up, and had been a mineral collectorsince age 10, so I loved both fields. I finally decided that it would be easierto earn a regular income as a geologist than as an artist, so I went on the getmy PhD in Mineralogy. When the offer to take over editorship of the Mineralogical Record magazine came in1976, I jumped at it because a good science magazine is both an artwork and ascientific document; so I’ve been able to follow both of my passions. In myspare time I do mineral and mining-related artwork, primarily to please myself,and it sells very well, but I don’t have to do it to put food on the table. Theartist Peter Max called that “creating from purity.”

2. How was the Mineralogical Record Art Museum born? What wasthe catalyst?

The Mineralogical Record Art Museum is entirely virtual. When we expanded ourwebsite about 10 years ago I wanted to add various kinds of free content, so Ihad our webmaster design the Art Museum section. It is wonderful to be able toadd unlimited content at no cost. Of course, I have daydreams about a real,physical museum like the one facetiously pictured on the Art Museum home page –but that’s actually a picture of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Susan Robinson, geologist and artist, painted the mysterious beauty of a copper mine (Robinson, In the Copper Queen Mine; from the Mineralogical Record Museum of Art).

3. How is the museum organized on anarchitectural and logistical level?

The Art Museum has two departments: Mineral Artand Mining Art. Both are of interest to mineral collectors (our mainconstituency at the Mineralogical Record), especially field collectors who havethe experience of collecting in mines and underground workings. The mineral art(the primary focus of the Art Museum) consists almost entirely of portraits ofindividual specimens. The mining art consists of various mining scenes. Each departmenthas a drop-down menu allowing you to select a particular artist. That takes youto the artist’s first page, containing a brief biography of the artist, and thefirst eight of his artworks. By clicking to successive pages you can seen moreof his artworks, eight at a time. In the case of my own section, a total of 111of my own artworks are pictured. If you click on the small thumbnail version ofan artwork you can see a larger image.

The MineralogicalRecord Museum of Art provides extensive resources about mining art. The image shows a fired-clay tablet (ca. 575 B.C.) depicting miners at work. The tablet was excavated at Penteskuphia(near Corinth, Greece),

Der Mineraloge [the Mineralogist] by Raphael Ritz.

4. How many people make up your staff?
Just myself and our webmaster, at least as faras the Art Museum is concerned. The magazine has a larger staff.

5. How did you select the artists involved?

The standard is that artworks depicted must beof sufficiently high quality that they could hang in a real museum of fine artand not look amateurish or out of place. Although I certainly encourage thework of beginning and intermediate artists, the Art Museum is only for artistswho have achieved a professional level of skill.

6. What do you think is the commonality betweenthe artists represented and what is the main differentiating quality?

All of the (mineral) artists have a personalpassion for minerals, and this is what seems to drive their creative process.Art is all about selecting, emphasizing and showing the rest of the world theparticular kind of beauty that appeals to the artist. Mineral artists come intwo types: scientific illustrators and fine artists – the second type beingrarer. Scientific illustrators strive for a kind of photographic accuracy, sometimesinsisting on a reproduction scale of 1:1, but one in which the importantphysical aspects of the subject are subtly made easiest to see and understand.Fine artists take it to another level, using mineral specimens to createfine-art compositions and effects; sometimes the minerals they depict areactually fictitious specimens.

15th century painting, showing a miner. From the Mineralogical Record Museum of Art.

7. Can you walk us through some of the museum'shighlights?

Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) produced the firstseries of engraved illustrations of mineral specimens in a book published inthe last year of his life. We have that book, in pristine condition, in theMineralogical Record Library, and it is a thrill to page through it looking atthe oldest surviving mineral illustrations. For me, one of the highlights ofthe Art Museum is the work of Leroy de Barde (1777-1828). He painted a highlydetailed representation of an 18th-century mineral cabinet. The painting isaccurate enough for scientific illustration but transcends that genre to becomefirst-rate fine art. More recently, Claus Caspari (1911-1980) published a fineseries of color mineral specimen portraits that really brought more publicrecognition of mineral art. Among the living artists, Eberhard Equit andHildegard Könighofer rank among the best; both are hard-core scientific illustratorsof tremendous skill.

Leroy de Barde, Minerals in Crystallization. From the Mineralogical Record Museum of Art.

8. What is one of your favorite pieces in themuseum and why?

That’s a tough question, because I love so manyof them. And it is somtimes hard to separate one’s appreciation of the art fromone’s attraction to the specimen itself. But one of my favorites is EberhardEquit’s painting of a cluster of brilliant blue sapphire crystals. I like the depiction of the gemminess -- andthe specimen itself is exactly the kind of thing I like to collect.

Ebherard Equit's sapphire.

9. Let us consider the path between the oldestand the most recent painting in the Mineralogical Record Art Museum. How would you say that mineralogical arthas evolved over time?

Mineral art has not really evolved much, if atall, since the 16th century. The goals have always been the same, and it wasjust a matter of the medium chosen by the artist (engraving, watercolor, oil,etc.) in combination with the artist’s skill and the selection of subjectsavailable to depict. Mineral enthuiasts 400 years ago loved minerals for mostof the same reasons we do today.

10. According to your experience with theMineralogical Record Art Museum, is there an audience for Geologic Art?

Well, there is certainly a market for it,primarily among well-funded mineral collectors. The best artists working todayget plenty of commissions, and their work sells for good money, in thethousands of dollars per painting. One painting by a living mineral artistrecently changed hands between a couple of collectors for $35,000, so there isa genuine appreciation of mineral art as real fine art.

11. Where to next for you? How do you think the Mineralogical Record Art Museumwill evolve in the future?

I don’t expect that it will change much. We’llcontinue to add new artists who are good enough, but they don’t come along toooften. The Art Museum’s primary benefit is that it provides a focus for thewidespread community of mineral artists, and a place where interested viewerscan get a sense of perspective on the history and breadth of the subject. We’resatified with that accomplishment, as formerly there was no place, no book, nowebsite, where a person could go to learn about mineral art in detail.

Wendell Wilson himself is a skilled mineralogical artist. From the Mineralogical Record Museum of Art.

12. Why are minerals beautiful?

The question of what constitutes beauty hastantalized philosophers for a long time. There is really no explaining it,because it is such a deeply human thing. I think some minerals showing fresh,clean colors and rich transparency tap into an ancient mental program forseeking out fresh fruit to eat, but then how do you explain the beauty of blackminerals? The appreciation probably comes from many directions. Mineralcrystals have an architectural quality based on their crystal structure at theatomic level, and it is wonderful to see all the ways that structure canmanifest itself in shape and appearance. To those of us who love minerals andare fascinated by them, and have been since the first time we saw one, it seemsto be an appreciation that we were born with.

REFERENCES

Lyall, S.(2006). Hugh MacDiarmid's poetry and politics of place: imagining a Scottishrepublic. Edinburgh University Press p. 200

Rule A.C.,Carnicelli, L.A.,Kane S.S. (2004). Using Poetry to Teach about Minerals in Earth Science Class.Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 52, n. 1, January, p. 10-14

Art or Science? Geology!

2011-10-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

Arte o Scienza ('Art or Science') is a photographic contest supported by the University of Trieste. It aims to build awareness of scientific culture and promotes the relationship between Art and Science.

Building on the success of the previous editions, the 2011 competition featured numerous entries and diverse themes. Geology had a pervasive role: 2 artworks by Bernardo Cesare were exhibited at giant size in Trieste (Italy)!

A petrographic photograph of Bernardo Cesare, exhibited at large size in the roads of Trieste. For a more detailed analysis of Cesare's creative process, check out his interview.

A granulite in all its magnificence!

Besides the gigantic petrographic photographs, other geologic photographs were selected and exhibited at the Art Hall of Trieste (Sala Comunale d'Arte).

I tried my luck with this close-up: it's tectonic art!

Waiting for the 2012 edition, it is possible to see the scientific photographs at Scienzartambiente (Pordenone, Italy, 12-16 October 2011).

Music from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Björk

2011-09-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is one of the most impressive geological features of our planet. Extending for more than 40,000 km, it represents one of the major tectonic boundaries of the Earth. In fact, at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge humongous volcanic phenomena form new crustal material, separating different tectonic plates.

The Atlantic Ocean is characterized by an underwater mountain system (the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) longer than 40,000 km. The Mid Atlantic Ridge has an important geological significance as it separates the Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate in the North Atlantic, and the African Plate from the South American Plate in the South Atlantic.

Relationship between the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Iceland.

Unfortunately for geologists, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is usually placed at considerable dephts, preventing direct observations. In this regard, Iceland represent a unique place because it consists of a segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that rises above the ocean surface.

Björk is another phenomenon that erupted from the wild geological landscapes of Iceland.

Known for her eclectic musical style and a distinctive voice, Björk is among the most enduringly popular musician of modern times.

The cover of Biophilia. From www.bjork.com

It makes no surprise that an artist born on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge realized geological music. Indeed Björk recently released Biophilia, a musical project including strong geological references. In particular, 'Crystalline' portrays an aethereal mineralogical universe. The video features crystal growth and a meteor shower.

Crystalline video.

Crystalline app. From Pasta&Vinegar.

Analogously to the other tracks of Biophilia, Crystalline is accompanied by an interactive application. IPad lovers can plunge into a geometric world, somehow reminescent of the celebrated videogame Rev.

Nevertheless, there is even a more explicit geological reference in Björk's new album: Mutual Core. It is a geological hymn narrating the inner mechanisms of our planet.

Mutual Core includes strong references to the homeland of Björk, the emerged segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge:

I shuffle around
The tectonic plates
In my chest
You know I gave it all
Try to match our continents
To change seasonal shift
To form a mutual core
As fast as your fingernail grows
The Atlantic Ridge drifts
To counteract distance

- Björk, Mutual Core

At the Befestival 2011, Björk performed a live version of Mutual Core, including amazing visuals. The visual performance dramatically shows continental drift in action: tectonics and paleogeography in art.

Björk performing Mutual Core. The lyrics and the visuals are explicitely geological.

A Geological Theory of Painting: John Ruskin's Modern Painters

2011-09-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

“[The laws of the organization of the earth] are in the landscape the foundation of all other thruths – the most necessary, therefore, even if they were not in themselves attractive; but they are as beautiful as they are essential, and every abandonment of them by the artist must end in deformity as it begins in falsehood”

- John Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. 2, pp. 1-2

Modern Painters is an art treatise written by John Ruskin between 1843 and 1888. Primarily written as a defense of the English painter J.M.W. Turner, it influenced an entire generation of painters. Indeed, as Worthington Whittredge wrote, it “was in every landscape painter's hand” (Wagner, 1988).

Ruskin argued that modern painters were superior to the previous ones (the so-called 'Old Masters'). With Ruskin's words: “there is […] a greater sum of valuable, essential, and impressive truth in the works of two or three of our leading modern landscape painters, than in those of all the old masters put together [...]; while the unimportant and feeble truths of the old masters are choked witih a mass of perpetual defiance of the most authoritative laws of nature".

John Ruskin , (From: Modern Painters, Volume I, page 75).

As witnessed by the initial quotation, Ruskin regarded geology as the foundation of all other 'truths' of painting, namely the truth of tone, colour, space, skies, water and vegetation. An early interest in Earth Sciences explains his 'geological' theory of painting. Ruskin collected many of his geologic observations in his geologic treatise, the Deucalion, but he also simplified geological concepts for artists (Wagner, 1988). This aspect emerges from a letter to Charles Eliot Norton:

“[...] I'm afraid of coming in this way, and go on at once to say that I can't let you have my mountain chapters. I'm going to add them, and publish with notes, not as part of the Deucalion, but as the geology of Modern Painters”.

Ruskin had an important influence on landscape painters, and still nowadays he is considered one of the leading intellectual figures of the Victorian era.
Ruskin founded his own school of art (the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, known as The Ruskin) under the umbrella of the University of Oxford. Moreover, John Ruskin had proficient contacts with eminent artists of the Victorian era. For instance, he spent the summer of 1853 with the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Milias.

Ruskin spent one summer at Glen Finglas (Scotland) with the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Milias, who painted a portrait of Ruskin himself (left). On the other hand, Ruskin relized his Study of a Gneiss Rock.

In her brilliant paper 'John Ruskin and Artistical Geology in America', Virginia Wagner (1988) writes: “Landscape painters selectively applied Ruskin's theories and approach in three ways: by painting rock studies, by delineating the geological consistency of the earth, and by interpreting the scenes in Ruskinian terms”.
In fact Ruskinian theories had an important role on the art of Frederic Edwin Church, who was a central figure in the Hudson River School (Wagner, 1988). As mentioned in a previous post, the Hudson School deeply involved geology in its scientific and artistic expression. Among others, Ruskin influenced Frederic Durand, painter and amateur fossil collector, and David Johnson, Arthur F. Tait, Charles Herbert Moore and William Trost Richards (Wagner, 1988).

Frederic Church, Eruption at Cotopaxi.

REFERENCES
Wagner, V.L. (1988). John Ruskin and Artistical Geology in America. Wintherthur Portfolio, vol. 23 (2-3)

GeoArt on National Geographic!

2011-03-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

In the past issue I asked Bernardo Cesare "What are your dreams as an artist and a geologist?". Bernardo answered: "the dream of dreams is an article in National Geographic..."

His dream come true!

Click here to access to the National Geographic page celebrating his geologic artworks!

Bernardo Cesare featured on the National Geographic!

The Microscopic Landscapes of Bernardo Cesare

2011-02-26T04:31:00.000-08:00

It is an old canon of art, that every scene worth painting must have something of the sublime, the beautiful, or the picturesque. By its nature, photography can make no pretensions to represent the first, but beauty can be represented by its means, and picturesqueness has never had so perfect an interpreter.

— Henry Peach Robinson

Is photography art? Since the early days of photography, this question has puzzled intellectuals and photographers. Henry Peach Robinson, best known for pioneering photomontage, advocated for photography to be regarded as an art form. Nevertheless, many intellectuals argued that photography was the mechanical reproduction of an image and, consequently, they casted doubt on its artistic nature.

The binomial aspect of photography – technical and artistic – emerges from its application to the Earth Sciences. In fact geoscientists have used cameras to document and illustrate geological features since the 19th century.

In 1859, Abramo Massalongo and Mauritius Lötze were among the first to use photography in paleontology. The Geological Magazine reviewed enthusiastically the work of Massalongo and Lötze: “The delicate cream coloured matrix offers such a strong contrast to the bright rich iron stained fossil remains that a better series to submit to the art of the photographer could hardly have been chosen”.

The Geological Magazine discusses about the application of photography to paleontology.

In the same years, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, one of the most influential photographers of the 19th century, pioneered the use of photography during geological fieldwork. O’Sullivan was invited to join the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, an epic geological survey under the directorship of Clarence King, art critic and geologist (founder of the United States Geological Survey). From 1867 to 1869, O’Sullivan’s camera accompanied adventuresome geologists exploring the wilderness of the Western American landscape. O’Sullivan celebrated the spare beauty of these remote areas, and at the same time documented their geological features.

Timothy O'Sullivan photographed the scientists of the "Geological Exploration of the Fourteenth Parallel" while surveying the Shoshone Canyon (Idaho). The majestic Shoshone Falls are in the background.

During its service at the U.S.Geological Survey, O'Sullivan realized stereoscopic pictures to give the illusion of
3D depth...more than 140 years before James Cameron's Avatar!
The image shows the Shoshone Falls. From the Library of Congress photostream.

The leap from Massalongo’s fossils to O’Sullivan’s canyons involves a notable scale jump. Nevertheless, geological processes act even on a wider scale range: from canyons to microscopic crystals. In the variegated scenario of contemporary photography, there is a special place to fill this scale gap: Padua. In this nice Italian city, there is a geologist able to understand continental clashes from minute crystals and, at the same time, he can translate microscopic landscapes into art. I went to Padua and I have got a very interesting talk with him: Bernardo Cesare, the artistic petrographer.

Bernardo Cesare, geologist and artist.

1. Tell us about your scientific background.
I am a geologist, specialized in petrology (the study of rocks) and in particular in metamorphic rocks and in the origin of granites. I received a MsC (1987) ad a PhD in Earth Sciences (1992) from the University of Padova (Italy), where now I am Professor of Petrology. I've spent research periods in Zurich (Switzerland), Princeton (USA) and Clermont-Ferrand (France), and the field areas I study are in the eastern Alps, southern Spain, the Eolian islands and southern India. In the last decade I've been intensely involved in the advanced training of early stage researchers in petrology, coordinating the Marie Curie Project "Eurispet" (www.eurispet.eu).

2. How do you describe your photographic style?
Technically speaking it is "Transmitted polarized light photomicroscopy of rocks and minerals" that translates into "photography of what you see looking down a microscope when polarized light is passed through a piece of rock or mineral". There are two essential aspects in this technique: that the light is polarized (using special lenses similar to those of many sunglasses) and that it passes through the crystals. In order to become transparent the rock must be sliced to a thickness of 30 micrometers (!).
Actually what I just described is not at all a "style" of mine, as it is the conventional way of studying rocks that all geologists adopt. My own addition to it is the search for an aesthetic image, that I generally obtain with a non-conventional use of polarizers and compensators (like the red tint 'lambda' plate), modifying the interference colors of minerals. In this way I can disclose the microscopic secrets within a stone.

In his website, Bernardo Cesare describes these 'crystal waves': "These undulating patterns are the result of deformation. Smashing, squeezing, and shearing of rocks create alignment and folding of crystals to give an idea of movement".

3. How did you get into this vein of photography?
Photography is an essential tool for a geologist. In my case, along with being interested in outdoor, macro and reportage, I have extensively used photomicrography for research, in order to document the small-scale phenomena that I could see in rocks. Beside this scientific side, where I have got most of my training and acquired the technical rigor, I have cultivated the search for the beauty of rocks under the microscope. This 20 year-long amateur activity has recently boosted, after my images received the appreciation of audience and juries at international level, until I started the Microckscopica - Rock Art project (www.microckscopica.org).

4. What do your photomicrographs tell about Earth? And what about Art?
My photomicrographs are taken primarily because of their aesthetic appeal: I take a picture because I like its visual impact, even if I don't know much (or anything) about the geological story of the rock. I don't know if this can be called "Art": I use to say that the artist is the rock, not me! What I do is to disclose the Art in rocks like a reporter at a Museum. Yes, I help bring to life the colors, but the shapes, textures and patterns are already there.
There's no geology in the process I just described. However, when I use rock samples that I do my own research on, the image may tell a fascinating geological tale: of continents separating or smashing into each other, of volcanos erupting with explosions, of phenomena that occur in inacessible parts of our planet, of millions or billions of years in the Earth's life. So I would conclude that images at Microckscopica may tell something about the Earth, but not necessarily.

"These are images from rocks samples I collected in the Tauern Window, a geological region of the Alps. I took these photos to complement an exhibit of minerals from the collection of G. Gasser,
in honor of A. Bianchi and Gb. Dal Piaz, who explored the italian sector of the Tauern Window in 1920-1930" says Bernardo Cesare..

5. Would you give a brief walk through your workflow?
Let's start from scratch, saying that I collect or get a chunk of rock I want to take nice images from. What I have to do first is to get a carefully prepared and polished "thin section": a 30 micron-thick slice of rock glued to a glass holder. The thin section has to be made by a technician with quite a sophisticated process, and the cleaner and more polished it is, the better and sharp the photo will be.
Then I look at the thin section under a camera-equipped microscope (this is also what I do for my regular research activity) and when I find a beautiful subject I take one or more photographs varying the interference colors. Digital photography has been a revolution in this stage, because I can immediately see what the picture looks like without having to wait for film processing, and can take dozens of images for free. Then, since there's almost no post-processing (see below), I check the results and store the images in my computer.

6. How do you find your subjects?
In three ways: looking at my own samples while I am doing research; borrowing interesting thin sections from colleagues; collecting, purchasing or asking people chunks of rocks that I know are, or could be, aesthetically promising. For example, last summer I bought a beautiful necklace made with beads of "Ocean Jasper" (see below). I knew that the rock was interesting, so instead of giving the necklace to my wife as a gift, I had thin sections made from the beads.
When the thin sections are ready I browse through them until I find a good one, and I "play" with the polarisators and compensators until I obtain a nice composition.

7. What kind of equipment do you use?
After using for several years a conventional camera with tungsten-light film for color slides, now I have a 18-mpixel Canon 550D digital reflex mounted on a Zeiss Axioscop 40 polarizing microscope.

8. Do you post-process your photos?
In general I try to avoid any post-processing, even image cropping. This means that I like to have the "right" image colors and composition exactly within and at the 3/4 or 2/3 format of the camera, and with the chosen magnifying lens, at the time of taking the picture. After shooting, I use Photoshop only for subtle modifications of contrast and brightness.

9. What kind of rock do you like to shoot most and why?
Well, there are many, because (as long as the thin-section is carefully prepared) almost any rock "hides a microscopic universe of colors and forms". Sedimentary rocks, especially limestones, are difficult due to the high birefringence of carbonates. Therefore I prefer to work with metamorphic and igneous rocks. If I had to choose just one, I'd say that "Ocean Jasper", a weathered spherulitic rhyolite from Madagascar, is the one that provided many beautiful subjects. It should be pointed out that although I work primarily with rocks, there are other things that provide very beautiful images with the polarized light. One of them is nylon, and you can see some images in the Microckscopica web gallery.

A rock sample coming from Kerala (see next question).

10. Could you share a favourite recent image and tell us a little of the back story behind it?
I like very much this image, that was taken from a rock sample coming from Kerala (India) and provided by my colleague Satish Kumar. It shows black areas interspersed between colorful patches. The black are crystals of graphite, while the colored crystals are silicates called felspars. In this region of southern India graphite is common, and can be so abundant to be economically exploited. The rock (and the graphite it contains) formed about 550 million years ago, at very high temperatures (more than 850 °C) deep in the crust. At that time India, Madagascar, Antarctica and south-east Africa were joined together as part of a supercontinent called Gondwana. This is the reason why we find very similar rocks in all these places.
The size of the rock fragment captured in this image is approximately 3.5 mm in length.

11. What has been your most memorable award and why?
The ninth prize and one image of distinction at the Nikon Small World 2009 contest have been the most rewarding prize, because they certified that my images have reached a very high standard. From a different perspective, the request from a woman in New Jersey to use my photomicrographs as inspiration for producing artistic quilts confirmed my opinion that photomicrographs of rocks are aesthetically very appealing.

8 March, Chirignago (Venice): Microckscopica per Wamba.

12. What will you have on display at “Microckscopica per Wamba”?
This exhibit will showcase about 25 images printed on canvas, their size ranging from 45*60 to 90*90 cm. The subjects represent a kind of "best of" selection, without a particular geographic or geological identification. Just beauty! There are sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks from all over the world, including the near Venetian Prealps and the far Antarctica. The important thing of this show is that images can be purchased through a donation to the charitable Association "Insieme per Wamba" (www.insiemeperwamba.org), thereby helping to provide food, medical assistance and education to the people of Wamba, a village in Kenya.

13. Traditional photographic printing or canvas print? Which do you prefer and how does your approach differ for each medium?
The printing technology is quickly reaching, and passing, new frontiers. Nowadays digital files can be printed on almost any kind of surface and medium, opening infinite opportunities for the use of the image and to its visual representation. I've chosen to print my images on canvas rather than on paper because in this way (and with their "abstract" subjects) they become very similar to paintings, and this enhances their effect as decorative art. This doesn't affect my approach, as the printing resolution and technique is very similar in both cases. With time I want to explore different media, such as glass or plexiglass for retroillumination (see below) or wood or metal.

14. What projects are you currently working on?
With museum curator, Dr. Benno Baumgarten, I am preparing the next exhibition that is planned for this summer at the Museum of Natural Sciences of Bolzano. It will be entitled "Light on the Rocks", and will include about thirty large-format (50*75 cm) images from Microckscopica, printed on plexiglass and mounted as backlit panels. I hope that "Light on the Rocks" will become a traveling exhibition.

15. What do you aspire for? What are your dreams as an artist and a geologist?
As a geologist I aspire for a better future for research in Italy: it is more and more difficult to work with enthusiasm when you see that everything falls apart.
As an "artist" one of my goals is to publish a book of Microckscopica images: a coffee table book with large-format pictures. But the "dream of dreams" is an article in National Geographic...

"Flowers in the geologic greenhouse are quite small, down to less than a millimetre, and take
up to hundreds million years to grow. But if we have the chance to get some,
they may last forever, and do not need watering or fertilizer" says Bernardo Cesare.

Coldigioco Geological Observatory: winter holidays special issue

2010-12-27T14:59:00.000-08:00

Mountains, traditional cuisine, natural landscapes, snow-covered trees: It’s Winter Holidays time!
Placed on a tiny hilltop, the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco is the ideal place to celebrate this very special moment of the year with a touch of GeoArt. In fact the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco is an independent center for research and education in geology, art, and cuisine.
Founded by Alessandro Montanari (geologist and “geo-musician”) and Paula Metallo (artist), the Observatory provides an unique cultural and natural scenario which inspired scientists and artists worldwide.
In a recent issue of this webzine, I interviewed Alessandro and Paula. Many questions remained unanswered, among which the possible existence of a 'Coldigioco School' of GeoArt. In order to explore Coldigioco’s geoartistic environment, I talked with Paula.

How important do you think it is for artists to know about geology, and why?
I thought it was more important for Geologists to know about art. When I started teaching drawing to our Carleton university geology students I had to first think about how to approach scientific thinkers in a way that they could learn how to draw more accurately. So I started out with the two halves of the brain and our two eyes and looking for relationships in general. Counting and measuring lines and angles, and observing with a devoted attention. I ended up realizing that this is exactly what Geologists do already in order to draw (conclusions). From then on the teaching became a complete give and take experience.
I think the most important thing Geology has made me aware of is deep time. Actually grasping millions of years instead of just hundreds or thousands gives me a lot more data to compare with and the possibility to visualize cyclicity. The other thing I really like is the "slow motion" of mountain growth. A big reason why the handmade is still important in my work is to make space for "slow" in my life. Geology helps me to cope with the idea that everything is in constant change, it brings together impermanent and enduring elements right before my eyes.

What are your experiences in “expressing geology with art”?
My work has always taken inspiration from the wish to decipher and “fix” complicated situations by searching for the underlying symmetry, harmony, and natural beauty in things. I think it was inevitable that the work would pass from investigating people to relating to the planet that hosts them. Because I consider remaining contemporary an important consideration in my work, it was inevitable that environmental issues, having now become the most pressing of situations for all life on the planet, would eek their way into my research.
For example I started out making mock thin sections like those scientists utilize for microscopic analysis. Then collaged the thin section images to other objects like the tree pies and the copper sieves.
A series titled, MIMBRES BOWLS; MAN MADE HOLES, started when I read about the Mimbres culture, which was centered near the southwest region of New Mexico. Their pottery has a hole punctured in the center indicating that the bowl was ceremoniously “killed” allowing for the spirit of the image to be free, and so symbolically replenishing the “hole” left behind in nature. This struck me as such a just and romantic idea.
I have made a series of bowls with images of some of the largest and deepest manmade holes on earth, and so classifying the damage. I accompany them with their own Mimbres bowl in an attempt to remedy the damage done.

Mimbres Bowls (picture from Paula's Saatchi page).

A particular of Mimbres Bowls.

The work was shown in conjunction with a Penrose Conference, “The Late Eocene Earth: Icehouse, Hothouse, and Impacts in Italy in 2007. And at the Rieskrater-Museum in Nördlingen, Germany until March 2010. These avenues were in some way connected to the concept of holes in the earth.


In Waiting for the next one, Paula Metallo compares geologic hazard and the moment of recognition in Italian filmmaking. Can't you recognize the scene? Watch the video below!

The trailer of Fellini's masterpiece La Strada, which inspired Paula Metallo.

I am now working on a body of work title, WAITING FOR THE NEXT ONE; (ASPETTANDO IL PROSSIMO). The history of Italian filmmaking documents and confirms the great Italian ability to re-present the real. It is stereotypical that in the face of natural and human tragedies Italians tend to dramatize. But is passively waiting, and not preparing for earthquakes, particularly Italian? And can this be explained through the story of Italian cinema? It seems that an honest and efficient reply to the geographical and geological reality of living on shakey ground is a response not inherent to the Italian people. Are Italians somehow attached to the drama connected with tragedy? The images in this body of work ask these questions. I have chosen frames from Italian movies that seemingly catch famous Italians in the exact moment of recognition that something is about to happen. I place these images alongside more abstract images of seismic activity, interacting as a riddle.

Another artwork from Waiting for the Next one (picture from Paula's Saatchi page). With the artist's words: "I have chosen frames from Italian movies that seemingly catch famous Italians in the exact moment of recognition that something is about to happen. I place these images alongside more abstract images of geological and seismic information. Through the images, I literally put the italians face to face with a tectonic reality".

Together with Dona Jalufka, you realized a crater themed show for the Penrose geological conference (Ancona). Please, explain your emotional journey in creating “Rimanare Colpiti | Awestruck”.

We were searching for a balance between the privileges we wanted from the art world and what we were actually able to achieve. So we asked ourselves what we really had to offer, what made us particular after looking over all our life experiences, in order to apply ourselves to those places that may be looking for those particularities so that we could manage to show our work annually in less ‘invisible’ places. We thought if we took our passion for art and mixed it with our life experiences with science we would find a solid originality.

Invitation to Rimanere Colpiti / Awestruck.

This was the beginning of an art/science collaboration, which seems to me now as a challenging approach to a new kind of comparison.
The show at the Humboldt Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin titled, (un)Measuring The World, was inspired by Daniel Kehlmann's 2005 book, Measuring the World, a story of how Alexander Von Humboldt hoped to measure everything on the planet: “Whenever things were frightening,” Humboldt wrote, “it was a good idea to measure them”. The show was a meditation on the idea that there is more than one way to measure the world. This was an exhibition concentrating on integrating the artwork into the science museum in unusual ways.

Crater themed show for the Penrose geological conference in Ancona, Italy, 2008

Paula’s words are very inspiring, but I have still many questions in my mind: How Coldigioco inspire visual arts? What is the role of geology in this process? Who are the artists revolving around Coldigioco?

The best way to answer these questions is to follow “Rimanare Colpiti | Awestruck” and chronicle the collaboration of Paula Metallo and Dona Jalufka. For this reason, I interviewed Dona Jalufka herself.

Dona, you and Paula realized Awestruck / Rimanere colpiti. Please give me some insight on your journey in making this artistic project.
“Awestruck/Rimanere Colpiti” was a bit of a signpost for both of us. The exhibit was held in conjunction with an international conference entitled “The Late Eocene Earth: Icehouse, Hothouse, and Impacts” – organized as a Penrose Conference by the Geological Society of America and held in Monte Conero, Italy, in October 2007, and was to be the first of our art/science collaborations. The show was an expression of how we where struck by the knowledge of natural phenomena, and how we sought to provide an artistic response to the ever-increasing flood of scientific information. We set out to generate a dialogue using art to examine new and prevailing ideas concerning science and the order they impose on our lives. Specifically focusing on geology, astronomy, climate change, and evolution, we began a comprehensive dissection of various concepts and perceptions. In essance, we became “scholars” in our studios, studying images, material, and concepts borrowed from the scientific community.
There were a significant amount of opportunities here for us to explore. For example, an imaginary crater was created by collaging two palindrome images of a postcard of the Bay of Monte Conero, in the Marche region of Italy. A small photograph of the Earth was preserved in a keepsake locket, and arranged on a table, together with other art objects, presented in a way that recalled a display case in a classic natural history museum. This image of the Earth represents the first time man saw himself far from his usual geocentric position, and constitutes an important historical moment in human visual perception. Other objects in the exhibit utilized scientific props, such as laboratory sieves, thin sections, slides, and steroscopes. Our goal: To show that imagination and reflection are common denominators between art and science.

You and Paula displayed Unmeasuring the World at the Natural History Museum in Berlin. What do you mean exactly with Unmeasuring the World?
The connectedness to both science and the creative challenges it evokes are in many ways artistic in nature. Paula and I believe that our work reflects the never ending fascination of the arts with the wonders of science. Because the Natural History Museum is a home for many disciplines, it makes it a good base for art/science cross-pollination, and allows to present the artwork in a scientific context, providing a symbol of such an interdisciplinary approach. A major influence for this exhibit was Alexander von Humboldt (the famous German naturalist, 1769-1859). His research and discoveries in all fields (from mineralogy to volcanology to biology and glaciology), and especially his approach to unifying all the aspects of the physical world, spoke volumes to us as artists. The title of the exhibit pays homage to Humboldt as well as to Daniel Kehlmann’s thoughtful book on Humboldt entitled “Measuring the World” (a phrase referring to Humboldt’s desire to measure everything in the world). It also provided us with an opportunity to compare the concepts of measuring and unmeasuring as in contrasting science with art. The word “unmeasurable” relates to “unconstrained”, “infinite”, and “untold” --- a kind of poetic version of the scientific measuring of the world that Humboldt set out to do. The year 2009 was the 150th anniversary of his death, and considering his historical influence and association with the Berlin museum led us to invoke his creative insight in our title “Unmeasuring the World”.

(Un)measuring the world: an art show by Dona Jalufka and Paula Metallo

With Paula Metallo, you realized an exhibit inside a meteorite impact crater with 14 million years of Impact Art. What was the emotional path in creating this artwork?
First of all, we were excited by the opportunity to exhibit at the Ries Crator Musem and to be able to tailor the art in such a way as to compliment their collection. Paula and I set out to explore artistic interpretations, some playful and some serious, of geological and astronomical topics related to impact cratering. The impact process can be looked at artistically from a variety of perspectives, both in terms of the medium and in terms of the interpretation. So it was only natural that our emotional paths took slightly different approaches in creating the work for this show. For me, there was a familiarity to the project, and I felt at home with it. It was exciting to have one of my art works displayed next to a piece of Moon rock!

What is one of your favorite pieces in this show and why?

Lunataler: impact geology and cheese.

I don’t normally single out certain pieces as being a “favorite”, as there were many that I felt good about once I saw them in place in the museum. The piece that I feel had the strongest relationship with impact geology and the core of the museum would have to be “Lunataler”. This piece is a playful interpretation of an old saying that the moon is made of cheese. The wedge shape is universally recognized as that of cheese, and the craters, taken from the “Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon”, have been painted onto the form. Placed under a glass dome, this sculpture serves as a literal allegory for Moon cheese. Displayed in proximity to large scale lunar photographs and other impact-related exhibits, I thought it was a humorous yet thoughtful way to get people to think about craters.

Impact geology has a consistent role in your art. Why?
Oh --- that’s easy! My husband is a very prominent researcher in the international impact cratering community. To say that he has not had an influence in directing my attention to impact geology is laughable! The evidence is everywhere: antique lunar maps and crater photographs hang on our walls, there are hundreds of relevant books around, I frequently accompany him on field trips and conferences, and of course there is my exposure to planetary geology from my NASA days.

In your website you quote Cicero: “Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature”. How do you express this idea in your art?

Boundaries: geological sections in art.

The whole idea that art is born of the observation and investigation of nature is a timeless and borderless concept. Nature, being the entire natural and physical world that we inhabit, is inseparable from the inspiration and approach I take with my art. Only in examining visually and intellectually, natural phenomena and processes (in essence, taking in all of nature), am I able to make art of any kind that is meaningful.

You realized many works focused on nature and science. Which of these works do you consider “geologic”? Why?
There are a few works that I might consider purely “geological” because they deal with the Earth (for example, “Geological Evidence”, which you mention next, and works such as “A Day in the Life of Evolution”, or the computer-altered mixed media series– e.g., “Boundaries”, “Earth Stories”, and “Fire and Ash”). There are some that take a geological process (impact cratering) and interpret them from a technical viewpoint – i.e., a series of oil paintings of atomic bomb blasts, or in the purely minimalistic approach in the triptych, “Space, Sky, Earth”, which attempts to bridge the gap from the Earth (geology) to the sky (astronomy).

You named a triptych Geological Evidence. Is it because that is how you see your artwork? Or did you mean something else?
The title of the triptych “Geological Evidence” is actually from a figure caption in the book “Biological Processes Associated with Impact Events”, edited by C. Cockell, C. Koeberl, and I. Gilmour (Springer, 2006). This particular figure of magnified thin sections of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) mass extinction boundary was very inspiring. The notion of showing evidence (in effect, proof) of a meteorite impact of this magnitude is a rather abstract concept. While this is a relatively realistic depiction of what one would see looking through a microscope, from an artistic perspective, it is pure abstract expressionism. The artwork in this case is interpreting the evidence which just happens to look like a piece of art.

In Geological Evidence, Dona Jalufka presents the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction through microscopic geological proofs. As I said for Zheng Shoui's foraminiferal sculptures, geological objects extend over a wide range of scales.

You are a resident artist at the Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco. What is the influence of the natural environment of Coldigioco on your art?
The influence that the natural environment in Coldigioco has on my art is quite a contrast from that of the city environment. While living in Vienna with all its distractions (both positive and negative), the natural distinction between the two can be worlds apart. I find the landscape of the countryside in general, and Italy in particular, to be very inspiring. This of course benefits my landscape and abstract work just as much as the art/science work. Geology is never far away, as is astronomy (we have a small observatory in Coldigioco), and the abundance of insect and other animal life, to name a few of the natural influences that eventually (and perhaps subliminally) find there way into my art.

The triptych Space, Sky, Earth attempts to bridge the gap from the Earth (geology) to the sky (astronomy). These elements are very present in the natural landscape of Coldigioco.

What is the role of the social environment of Coldigioco on your art?
The social environment in Coldigioco per se has a certain degree of influence on my art, obviously because it is such an eclectic community in so many ways. The creativity of everything, from geology and art and to regional cooking classes, makes for a much “energized” breeding ground for my creative processes. My time spent with Paula Metallo (who resides in Coldigioco) as friend and collaborator, is enormously engaging and productive. There are constantly new things happening there involving resident Coldigiocans, visitors and students of varying backgrounds, a recording studio and vibrant music scene, rich, cultural excursions to local towns and cities, etc, etc. Whatever the venue, there is always this current of creativity running through it. Something in the air there—the food— the wine— the people….


Coldigioco: where art meets geology! Picture from the webpage of the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco.

The words of Paula and Dona clearly expresses the vibrant artistic scenario of the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco. Within a unique social and natural environment, Coldigiocans traces shapes and colors which are continuously dancing with the Earth's interior. However, dance is often accompanied by music: at Coldigioco rock layers are singing!
Are you surprised? Earth's sounds are coming soon, on the Geology in Art Webzine!

Coprolite time!

2010-12-06T05:29:00.000-08:00

From the Paleolithic fossil pendant to Hannah Ingalls's wooly trilobite, geologic objects are often used as items of personal adornment. For this reason, it should sound trivial to speak - again! - of geologic fashion accessories, but this time I will tell of fecal fashion: coprolites!

Coprolites are fossil dung. They are prized objects for paleontologists as they provide direct evidence of the diet of extinct organisms and they can shed light on paleoparasitological issues.
In the late 19th century, the British geologist John Stevens Henslow understood the potential of coprolites as a source of phosphate and soon coprolites were mined on an industrial scale for their application as fertilizers.

The coprolite mining area was located in the Cambridgeshire (Eastern Britain), while the refining process was carried out by the Fison Company in Ipswich. For this reason, nowadays you find "Coprolite street" in Ipswich!

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa
Click on the picture to walk around Coprolite street!

The true nature of coprolites was discovered in the 19th century by William Buckland, one of the most influential figures in the history of paleontology. Known for his eccentric habits, Buckland possessed a table made entirely of his coprolite specimens. If you think that this was his weirdest behavior, you are wrong. Indeed he had the reputation for eating everything that had a pulse, including bluebottle, panther, crocodile and the preserved heart of the French King Louis XIV.

Buckland's Coprolite Table. I have to acknowledge Chris Duffin for precious comments on the subject. Picture from the Disillusioned Taxonomist Blog.

In William Buckland's times, nodules with coprolites at their nucleus received the name of 'beetle-stones' and they were often used as ladies' ornaments. This habit did not end with the 19th century.Indeed Artya designed 'Coprolite', a luxury watch blending art, geology and horology. With a sectioned coprolite as dial, Artya's watch transformed dung into gold.

Artya's Coprolite Watch, made of actual fossil dung.

Despite its creative timekeeping, Artya's 'Coprolite' is not the first example of the relationship between dung and time. Indeed coprolites appear in the first illustration of 'deep time', that is the concept of geological time. As early as 1830, Henry Thomas De la Beche painted "Duria Antiquior, a more ancient Dorset", inspired by the paleontologic discovers of Mary Anning.
Famed as the first scene with deep time, Duria Antiquior shows the first stage of the production of coprolites, that is... well, see the watercolor for more details.

"Duria Antiquior, a more ancient Dorset" by Henry de la Beche

In conclusion, coprolites are waste products only apparently. Indeed, fossil dung is precious either for scientists or for artists. With the words of the 19th century author Francis Buckland:

Geopoetry: "Approach, approach, ingenuous youth, And learn this fundamental truth:The noble science of Geology is founded firmly in Coprology." Click on the image to read the whole book!

Foraminiferal Sculpture Park: a question of scales

2010-11-26T07:58:00.000-08:00

Geological objects extend over a wide scale range: from tectonic plates to mountains, from glaciers to sand grains. Intriguingly, distant scale ranges are often interconnected and the same phenomenon can hold on very different scales. In order to explain this concept, I invite you to a relay race through orders of scale.

Variations in the Earth's orbit change the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth. At the same time, the motion of tectonic plates reconfigures Earth's topography, consequently affecting both global and local patterns of atmosphere-ocean circulation. Plate tectonics influence also volcanic emissions (gases and particulates), which have a significant climate-controlling role.

These (and many other) elements shape the Earth's climate, including ocean temperature and marine currents, which controls the distribution of marine microorganisms.
From 150 million kilometers (Earth-Sun distance) to half a millimeter.


Some of the levels of scale dealt in the text. Left: 150 million kilometers (Earth-Sun average distance). Center: Thousands of kilometers (plate tectonics); Right: Less than one millimeter (foraminifera).

Conversely, variation in the ancient Earth's orbit can be figured out from fossils smaller than a sand grain. Likewise, microfossils are used to reconstruct past climate, ocean currents and sea depth.
One of the most important groups of microfossils are Foraminifera ('forams', for friends). They are a large group of unicellular organisms with fine strands of cytoplasm that branch and merge to form a dynamic net. They typically produce a test, or shell, which is often preserved in marine sediments.

Geologists usually study forams through a microscope and obtain information from their complex morphology. The shape of Foraminifera already captivated the artistic talent of Earnst Haeckel, who depicted several specimens in his “Artforms of Nature”.


Foraminifera in Ernst Haeckel's Artforms of Nature.

Recently, the morphology of Foraminifera became the key point of a sculpture garden: the Foraminiferal Sculpture Park in Zhongsham, China. The Zhongsham park is the world's first park dedicated to Foraminifera. It hosts sculptures of Paleozoic to modern species, carved out of marble, granite and sandstone.

The Foraminiferal Sculpture Park of Zhongsham (China). From the website of the Cushman foundation.

A question might arise: How did the Foraminiferal Sculpture Park come to light?
The answer is given by the Cushman Foundation, one of the world's leading micropaleontological associations:
“The germ of an idea for a sculpture park first began some ten years earlier when marine geologist Bilal Haq of the National Science Foundation visited the lab of marine biologist and academician Zheng Shouyi at the Institute the Institute of Oceanology in Qingdao”
Indeed Zheng Shouyi, one of the world’s leading foraminiferalogists, sculpted palm-size models of over a hundred of Foraminifera for educational purposes. She enlarged the tridimensional morphology of microfossils by sculpture, in order to render their form – otherwise indistinguishable to the human eye.

Walking between gigant forams: this is possible at the Zhongsham Foraminiferal park! Image from Nfdaily.

A variety of the sculpted forams. Image from www.ccdu.cn.

Bilal Haq, admiring the abstract and organic beauty of these models, proposed to Zheng to enlarge the sculptures. As reported by the Cushman foundation, “Zheng, a woman of action and a politically influential scientist, took the suggestion seriously” and supervised local artisans for a period of over five years.

The result of this elaborate creative process is breath-taking: 114 permanently-sited sculptures in landscaped surroundings, covering a time span from Paleozoic to recent times. The Foraminiferal Sculpture Park in Zhongsham is an astounding celebration of biological diversity through geological time.
True Artforms of Nature, in the best Haeckel's tradition.

Interpretative structures corroborates the artistic experience. From the website of the Cushman foundation.

Art is a great opportunity for scientific entertainment and geotourism!

More micropaleontologic art. From deltabridges.com

Wearable Trilobites: a Prehistoric Update

2010-11-09T03:16:00.000-08:00

In a recent post I discussed about 'wearable trilobites', that are trilobites used as items of personal adornment.

The oldest example of ‘trilobitic fashion accessory’ is the drilled fossil that has been found in a 15 000 year old archeological site, hence named La Grotte du Trilobite (French for 'the Trilobite’s Cave'). At the time when I wrote the post, I was looking for a good picture of the trilobitic ornament, but without luck. Today I browsed Mammoth Science and I found it!

The object found in La Grotte du Trilobite: humans used fossil trilobites as items of personal adornment since prehistoric times!

Geological Observatory of Coldigioco: where art meets science

2010-11-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

<< It is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident. >>

— Theodor Adorno

Geology is expressed in art through a plethora of media, styles and movements. For instance, it seems very difficult to find an order or a “common line” between Leonardo da Vinci and Per Kirkeby.

Accordingly, I defined Geologic Art as “a collective term for artistic phenomena in which geology brings its own aesthetic and conceptual baggage” (Baucon, 2010). Indeed Geologic Art cannot be regarded a style or a movement; nevertheless, it is a definite, peculiar field as it records the work of ‘geologic thinkers’ (sensu Andrews, 2003).

Thomas Cole, Oxbow or the Connecticut River near Northampton, 1836.

Some places are special for ‘geologic thinkers’. For instance, the 19^th century saw artists and scientists celebrating the geology of the Hudson River. According to Rebecca Bedell (2001): “Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Frederic Church, John F. Kensett, William Stanley Haseltine, Thomas Moran, and other artists read scientific texts, participated in geologic surveys, and carried rock hammers into the field to collect fossils and mineral specimens. As they crafted their paintings, these artists drew on their geologic knowledge to shape new vocabularies of landscape elements resonant with moral, spiritual, and intellectual ideas”.

This phenomenon – known as the Hudson School – involved geology in its scientific and artistic expression.

Thomas Cole's Rock Collection (from Explore Thomas Cole, a comprehensive website about the founder of the Hudson School).

Special places continue to inspire geological thinkers still nowadays. In fact, geology and art meet at Coldigioco (Italy), a hilltop village sitting among mystical peaks and lyrical woodlands. In this unique scenario Alessandro Montanari (geologist and “geo-musician”) and his wife Paula Metallo (artist and educator) restored and rebuilt an old town, creating the Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco (Geological Observatory of Coldigioco), which is described as “an independent center for research and education in geology, art, and cuisine”.

Alessandro and Paula are Coldigioco's permanent residents, but the geological observatory is a vivid meeting point for geological thinkers from all over the world. Indeed Coldigioco provides extensive facilities for geoscientists and it is intensively involved in artistic initiatives.

Monte San Vicino and the surroundings of Coldigioco. Coldigioco is located near the center of the image along one of the ridges ascending toward the mountain. From the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco Website .

Since 1992, the Geologic Observatory of Coldigioco has hosted numerous science, art and culinary programs and conferences. Geoscientists use it as a base from which to study the amazing geology of the Apennines. Its vibrant cultural and natural environment is a vivid source of inspiration for artists.

It appears manifest that the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco could be considered a sort of 'GeoArt's navel'.

For exploring this unique cultural scenario, it is necessary a 'first-hand' opinion. For this reason I interviewed some of the artists revolving around Coldogioco, starting from its founders: Alessandro Montanari and Paula Metallo.

1. What led you to found the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco?

A love for spontaneity and a sort of naive trust in coincidence.

2. Could you define Coldigioco Geologic Observatory?

What is Coldigioco? Here are a few of the things we love about Coldigioco .... the rural landscape that is so beautiful, the peace, the sense of community, the many stimulating conversations, the give and take in learning about each others disciplines - and how we always feel a creative jump start. But most importantly for us we love sharing with students, the Coldigioco life and all of our accomplishments, and that special-Coldigioco-something that each person who visits feels changed for the better and connected to everyone else who loves Coldigioco. That in and of itself if we have accomplished nothing else (which we have) is an extraordinary feat!

3. What are the greatest challenges facing the Geological Observatory of Coldigioco?

Financial. It is often small or emerging organizations that generate provocative ideas, reframe an issue, or look at persistent problems in new ways. I think we are particularly effective at challenging old ways of approaching problems. Especially university level education and research. Even though it should be said that we have yet to find a formula to penetrate and participate in the Italian university system in a way that could begin to transform its inertia.

The initial energy and excitement we and our group of friends had was enough for the initial push but long-term growth has been difficult to keep up with as we get older. As organizers, caretakers, educators and researchers, Sandro and I are just now able to deligate those jobs that took time and energy away from research that permitted us to offer quality work.

The above lines suggest the existence of a 'Coldigioco School' of GeoArt. Is it really true? Who are the artists revolving around Coldigioco? And who are the geoscientists? What is the relationship between Coldigioco, music and geology? How Coldigioco inspire visual arts and what is the role of geology in this process?

The answers - and much more - are coming soon: this December, on the Geology in Art Webzine!

Coldigioco Special Issues are coming soon - on these pages!

REFERENCES

Andrews S. 2003. Spatial thinking with a difference: an unorthodox treatise in the mind of the Geologist. AEG News, 45(4) and 46(1-3)

Baucon A., 2009. Geology in Art. An Unorthodox Path from Visual Arts to Music. geologyinart.com / tracemaker.com, 120 pages

Bedell, R. 2001. The Anatomy of Nature: Geology and American Landscape Painting 1825-1875. Princeton, Princeton Press, 185 pp.

A Record of Life

2010-08-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

Owen Gatley and Luke Jinks authored a nice short movie: "A Record of Life". What is it about?

Triceratops, Volcano, Iguanodon. Shark, Jellyfishes, Buffalo.

"A Record of Life" isn't all about geology, but it deals also with biology and the diversity of present-day life.

You might ask: 'Is it about Earth Sciences or Life Sciences?' This does not matter. Indeed the fossil record is a crucial proof of evolution and explains the diversity of the present-day biological world. Earth Sciences and Life Sciences are connected through paleontology.

Equations, Diagrams, Charts.

'A Record of Life' celebrates the diversity of life through science. Indeed the visual space is filled with objects derived from scientific papers and field notebooks. All on a very physical paper-like texture.

Owen Gatley and Luke Jinks seem to suggest that science is a coherent language to describe the beauty of the natural world. Furthermore, the final metaphor (a man which dives in...well, watch the movie!) seems to express where we come from: evolution, as recorded by the geologic record.

A Record Of Life from Owen Gatley and Luke Jinks on Vimeo.

Cephalon: Emotional Trilobites! (Trilobites in Visual Arts part 2; Triple Trilobite Special!)

2010-07-06T04:50:00.000-07:00

When I realized my book 'Geology in Art' I had the honor to record tens of first-hand opinions of contemporary geologic artists. Indeed I based my research on the belief that the opinions and statements of artists are valid source materials for the study of Geologic Art.

During my research, I interviewed a young paleoartist who occupies a place of relevance within 'trilobitic art': Glendon 'the Flying Trilobite' Mellow. The nickname reflects the double gaze of the painter, staring simultaneously at science and at fantastic atmospheres. Here is a short excerpt of the interview:

"The Flying Trilobite" is a recurrent element of your artwork. Why?
Trilobites with wings started to appear in my artwork about 13 years ago. I was always a fan of the realistic fairy paintings by artists like Arthur Rackham and Alan Lee, and wanted to blend my interest in palaeontology. I looked at numerous trilobite orders, and found that Balcoracania dailyi had these excellent pleural spines perfect for depicting support for insect or bat wings. The concept behind flying trilobites is an attempt at whimsy and intrigue. Evolution by natural selection has generated some amazingly diverse organisms; what can human imagination do, playing with forms and re-imagining what had evolved? The juxtaposition of an extinct sea creature with modern wings appeals to me.

Mythical Flying Trilobite Fossil III, by Glendon Mellow. More artworks are featured on the artist's blog and website.

Your portfolio includes paleoart, fantasy art and commixtures of these aspects. How do you reconcile fantastic atmospheres with science?
I have always enjoyed images of environments and organisms I had never seen before. Science fiction and fantasy are often inspired by real scientific discoveries. The technical challenges of depicting a pachycephalosaur skull or chrysalis with an eye are both inspired by my sense of wonder at these fascinating objects. Whether the subject is real or imagined, the impetus to depict them feels similar to me.

Tell me a personal experience about expressing geology in art.
My wife brought home some shale roof tiles and thought I might paint on them. It was a challenging surface to work on. I created my "Mythical Flying Trilobite Fossil" paintings on them, and had to learn how to work with the surface. The toughest thing is how much damage they do to a soft brush!
But I would never give up soft brushes, they are great for blending colour.

Haldane Precambrian Puzzle (A and B), by Glendon Mellow. You can see more artworks on the artist's blog and website.

Why do you feel the need to draw and paint about science?

I'm in awe of science, and it is so inspiring, and learning about it is fun. That's the selfish part. I feel lucky to live at this place in history, with the past spread out, and the present so rich with knowledge. In my way I hope to contribute somehow. I hope to inspire investigation, questions and scepticism. I hope to inspire a young person to seek wonder in the natural world, and understand how rationality requires them to learn from their mistakes. Science and rationality are still far from the normal way many people in their day-to-day life. Most people rely on intuitions and portents rather than analysis and intellect. It's vital that everyone has a greater scientific education for their own health and happiness.

Speaking of "Flying Trilobites"...Peter Lynn produces a gigantic trilobite kite. The Megabyte holds the Guinness world record for the largest kite: the Megabyte! Watch it in action on this video!

Glendon Mellow is not the only contemporary artist who approaches trilobites from a symbolist perspective. In fact, I recently discovered the colorful world of Tricia Dewey. Her trilobites moves in a vivid world constituted by changing shapes and colors. The sculptures are realized through a complex process combining encaustic wax, oil painting and fossil replicas realized in polymer clay / alcohol inks. The result is amazing!

Some of Tricia Dewey's sculptures.

Vivid colors are also the base of Peter Bond's prehistoric paintings. I particularly enjoyed his warm and somehow abstract synthesis of trilobites leaving tracks on the seafloor. It is also worth of note to mention Jung Hee-Lee Marles, an artist who realized a series of paintings dedicated to fossils.

Peter Bond, Trilobites.

Fossil trilobites as depicted by Jung Hee-Lee Marles.

Tony Cragg is one of Britain's best known and most inventive sculptors. He brings to his personal work an interest for science and biological shapes; it makes no surprise that he realized a series of trilobite-inspired sculptures. The representation of trilobites is carried through a synthetic attempt of grasping the essence of arthropod morphology.
By capturing the aesthetics of biologic body plan and re-creating the sensation in the eye that views the subject, I can say that there is a sort of plastic impressionism in Cragg's trilobites.
As reported by sculpture.org, the artist declared: "Sometimes pictures are puzzled together. For example, Darwin's theories and a mass of geological studies have together led to visualisations of trilobite-infested primeval seas and vast tropical forests, dinosaurs, mammoths, and last but not least, man".

Tony Cragg's trilobites.

The plastic beauty of trilobites have been grasped and synthetized also by the ceramic artist Stephnie Craig. Indeed her sculpture richly encapsulates biologic and paleontologic shapes, as well as geologic metaphors (i.e. 'fossilized memories'). As concerns her 'Trilobite', the sculptor use of the relief varies between investigation of segmented morphologies and exploration of biological textures. If you believe that my words are only empty art criticism, enlarge the picture below and note the detailed, 'biomorphic' texture of the work, blended with a beautifully segmented bauplan.

Stephnie Craig, Trilobite.

Maybe you could think that the weirdest and funniest trilobitic sculpture is the chocolate trilobite on the left (you find it at Juniorgeo). If this is your idea, wait to see the Electrobite. It's a car. It's a trilobite. It's a neon-'o-rama. Well, it is better that you watch the pictures and videos below to understand what is it!
The Electrobite shows the double-facing aspect of trilobites: they have an alien morphology but they are also very cute. Intriguingly, the Electrobite was presented at the Burning Man Festival 2009, therefore it could corroborate the 'open air festivals' issue of this webzine, where I discussed the influences of GeoArt on the famous artistic event in the Black Rock Desert.

A test drive on the Electrobite, a work of art by Jon Sarriugarte.

More Electrobite!

Jor Sarriugarte was not the only with a trilobite at the Burning Man Festival. Spencer Kane realized this beautiful rolled trilobite.

Another point of reference in trilobitic art is Michael Gagné, who is well known for his work within the animation field. Indeed Michael's short Prelude to Heaven recieved an Annie Award nomination (animation’s industry equivalent of the Oscar) for best animated short and became very popular within the animation community. His creativity is behind some of the best-known animated movies by Pixar (Ratatouille, the Incredibles), Warner Brothers (Space Jam), Disney and Don Bluth Animation (the Land Before Time). Michael authored some beautiful artworks inspired by trilobites. They appear as oniric origamis floating in the night.

Trilobic Unicorn, by Michael Gagné.

Trilobite 1 and 2 by Michael Gagné.

Intriguingly, Gagné curates with Andrew Scott a website dedicated to trilobites in art. The curators describes their Trilobite Show as "a visual celebration of an amazingly diverse, truly ancient, and fantastical group of creatures known as trilobites. Though they have been extinct for many millions of years, their preserved remains have set the imagination of men on fire since their discovery. The Trilobite Show's mission is to showcase the works of those people whose passion for trilobites motivates their expression".

Through their Trilobite Show, Gagné and Scott demonstrate an aesthetic passion for the classics of trilobite illustration: Ernst Haeckel and Joachim Barrande.

Haeckel was a 19th century scientist, philosopher and artist who coined many terms in biology, including phylum, phylogeny, ecology. In my opinion, these trilobites inspired the visual landscape of Gagné's trilobites.

Joachim Barrande was a French geologist and paleontologist born in 1799.

Andrew Scott, an artist himself, curates the most extensive blog on trilobites in art: Triloblog! If you are a GeoArt enthusiast, the Triloblog is the right place for you. Scott shares with Gagné a passion for the classics, united by a particular taste for contemporary artists. Thanks to the Triloblog and the Trilobite Show, I rediscovered some of my favorite artists and... I explored new areas of trilobitic art. Hic sunt trilobita!

Using polymers and hand made wire armatures, Andrew Scott designs inspiring sculptures of trilobites.

Diversity of trilobitic art. Right: Laura Passow used a Viking era technique of fabrication called naalbinding for her trilobites. Left: Peter Cameron is a geologist photographing geologic places and objects (from Triloblog).

For instance, the Triloblog cites the wonderful art of Jud Turner, which merges metal materials with biologic shapes. This apparent oxymoron is explained by the artist himself:

"Between seeming contradictions, lie greater truths.Quantum physics tells us that apparently solid objects are comprised of vast empty spaces, populated by tiny particles whose individual relationships create the whole. And that a single particle can exist in two separate places during one moment in time.I explore such dichotomies in my sculpture. Using welded steel and found objects, I create artwork which embraces opposites -- the tension between humans and nature; the perils of balancing biology and technology; or the combination of ancient fossils with modern machinery". This statement seem to occur throughout Jud Turner's art.

Jud Turner, Trilo Temporalis. It reminds me of H.R. Giger, but also of the illustrations of Renaissance naturalists.

Trilotable by Jud Turner.

Trilo-femoral mechanicus by Jud Turner.

Trilobite Show and Triloblog are the most prominent Internet resources on the subject 'trilobites and visual arts', but they are far from being complete. This happens because the subject is amazingly vast and in continuous evolution. Trilobites are a deep source of inspiration for human creativity. A question might arise: Why?

Trilobites and human creativity: a pout-pourri. From left to right: 'Trilobite' by Ludy Feyen. 'Prius Torik', an art car by Ken Duffy. Trilobite encaustics by Michele Barnes. A costume by Betsy the Divine. Trilobite jewelrly by ThisNext. Trilobite Origami by Sipho Mabona. Bob Heffner's trilobite terror. It is not visual art, but it is worth to cite: 'Trilobites' by Breece D'J Pancake. The coat of arms of Dudley; note the trilobite. A trilobitic beer label by the Kniver brewery. A cute trilobite by Brigette 'Weird Bug Lady' Zacharczenko. Dirk's 'Fresh Trilobites'! Trilobites being served at Dirk's.

The answer is quite difficult. For this reason, I will try a personal answer. Indeed, trilobites tickled also my creativity and I realized trilobitic sculptures and video-art.

Introduction to my trilobitic video art.

The design of my trilobitic sculptures. You find more info on my website.

You can't eat a trilobite: that's what my video-art says.

This is my very personal answer: Trilobites are familiar aliens coming from Deep time. Trilobites are familiar because many recent arthropods share a similar body-plan (i.e. crustaceans, insects, arachnids) but, at the same time, trilobites are something completely different.
For these reasons, trilobites bring an emotional charge involving either a conceptual (i.e. Deep Time) and an aesthetic aspect (i.e. the plastic beauty of their segmented bodies). Timothy A. Conrad wrote in 1840 an elegant poem emotional charge. There are no better words as a conclusion of the 'Triple Trilobite Special': here is the incipit of Conrad's 'Ode to a Trilobite'.

Thou large-eyed mummy of the ancient rocks,
The Niobe of ocean, couldst thou tell
Of thine own times, and of the earthquake shocks
Which tore the ocean-bed where thou didst dwell;
What dream of wild Romance would then compare
With the strange truths thy history might unfold?

Cephalon: Wearable Trilobites! (Trilobites in Visual Arts part 1; Triple Trilobite Special!)

2010-07-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

The artist Jeanette M. Norman designs trilobitic wearable art.

Welcome again to the Triple Trilobite Special at the Geology in Art webzine. As you can understand from the title, I found so many examples of trilobite-inspired artworks...that I had to sub-divide the visual arts issue! This issue is entirely dedicated to 'wearable trilobites'. 'What are they?' you might ask. The answer is in the following lines!

Since Paleolithic times, humans considered fossil trilobites as prized objects of beauty and curiosity. Intriguingly, trilobites make their first appearance in art as items of personal adornment. In fact, the oldest ‘trilobitic art’ is the drilled trilobite that has been found in a 15 000 year old archeological site, hence named La Grotte du Trilobite (French for 'the Trilobite’s Cave'). This trilobite shows that fossils are subject of ancient interest for humans, as the trilobite is coming from geologic units very distant from the archeological site. On the other side of the ocean, the Ute Indians of Utah wore trilobites as amulets. These were known as Pachavee (“little water bugs”). Still nowadays, trilobites plays a role in jewelry, and in many cases “trilobitic jewels” meet the concept of wearable art, advanced in the 1900s by the Danish silversmith Georg Jensen. In some cases the artists include real fossils, in other cases they prefer sculpted elements (see pictures below).

Badali Jewelry dedicated designed many trilobite-inspired pieces, such as rings, necklaces and earrings.

"Ancient life" features an ammonite, a sea scorpion and a (small) trilobite. The jewel was awarded second place in the 2005 Saul Bell Design Award Competition.

A trilobite necklace, casted directly from the sedimentary record!

Polymer clay, Czech glass, Japanese laser-cut beads: these are only some of the materials used by Jeanette M. Norman to design her trilobitic fantasies.

Steampunk jewelrly meets trilobites: watch the process for realizing this works of art at Jake Von Slatt's blog! The artwork was inspired by the comic character Girl Genius, who wears a trilobitic jewel.

“Wearable trilobites” are not only jewels. Indeed these extinct arthropods are also found on Hannah Ingalls’ hats and on various kind of footwear. Nevertheless, the nearer "wearable trilobites" are represented by body art. For instance, the GeoArtist Glendon Mellow designed a flying trilobite tattoo for himself. Are you curious? I will start from him in the next issue dedicated to trilobites in visual arts!

Hannah Ingall's hat. More "little purls of wisdom" here.

Trilobitic body art: images from the Tucson Show and the Discover magazine Blog. The last two are science celebrities: they are the philosopher of science Michael Ruse and the artist Glendon Mellow. We will meet Glendon in the next issue!

Thorax: Trilobites in Music (Triple Trilobite Special!)

2010-07-02T03:45:00.000-07:00

Tony Cragg's trilobitic sculptures.

Welcome to 'Thorax', the second issue of 'the Geology in Art Webzine' entirely dedicated to trilobites.
Curiously, I will start to discuss trilobitic music from...dinosaurs. The first trilobite and the first dinosaur are separated by about 275 millions of years, but it is not possible to forget mesozioc reptiles when dealing with geologic symbols in music. Indeed dinosaurs are a pervasive symbol in modern culture, going far beyond paleontological imagery: from T-Rex to Jonathan Richman (I'm a little dinosaur). Even if no other group of organisms has met with greater success, similar phenomena are also recorded by our beloved arthropods. Trilobites are another paleontological celebrity to have left its mark in music. For instance, they have been cited by Nightwish, which is an award-winning Finnish symphonic metal band. Indeed Nightwish is one of Finland's most successful bands with more than 7 million albums and singles sold worldwide, 1 silver award, 11 gold awards, and 31 platinum awards. In 'a Return to the Sea' Nightwish picture trilobites and Anomalocaris:

A star falls down from the darkened sky
Where new worlds are born and die
Kingdom Animalia watches its approaching glow
What it means is soon to be known.

[...]

Trilobite & Anomalocaris
The prey and the hunter
Survival of the fittest
Fall of Man

Seadrops foam all empty human skulls
Those on the shores of Atlantis
Darwin's resurrection is witnessed
By turtles he used to play with

Healed and happy She oversees
The Mother
The tyrant's return to the sea

Trilobites appear in 'A Return to the Sea' by Nightwish.

The Brazilian instrumental group Uakti have distinguished themselves for creating new musical instruments, among which the “Trilobita”. This percussion instrument consists of ten PVC tubes closed by elastic membranes. The tubes are arranged on a frame so that the instrument is played by two musicians facing each other. This ingenious solution allows a significant rhythmic complexity and rapid and profound sound associations. In addition, Uakti have dedicated an album to trilobites (“Trilobyte”), with a beautiful cover inspired by the tribal world and paleontological themes.

The Brazilian group Uakti invented the "Trilobita", a very peculiar percussion instrument.

The music band Trilöbit comes from the same country of Uakti, but has little to share with the famous instrumental group. Their music is space rock with strong electronic components, but it difficult to ascertain what role geology has for them. Further research is required; until then I can only point out the ample presence of trilobites in their videos and artwork.
Trilobites inspired another band, 'The Trilobites', which are an Australian power pop/rock group formed in Sydney in1984. Their first two singles, "Venus in Leather"' and "American TV" reached number 1 on the alternative chart.
Trilobites are pervasive social symbols, as testified by their frequent appearance: from children television shows (i.e. Nancye Ferguson band) to garage bands (i.e. World of Sound).

Sexy Groove Machine by Trilöbit.

The Trilobites from Sydney, Australia.

Attic Dancers, Trilobite.

World of Sound, a garage band from the Eighties, plays 'Trilobite'.

Trilobite plays "Wildwood Flower", an American song, best known through performances and recordings by the Carter family.

A trilobite song in a children television show.

Another children television show with a trilobite song.

Trilobites are also evoked by Mastodon, a Grammy Award-nominated heavy metal band. Starting from their name, Mastodon give a paleontological touch to their songs, among which are “Trilobite”, “Iron Tusk” and “Megalodon”. Even their artwork presents geological references, such as the saber tooth tiger and the Megaceros (an extinct giant deer), which appears in their album covers.

Trilobite by Mastodon.

These trilobitic examples explain the fundamental problem that arises when dealing with Geology and Music. Music is full of geological quotations but it has often metaphoric references, related to Geology with different degrees of linkage. Some geological themes (eg dinosaurs, trilobites, volcanoes, earthquakes) have such deep social roots to take symbolic meanings (not always purely geological). However it is important to point out even these cases, as witnesses of the social influence of "geological symbols" in music.

Uakti, Nightwish and Mastodon are clear examples of non-dinosaurian geologic mythologies in music, although the finest example remains “Burgess Shale”, the composition for orchestra by Rand Steiger.

The author puts into music eight Cambrian organisms, each of which is represented by a section of the work. The author’s words no doubt provide the most appropriate comment to “Burgess Shale”: “The piece begins with an introduction, followed by eight sections, each focussing on one creature, and then a concluding section. Each creature has a particular kind of material associated with it, defined by instrumentation, pitch material, and tempo. Besides having a dedicated section, each creature has its own recurring cycle of appearances throughout the piece. So while the piece progresses through the main sections, little snippets of the other sections interrupt and comment on their progression”. There are no trilobites in the Steiger's composition, but it appears their fierceful hunter: Anomalocaris!

Score image of Rand Steiger's Anomalocaris. Click here for the streaming mp3 of the song.

Pygidium: Trilobites in Literature (Triple Trilobite Special!)

2010-07-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

Trilobites, as seen in 1916 by the German painter Heinrich Harder.

Welcome to the 'Triple Trilobite Special', a series of three issues covering trilobites in art. I decided to name each issue from trilobite anatomy: 'Cephalon' will deal with visual arts, 'Thorax' will take into account music and this issue - 'Pygidium' - is dedicated to literature, with particular focus on poetry.

Among the geologic subjects used in poetry, trilobites occupy a privileged position. The reasons are evident: the seductive charm of these ancestral creatures, their curious morphology and the grace of their librigenae. Kenneth Gass has been recently seduced by trilobites, and wrote a volume entitled “Trilobite Poems”.

Here is a snippet:
While breaking open rocks one day,
I found something that made me stay,
To see if I could find some more
Of what I’d never seen before.
— from Mackenziurus lauriae by Kenneth Gass

How to comment on these verses? David Rudkin (Royal Ontario Museum) expressed his opinion in “The Trilobite Papers”: «[These] verses reflect much of the joy and wonder that all trilobite workers share, but that we seldom express».
Trilobites (and many other geologic items) illuminate the poems of Clark Coolidge, an American poet with an explicit interest for Earth sciences. Coolidge authored several geologic works, either in prose or in poetry (“Smithsonian Deposition & Subject to a Film”, “A Geology”, “The Book of During”, etc.). His untitled poem from 1970 says:

ounce code orange
a
the
ohm
trilobite trilobites
— from the collection 'Space' by Clark Coolidge

Coolidge’s poem is undoubtedly visual, apparently impenetrable, a liminal experience between concrete poetry and sound. The hardcover edition of “Space”, the collection including the trilobitic poem, describes Coolidge’s poetry as follows:
“At first glance, Clark Coolidge’s poems appear to be completely impenetrable parades of apparently unrelated words arranged in meaningless patterns across the page. If you keep reading, though, the poems begin to have a strange effectiveness, and eventually you begin to see the words themselves in an entirely new and exhilarating way”.
Trilobites are found in another visual poetry collection by mIEKAL aND. The author describes his visual poems as “typo-fossils embedded with syntactical mysteries & multiple possible references, missing links between semantic precision & indecipherable code”. Hence the title of the collection, “Trilobite”. In this work the typographical arrangement of words is an important means of expression, often accompanied by the drawing of a trilobite. If you are interested in, it is possible to read the entire work on the website of Xexoxial editions.

The "typo-fossils" of mIEKAL aND. The work was originally published in 1983, the pictures come from the 2006 online edition of 'Trilobite'.

The aforementioned examples illustrate the role of trilobites as “paleontological catalysts”. Together with ammonites and dinosaurs, these extinct arthropods are the quintessential icons of paleontology, evoking the symbolic and philosophic values of this discipline. This is particularly evident in the poems of the Victorian period, when paleontology and fossils were a sort of fashion. These aspects were accompanied by the evolutionary quarrels that followed the revolutionary theories of Charles Darwin. These elements (fossils and evolution) are the main focus of the satirical “Lay [=song] of a Trilobite” by the Victorian poet May Kendall.

An excerpt:
A mountain’s giddy height I sought,
Because I could not find
Sufficient vague and mighty thought
To fill my mighty mind;
And as I wandered ill at ease,
There chanced upon my sight
A native of Silurian seas
An ancient Trilobite.
— from ”Lay of a Trilobite” by May Kendall (1887)

Even before “Lay of a Trilobite” fossil arthropods had raised poetic inspiration: for example in “Ode to a Trilobite”, written by Timothy Conrad in 1840.
And since the trilobites have passed away
The continent has been formed, the mountains grown
In oceans’ deepened caves new beings play,
And Man now sits on Neptune’s ancient throne.
The race of Man shall perish, but the eyes
Of Trilobites eternal be in stone,
And seem to stare about with wild surprise
At changes greater than they yet have known.
— from ”Ode to a Trilobite” by Timothy Conrad (1840)

Victorian Trilobitic Poems in my book 'Geology in Art'.

Trilobites have been cited also by the master of science fiction: Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Even though geology is used sporadically in his writings, Lovecraft shows to be intellectually influenced by geologic themes, including Deep Time. “At the Mountains of Madness” is probably Lovecraft’s most geologic story as it revolves around a geologic expedition in Antartica. Here weird fossil remains are discovered: “Appears to indicate, as I suspected, that earth has seen whole cycle or cycles of organic life before known one that begins with Archaeozoic cells. Was evolved and specialized not later than a thousand million years ago, when planet was young and recently uninhabitable for any life forms or normal protoplasmic structure. Question arises when, where, and how development took place.”

— H.P. Lovecraft, “At the Mountains of Madness”

“At the Mountains of Madness” was partly inspired by the geologic findings made during the polar expedition of Richard Evelyn Byrd, which took place in 1928-1930. Lovecraft mentions the explorer repeatedly in his letters, remarking at one point on “geologists of the Byrd expedition having found many fossils indicating a tropical past”. The main character of “At the Mountains of Madness” is the fictional character William Dyer, Professor of Geology at the notorious Miskatonic University.William Dyer’s expedition was to be particularly adventurous and the character would appear in another of Lovecraft’s tales, “The Shadow Out of Time”:

“In certain of the sandstones, dynamited and chiseled after boring revealed their nature, we found some highly interesting fossil markings and fragments; notably ferns, seaweeds, trilobites, crinoids, and such mollusks as linguellae and gastropods - all of which seemed of real significance in connection with the region’s primordial history.”
— H.P. Lovecraft, “At the Mountains of Madness”

Trilo Temporalis, a trilobitic steel sculpture by Jud Turner.

Evolution of Life on Earth in Music

2010-06-19T04:33:00.000-07:00

"So it's an established fact that in Italy during the period between 1971-1974, a music movement existed where bands would challenge each other to see who could be the most imaginative, who could create the album for the ages. They were all painters and sculptors just as in Renaissance Italy."
-Tom Hayes / Gnosis

The Italian progressive rock scene was born in the early 70s, inspired by the progressive movement in Britain, but then developing features of its own that makes it a separate musical genre: Rock Progressivo Italiano (RPI).
The arrangements of Rock Progressivo Italiano incorporate elements drawn from classical, jazz, and the diverse musical traditions of Italy. Indeed Italian progressive rock expands the timbral palette of traditional rock instrumentation with aggeggi, ottavino, mandoloncello and clavicembalo. Some bands abandoned the common Ionian and Aeolian modes (or, major and minor), choosing the rarer Mixolydian and Dorian scales, drawn from the ancient Aristoxenian tradition (dating back to the 4th century BC). Although RPI’s lyrics are traditionally Italian, some bands reached international fame.

'Cento Mani e Cento Occhi' from tha album Darwin! by Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso. The song deals with the development of social organization in hominids.

One of these is Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, a popular progressive rock band in the 1970s, still being active (I saw them live: what an emotion!). In 1972 they released their second album, Darwin!, comprising 7 songs unified by an elaborate, overarching theme: Evolution of life on earth. Geology, paleontology and biology are the undisputable source of inspiration since the first track (translation and original text):

And if in the fossil of an atavic skull

I rediscover forms that resemble me…

E se nel fossile di un cranio atavico

riscopro forme che a me somigliano…

- Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Evoluzione (Evolution)

Cover art of Darwin!, by Bando del Mutuo Soccorso

The complete tracklist of Darwin! is:

   1. L'Evoluzione (Evolution)
   2. La conquista della posizione eretta (The conquer of the upright position)
   3. Danza dei grandi rettili (Dance of the big reptiles)
   4. Cento mani e cento occhi (A hundred hands and a hundred eyes)
   5. 750,000 anni fa ... L'amore? (750,000 years ago ... Love?)
   6. Miserere alla storia (Miserere to history)
   7. Ed ora io domando tempo al tempo ed egli mi risponde ... Non ne ho! (And now I ask Time for time and He answers me ... I don't have it!)

As we already saw for the Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, geologic themes could represent evocative musical soundscapes. The same could be said for the lyrical imagery, as expressed by the prehistoric worlds evoked by Darwin!:

Gray layers of lava and coral

damp skies and no color

here the world is breathing

moss and lichen green sponges of earth

are the greenhouse for the sprout to come.

Strati grigi di lava e di corallo

cieli umidi e senza colori

ecco il mondo sta respirando

muschi e licheni verdi spugne di terra

fanno da serra al germoglio che verrà.

- Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Evoluzione (Evolution)

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso: La Danza dei Grandi Rettili (Dance of the Big Reptiles), from the album Darwin!

The Origins of Geology: between Art and Science

2010-06-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

Geologic painting by Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio: the Baptism of Christ (c. 1475). Click on the smaller picture for a full analysis of the painting (from my book 'Geology in Art').

When speaking of geology and art, the first thing that comes to mind is painting. It may be that the association “art–visual arts” is almost automatic, but there is also a historical reason. Pictures are the preferred medium for expressing geology since Renaissance times. Leonardo da Vinci is universally regarded as one of the pioneers of Earth sciences for having recognized and interpreted a number of geologic phenomena. In his famous notebooks da Vinci focused on sedimentary geology and discussed sedimentation, stratification and fossils. Less well-known is the fact that Leonardo expressed his revolutionary geologic theories in his paintings. Geologic features are accurately represented in the Baptism of Christ, the Virgin of the Rocks and St. Anne (Vai 1995, 2003). Leonardo represented stratification in its finest details, including small-scale laminations.
Leonardo was not alone. A great number of artists represented sedimentary layers in extreme detail (see Branagan, 2006). These artists include Botticelli (Pallas and the Centaur), Bellini (St. Jerome Reading in the Countryside), van Eyck (St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata) and Dürer (Lot Fleeing with his Daughters from Sodom). There is no trace before Renaissance times of such a pervasive taste for the accurate representation of natural landscapes.

Sandro Botticelli, Pallas and the Centaur, c. 1482.

Botticelli, Pallas and the Centaur (detail). Note the precise depiction of layering.

The gap between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance can be understood from a quotation taken from Rosenberg (2009): “Art history records that the Western concept of landscape preceded the science of landscape”. Hence it is no coincidence that the emerging of GeoArt is simultaneous with the dawn of modern geology,i.e., the science of the landscape.

Renaissance was a critical period for science, enshrined in the modern scientific method by Galileo Galilei. In this vibrant cultural framework, naturalists followed an observational approach, trying to understand natural objects by describing and depicting them. To Renaissance naturalists the art of illustration was more than mere ornament, as testified by Aldrovandi: “to understand plants and animals there is no better way than to depict them from life” (Aldrovandi, 1572, quoted by Baucon, 2009).

Episodes in the representation of landscape and geologic objects. From my book 'Geology in Art'.

The observational approach was accompanied by the rediscovery of Arabic and Greek geometry, which led to a revolution in understanding spatial relationships and changed the visual perception of the Earth (see Rosenberg, 2009; Branagan, 2006). Although geology continue to evolve rapidly since Leonardo times, geology is still one of the most visual sciences as it is inextricably bound to the understanding of spatial relationships. Without “spatial thinking” (Andrews, 2003) there is no geology.
For these reasons, it can be well said that the origins of Geology are located in a land of convergence between Art and Science.

Fractals, Ichnology and Art

2010-06-14T03:50:00.000-07:00

A fractal-generated picture. Image from Wikipedia.

Some of the most emblematic figures of the Renaissance – da Vinci, Gesner, Aldrovandi, Bauhin – were pioneers of paleontology and demonstrated a visual interest in trace fossils. To decipher the reason for this aesthetic appreciation, I used fractal geometry to explore various ichnological drawings of the Renaissance (click here to read the full paper). Among analytical methods, fractal analysis proved to be the most efficient both in quantifying visual attractiveness and in describing the structure of complex patterns. In fact fractal geometry has been applied in studying visual perception itself and has been used to analyse abstract art, architecture and design.

Trace fossils in the Italian Renaissance: Cosmorhaphe, a "fractal trace" in Aldrovandi's Musaeum Metallicum.

I fed a software with images of trace fossils and their representations. What emerged amazed me. Several traces (i.e. graphoglyptids and chondritids) have fractional dimensionality and self-similarity over a significant range of measurement scales (fractal behaviour). Intriguingly, such "fractal traces" are among the most figured trace fossils of the Renaissance. Fractal traces are hierarchically structured and their whole geometric structure can be regarded as an expression of self-organization processes producing correlations between different orders of scale. Being rich in structure, such traces have been acknowledged by naturalists for their instant aesthetic appeal.

Bruce Pollock based this oil painting on fractal geometry.

Nevertheless, fractals are not only in trace fossils, but in many other natural objects and humans seem to display a consistent aesthetic preference across fractal images. For these reasons many artists have been inspired by fractals to produce their art; here are some examples related to Geology.

'Tile Pattern And Vauxia Sponge' by Michael A Coleman. Vauxia is a sponge from Burgess, a world-known fossil site.

Bruce Pollock's fractal art is inspired by nature, including geologic objects.

A very unusual introduction to fractals: Arthur Clarke (famous for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey) presents "Fractals, the Colors of Infinity"

Sculpture, Treasure Hunt, Geology and Cycling: John Mills' Milepost

2010-06-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

A Milepost from the Millenium Time Trail.

There are thousands of these mysteryous geologic sculptures throughout the United Kingdom. What are they precisely? From a press release of the Royal bank of Scotland:

"A puzzling treasure hunt with a secret code to crack and a unique prize for those who can solve the riddle. That is how the transport charity Sustrans describes the Millennium Time Trail. It is a new feature of the National Cycle Network which is officially launched today at 9.00am on March 20th 2001, the Spring Equinox, at 'The Home of Time', the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Each milepost has a Time Trail disc bearing symbols and hieroglyphics bolted into it. By taking rubbings of these discs it is possible to gains clues to help decipher the code. There are several layers to uncover to reach the solution and a special Ultimate Prize for those who can work it out. For many, especially children and families, the fun will be in just getting out on the Network to find the mileposts and discs."

There are four different types of Mileposts, each depicting a different theme; intriguingly, the first was designed by the artist John Mills and is called 'The Fossil Tree'. The design is inspired to Sigillaria, an extinct tree-like plant, with a tall, occasionally forked trunk. Its fossils are commonly found in Carboniferous deposits (about 270 millions of years ago). Mills' sculpture presents relief imagery of fossils depicting the passage of time from Cambrian to the ultimate demise of fossil fuel driven technology.

A Carboniferous landscape by Walter Myers. Note the forked trees on the background: they are Sigillaria, the fossil tree that inspired John Mills!

As anticipated, the Mileposts posts are spread throughout the United Kingdom and make up a kind of treasure hunt on bicycles, relating to the ubiquitous theme of Time. You can take rubbings of the Time Trail discs (place a sheet of paper over them and rub all over with a wax crayon or pencil), keep a record of your journey and apply to Sustrans for special souvenirs called Time Treasures. There are 1,000 cast-iron Millennium Mileposts, donated by The Royal Bank of Scotland, along the UK's National Cycle Network!

Some of the 'Fossil Tree' Mileposts have been colored by local communities. The Mileposts have been promoted by Sustrans (a British charity which promotes sustainable transport) and the Royal bank of Scotland.

GeoArt at open-air festivals

2010-06-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Geology at art events: Geodelia displayed at the Boom Festival! Check out also part 2 and part 3.

In 2009 I designed a geologic video-art installation for an art / music event. What a great experience!

The installation was hosted at the Boom Festival, a biennial festival located at the heart of the UNESCO Geopark Meseta Meridional (Portugal). Bringing together the latest inspirations in psychedelic audio and visuals, Boom Festival featured music, paint, sculpture, video art, theater and various kinds of workshops.I named the installation Geodelia, as it invokes geology as a mechanism for obtaining aesthetic inspiration through psychedelic visuals. The animated compositions of Geodelia are an expression of geological objects but they exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Indeed Geodelia features the
element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non-sense. There is no didascalic purpose in Geodelia, the focus is only on the beauty of geological shapes.

Until the start of the event, I asked myself: Is it useful to embrace a non-didascalic approach to Earth Sciences? Why choosing dazzling geological patterns and not a traditional educational video?

My worries disappeared with the enthusiasm of the participants to the psychedelic event, which demonstrated an encouraging attitude towards Geodelia and supported the expressive power of Video Art. Through Geodelia, I recognized the aesthetic grip of Geologic Art on the public, acknowledging the charm and the beauty of geologic shapes.

The Burning Man Festival.

Boom Festival is a key event in the global psychedelic scene, and recently its fame of being the best European open-air festival is stronger than ever. Intriguingly, the Boom has been described as the Burning Man festival of Europe, which recently featured some geology-inspired artworks.
Burning Man is an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert (Nevada, U.S.A.),, an area notable for its geologic features (i.e. Permian volcanic deposits, remnants of a Pleistocene lake, hot springs and playas). Burning Man has grown from a small group of people to a community of over 48000 people, being a vivid celebration of art, self-expression and self-reliance. Molly Steenson, a participant of the event, wrote: "Hurtling down the road to the Black Rock Desert, the colors paint themselves like a spice cabinet — sage, dust, slate gray. [...] The two-lane highway turns off onto a new road. You drive slowly onto the playa, the 400 square mile expanse known as the Black Rock Desert. And there you've touched the terrain of what feels like another planet. You're at the end — and the beginning — of your journey to Burning Man. [...] You belong here and you participate. [...] You're there to breathe art. Imagine an ice sculpture emitting glacial music — in the desert. Imagine the man, greeting you, neon and benevolence, watching over the community. You're here to build a community that needs you and relies on you."

Burning Man encourages artistic expression and since 1995 a different artistic theme is given, for each year's event. In 2009 the theme was evolution, a theory strongly supported by geologic evidences. Indeed Geology provides crucial evidences of evolution and establishes it as a scientific fact. For instance, fossils provide a direct evidence for the history of biologic diversity and the Earth's geologic history explains a significant part of the geographic distribution of organisms.

Let's give a look to the "evolutionary artworks" of the Burning Man!

An overview of Burning Man 2009: Evolution.

Black Rock City is the name of the temporary city created by Burning Man participants. In 2009 its circular streets were named: Esplanade, Adapt, Biology, Chaos, DNA, Extinct, Fossil, Genome, Hominid, Inherit, Jurassic, Kinship, Lineage (for a more detailed view see this PDF).

A song dedicated to one of the most bizzarre Cambrian fossils: Opabinia!

Spider...

From the previous media, it emerges that Geology had not a central role at the 2009 Burning Man Festival, while "diversity of morphologies" was the leading aspect in the context of the evolution theme. Nevertheless, some artworks show the importance of "geologic mythologies" as a source of creative inspiration. For these reasons, the Burning Man and the Boom Festival represent, in different ways, the successful interaction between geology, art and open-air festivals. This encourages a more pervasive presence of Geologic Art in such open-air festivals!

A picture from Bthe Burning Man 1999: Pteranodon by Norm Barringer. The theme was "the Wheel of Time".

Carboniferous symphony

2010-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

'You [Zu] have created a powerful and expressive music that totally blows away what most bands do these day'
- John Zorn, musician

Zu are an Italian instrumental band, composed by Luca Mai on saxophone, Massimo Pupillo on bass and Jacopo Battaglia on drums. This atypical trio mixes elements from classic rock, metal, punk and jazz, but their music would be better characterized as eclectic. Powerful riffs, intricate soundscapes, virtuosistic drumming, pummeling bass, distorted saxophone: Zu are a warm wild marriage of the traditional to the modern.

Zu choosed a geologic setting for their new album, Carboniferous. It features many important collaborations, from Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr.Bungle) to King Buzzo (The Melvins).

Their last release tickle the geologist's imagination as its name comes directly from the Palaeozoic era: Carboniferous. The tracklist includes geologic titles (Obsidian, Carbon) and invokes chtonian atmospheres (Chthonian, Beata Viscera; Erynis, one of the titles of Demeter). Moreover, the official video displays manifest geologic elements, as well as the cover art of "Carboniferous".

Consequently, a question might arise: is "Carboniferous" a geologic concept album?

The official video of Carbon.

To be honest, I have not a straightforward answer. Geologic mythologies are persistent social symbols and therefore it is difficult to distinguish “pure” geologic music from geologic interferences in music. For this reason, further research is needed to solve th Zu-Geology relationship.

Danny De Vito introduces Zu in Rome.

A GeoArt exhibit: interview with Greg Wessel

2010-04-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

Geologic Art is a collective term for artistic phenomena in which geology brings its own aesthetic and conceptual baggage.

― Baucon (2009). Geology in Art

Geologic Art (GeoArt) cannot be regarded a style or a movement; nevertheless, it is a definite, peculiar field as it records the work of “geologic thinkers”. From the layers of Leonardo da Vinci to the fossils of Allan McCollum, “geologic thinkers” traversed centuries and continents to express the emotional charm of the Earth. Despite its importance and diffusion, GeoArt lacks of spaces in which geoartistic objects meet an audience.
In this scenario, there is an art show which is singularly significant in developing and collecting works of Geologic Art: “Geo sapiens, The Fusion of Geology and Art”. Geo sapiens is the first-ever show dedicated to Geologic Art and it is hosted by the Two Wall Gallery (Vashon, Washington, U.S.A.). The first edition of Geo sapiens featured the work of nearly 50 geoartists from across the world (US, Canada, the UK, France, Slovenia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan) and expressed geology in art through a plethora of media and styles.
The upcoming second edition (announced for September, 2010) led me to contact Greg Wessel (figure on the left), the curator of the exhibit, and ask him about Geo sapiens, a breakthrough in the universe of GeoArt.

1. How was the Geo sapiens exhibition born? What was the catalyst?

I’ve been working as geologist since finishing my MS in 1977, and have done a little art of my own of various sorts (stained glass, printmaking) over the years. Every so often, I’d stumble across another geologist who also did some kind of art, including music and dance. For a long time, I’ve thought that there had to be many more geologists around who had a second creative outlet, perhaps because we tend to be creative people during our day jobs. At the same time, I sensed a decline in the artistic part of being a professional geologist, such as the decline in geologic mapping (so basic to our profession) and more dependence upon computer models and computer assistance.

A couple of years ago, I volunteered to co-curate a small gallery (Two Wall), which really is just a volunteer group dedicated to having fun and working with art, but not dedicated to making money. Shortly after taking over, it occurred to me that there had to be enough other artistic geologists out there to make a good show, and to highlight both the creativity in the profession and our connection with the natural world. The main problem would be finding them.

2. What inspired you to pull together this exhibition? What were your goals?

I think I was inspired by my wife, Margaret, who loves to dance and who also loves to go rock collecting (she’s an igneous petrologist by training). I presented the idea of a geo-art exhibit to her, and she challenged me to try it. My goals were simple: to connect with other geo-artists and create a venue where they could exhibit together, creating a group exhibit centered on geologic features and principles.

A virtual visit to Geo sapiens: the geoartists John Jackson and Elisabeth Hill. On the backround a colorful artwork by John Jackson (if you want to know more about him, see this past issue of Geology in Art)

3. How would you describe the organization of the exhibit itself?

Geo sapiens was somewhat of a “dog’s breakfast” of geology-related art works. We had oils and acrylics, water colors, etchings and linocut prints, pencil drawings, pen and ink drawings, fiber art, carved rock sculptures, a stained glass window, a lamp made out of thin slices of quartzite, photographs, digital manipulations, cartoons, and several works based on topographic maps. We even had some poetry, handmade furniture, and mosaics made from rock slices that incorporated fossils and amazonite crystals. The common thread was that all of the artists had some kind of background in the earth sciences and a great appreciation of geology and the natural world. You could see it clearly in this collection.

4. How did you select the artists involved?

The original idea was to limit participants to those who were working earth scientists or had a degree in geology of some kind, but it quickly became clear that there are a lot of talented students out there and it made sense to be as inclusive as we could, so we advertised it as open to professionals and students, and then we defined “student” rather loosely. Of the nearly 50 participants, better than three quarters were working scientists or engineers. The rest were college students, part-time students, or retired. Employment status was not important.

Space was a problem for us, and remains so for Geo sapiens II, so we limited the number of pieces each artist could show, and we were unable to include everyone. That is probably my biggest disappointment, that we ran out of space and could not show everyone’s work. I really didn’t have to choose between “good” and “bad” art...it was ALL good!

Devonian Dash by Susan Judy. This sculpture tells a geologic story with geologic materials: a trilobite and its associated trace.

5. Which were your sensations and suggestions working in-between Geology and Art?

I think this exhibit made it clear to all of the people who participated that they should be more artistic when doing geology and that they could rely more on geology to give them inspiration for their art. You can put the two together at both ends.

6. Can you walk us through some of the show's highlights?

I would refer you to our web site (www.twowallgallery.com, click on Archives) where you can see almost all of the works we exhibited. My father (Ralph Wessel) photographed all of the works, and some of the artists, and my son (Nathaniel Wessel) created the web site.

I love everything in the show, but I do have a few favorites. One is the large painting of western Washington and the Cascades (from high up) by Dee Molennar. Dee is a famous mountaineer who has climbed Mt. Rainier over 100 times and other mountains including Denali and K2. He is now in his 90s and still really active. When we went to get the painting for the show, he was up on his garage roof fixing it. Always the climber, Dee. Another favorite is a painting by Sylvie Pinard that stylistically represents river meanders. I love that one. And there are two incredible rock sculptures by Bill Laprade and a lamp made of thin slices of quartzite by Al Dahlstrand. Susan Judy’s mosaics are also amazing. And the two felted fabric sculptures by Linda Hope Ponting...oh my gosh...and the paintings by John Jackson from Australia (who actually came for the opening). There are just so many great works that you have to check the web site.

Dee Molennar: geologist, mountaneer and artist.

7. Which themes stood out most consistently?

There really was only one main theme, and that was a fascination and a love of the beauty and complexity of the natural world. There was also one smaller theme, present in a few of the works, and that was of sadness and loss because of pollution and the destruction of the environment that we treasure. In fact, those two themes embody the contradiction in geology that exists for me personally: We love to work in the field studying and treasuring the landscape, but many of us wind up working for mining or petroleum companies who have a vested interest in damaging those things that we so treasure.

Left: Elisabeth Hill, Volcanic Seed Pod

Right: Geoartists at Geo sapiens: Dianne Noseworthy.

8. Could you add something about the quantity and diversity of artworks involved?

Quantity...our little gallery was packed. And diversity...yes, lots of media represented, and lots of different representations of how much we, as geoscientists, are fascinated by and respectful of the Earth.

9. What do you think is the commonality between the artists collected and what is the main differentiating quality?

The commonalities I think I have already described. The differences...well, each of the geo-artists came from a slightly different background. Be it a different home country or a different specialty. You can see these differences in their works. The art is both universal and personal.

10. How can someone who's not a geologist understand Geo sapiens?

There were only a few pieces in our collection that needed a little background information, and we provided that. It’s amazing to me how basic and understandable geologic ideas are to everyone, but schools these days teach basic geology at several grade levels and lots of people vacation at places like the Grand Canyon and Mt. Rainier, where you can’t help but learn geology. Here in the Pacific Northwest, most people have a basic knowledge of volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, and have experienced at least one of the three. Still, art is supposed to make you think, isn’t it?

Geo sapiens featured several sculptures, such as this inspired view of plate tectonics (Subduction by William Laprade).

11. Geo sapiens was exhibited at the Two Wall Gallery, which hosted other shows of Geologic Art (i.e. Excuse My English: Layering on the Light Side by Stephanie Lasalle). How would you describe the role of the Two Wall Gallery within the geoartistic world?

I wish I could say we occupy some kind of prominent position, but there are a lot of folks who would argue that we’re just a small gallery with a geologist for a curator. And I’d be one of the people saying that. Anyone else can do this; you just need a good venue and a lot of advertising. In fact, I’m convinced that geo-art shows could be held all over, even simultaneously, without running out of interest. There are enough artistic geologists, for example, to easily fill two or three regular shows in the US and Canada, probably at least two in Europe, and others elsewhere. Some of our Geo sapiens exhibitors have offered to help host satellite shows, but none of those have come together yet. I’d love to help put together a show in Europe, for instance, and we have an Australian who wants to do one down there. You just need to find a gallery space, and off you go!

Left: Méandres bruns by Sylvie Pinar.
Right: Trilobite Coquina by Ancil Meacham.

12. What does Geo sapiens tell us about Geology that many people might be surprised of?

I think it tells us that geologists as a whole can make connections and understand realities that many people cannot see in their day-to-day existence. We’re good at seeing the big picture, and part of the reason we’ve studied the natural world is because we so love being in it. Putting those two characteristics together can make for some impressive art.

13. Geo sapiens II has been announced for September, 2010. What are the biggest challenges facing it?

Organization and marketing. As with Geo sapiens I, the trick is to get the word out to geologists that we’re doing this. Geologists typically don’t see calls for artists, and most artists are not geologists, so the problem is figuring out ways to connect with those geologists who ARE artists.

Stephanie Lasalle is an abstract painter who is inspired by the patterns and microstructures of rocks and minerals as viewed through the microscope. Geo sapiens exhibited her vivid Who Said Gabbros Didn’t Have Heart.

14. Is there a possibility of the exhibition touring?

The most likely way to start going on tour would be to coordinate an exhibit with a professional society annual meeting, such as in my case the Geological Society of America or the Geological Society of Canada. Some of the societies already do similar things. The GSA, for example, typically has a photography exhibit (which always has amazing entries) but they don’t curate collections of other media or fine art. What I find really interesting is that the National Speleological Society has several art salons that they organize along with their annual meetings. One is just about designs for insignias and patches. Apparently, cavers are really interested in art! It’s funny that I used to be a caver myself.

But the real problem with going on tour is the shipping expense. I had originally hoped that we could go on tour, but I quickly learned that although there are plenty of people around the country who would love to see an exhibit like ours, getting the money together to take the show on the road was not going to be easy. We still haven’t figured that out. If we could find a source of funding and hook up with a good museum (Los Angeles, Denver, New York, Smithsonian, are you listening?) or several good galleries, then we’d have it made.

15. Is there an audience for Geologic Art?

I can answer that with two words: YOU BET! Everyone loves it. There is absolutely no doubt about that.

Geosapiens: everyone loves GeoArt!

NOTE: All the pictures of this issue come from http://www.twowallgallery.com/geosapiens.html. I suggest you to visit the website, there you will find a comprehensive gallery of Geo sapiens!

Per Kirkeby: Geology’s abstract landscape painter

2010-03-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

Towards a map of Geologic Art: the tag cloud of my book 'Geology in Art' (built with http://www.wordle.net/).

When I wrote ‘Geology in Art’, I was astounded by the variety and complexity of the interrelationships between Geology and Art. Music, literature, painting, sculpture… The world of Geologic Art (GeoArt) is vast and underexplored.

At present day, my research aims to trace a map of the GeoArt phenomenon, but many areas are still unexplored. "Hic sunt leones!" I have to thank Anette Petersen for drawing my attention on Per Kirkeby, one of the most internationally acclaimed Danish artists.

Per Kirkeby, Weltuntergang.

I must be sincere now. When I initially approached Kirkeby’s artwork I asked myself: “where’s the geology there?”. Then I started to look better. Those abstract patterns had something familar, although I was not able to discern clear visual references to the geological world. Nevertheless, I knew that those color splashes had ‘something’ geologic. As a geologist, I saw those pattern in the field, so I thought:

It isn’t rock but it is rock.
It isn’t a mudcrack but it is a mudcrack.
They aren’t layers but they are layers.

This is Kirkeby’s Geology.

The structural organization of Kirkeby's Brett Felsen recalls layering. The work was displayed at the Tate Modern Gallery, which hosted a monographic exhibition of the artist in 2009.

Cross-bedding in Middle Old Red Sandstone on the Isle of Bressay, Shetland Islands. Compare it with Kirkeby's Brett Felsen. Photo by Anne Burgess

Now I feel Kirkeby’s artworks as patterns of visual geology. My idea is supported by the artist’s biography. He is a geologist and earned his master's degree in arctic geology, participating to expeditions to the Arctic and Greenland. With the words of artfacts.net: “Vertical structures predominate in these paintings, forming new associations with the landscape motif which has long fascinated the artist. Indeed, ideas about landscape, sedimentation, and layers are key elements in Per Kirkeby's art rooted in the artist's early geological studies at university.” In my opinion, the structure of Kirkeby’s works seems to follow the same constructional ‘rules’ of many geologic elements. This is a very personal (and biased) idea, but these rules could be the self-similarity of fractals. Fractal organization is very common, either in geological structures or in art (you find here a paper about geology and fractals).

Per Kirkeby, Flight to Egypt.

When I saw Kirkeby's 'Flight to Egypt' I thought to through-bedding, then my mind went to thin sections (illustrated). Thin sections are thin slivers of rock, usually examined by geologist under the light of a polarizing microscope.

It appears that Kirkeby’s visions originated by the observation of geology in the field and geology is the ‘magic fluid’ permeating Kirkeby’s aesthetic universe. If somebody would ask me to frame Kirkeby’s role in Earth Sciences, I would answer:

“Kirkeby is Geology’s abstract landscape painter”.

A Paleo-Road Trip through Art: Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway

2010-03-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

Ray Troll is one of my favorite paleo-artists, thanks to his very peculiar style. Colorful vivid, ironic, dreamy: Troll's artworks have a unique, unmistakable appeal. Recently, Troll and Kirk Johnson organized an exhibit with a weird name: Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway. It makes no surprise that I decided to investigate.

I discovered that 'Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway' was presented at the Burke Museum, displaying a sort of paleo-road trip through American West. What an engaging theme! Unfortunately, I live in Europe, so it is quite difficult to visit the show. What a pity!

A look at artist Ray Troll's artistic process throughout the creation of the Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway exhibit, on view at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

Nevertheless, I found a possibility. Ray Troll and Kirk Johnson authored a book with the same name: it is 'Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip'. It follows the travels of a paleontologist and an artist driving across the American West in search of fossils. The book is filled with Troll's art! Although only this makes the book a must-have, there is much more. 'Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway' is not a coffee-table book, it is a sort of illustrated diary. The story is presented with a very engaging narrative, full of anectodes and curious facts. It's a pleasure to read it!
'Cruisin' the fossil Freeway' recalls the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. More in detail, I thought of Kerouac's 'On the Road' when I read of a 'paleontologic' backstage with Ziggy Marley!

Kirk Johnson, PhD, chief curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science talks about his award-winning book, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway.

Curiosities apart, the book is an amazing road-trip travelogue with an impressive visual part, including not only Troll's illustrations but also many 'on the road' photographs.

If you like adventure, fossils or art, then you will enjoy this book!

Ray Troll authored also a paleontologic song: this is the 'Devonian Blues'! If you liked the music, you can't miss Troll's 'Cannery Girl'!

Diplodocus in Art

2010-03-09T05:44:00.000-08:00

Heinrich Harder, Diplodocus (1916). Although the idea of sauropods is quite changed from then, the work of Harder is still a masterpiece of paleo-art.

Diplodocus is a sauropod dinosaur which lived in what is now western North America at the end of the Jurassic period. Alongside with Tyrannosaurus, Diplodocus is one of the most famous and much-depicted dinosaurs.
His role in popular culture is partly related to the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who donated many mounted skeletal casts to potentates around the world at the beginning of the twentieth century. Thanks to him, people worldwide familiarized with Diplodocus.
Carnegie's project drew much public attention in Europe and the German satirical weekly Kladderadatsch (or 'Crash') devoted a poem to the dinosaur:

[...] Auch ein viel älterer Herr noch muß

Den Wanderburschen spielen
Er ist genannt Diplodocus‚ und zählt zu den Fossilen
Herr Carnegie verpackt ihn froh
In riesengroße Archen
Und schickt als Geschenk ihn so
An mehrere Monarchen [...]

The translation is:

[...] But even a much older gent
Sees itself forced to wander
Goes by the name Diplodocus
And belongs among the fossils
Mr. Carnegie packs him joyfully
In giant arcs
And sends him as gift this way
To multiple monarchs.

Successively, the artist Winsor McCay's based his animated character 'Gertie' on sauropod dinosaurs (i.e. Apatosaurus and Diplodocus). Although not the first animated film, 'Gertie the Dinosaur' was animated character with an appealing and well-defined personality. The first presentation of the film was at the Palace Theater in Chicago on February 8, 1914. The performance consisted of McCay interacting with Gertie, following the tradition of vaudeville theatrical shows.
The animator-actor would stand on stage in front of the projection screen, dressed in a tuxedo and wielding a whip. He would call Gertie and instructed her to perform various tricks, similar to a circus act.
He would appear to toss an apple to her — McCay palmed the apple while Gertie caught an animated copy of it. For the finale, McCay disappeared behind the screen just as a cartoon version of him climbed onto Gertie's head and rode off.

Winsor McCay picked up by Gertie!

Gertie's poster. 'She's a scream!'

Here is the movie of Gertie the Dinosaur. The author - Winsor Mc Cay - also created the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland.

Gertie was named #6 of the '50 Greatest Cartoons' of all time in a 1994 survey of animators and cartoon historians.
Sauropod dinosaurs appear also in Centennial, a novel by James Michener that traces the history of the plains of northeast Colorado from prehistory until the early 1970s. In most recent times, the Dutch electronic music trio Noisia composed a song named 'Diplodocus'. Check it out!

'Diplodocus' by Noisia.

The Ultimate Dinosaur

2010-03-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

When I was just a paleo-enthusiastic kid I recieved "The Ultimate Dinosaur" as a present. It is a book which alternates essays written by paleontologists, short stories authored by science fiction writers, and artworks created by first-class illustrators. The book mixes coherently very different languages to describe prehistoric life: science, literature and visual arts. A great concept.

I will take three authors as an example of the multi-faceted nature of the book: Phil Currie (paleontologist), Ray Bradbury (writer) and William Stout (visual artist).
Phil Currie. 'The Ultimate Dinosaur' includes a scientific essay by Philip Currie: 'Migrating dinosaurs'. Currie is a Canadian paleontologist researching on dinosaurs, with particular interest for theropods and the origin of birds. He helped to describe two of the first dinosaur specimens with feathers, indicating that many dromaeosaurids were feathered.
Intriguingly, Currie is a life-long science-fiction fan, and fan of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Geology and Art, again.

Philip Currie, paleontologist..

Ray Bradbury. Probably my favourite story from 'the Ultimate Dinosaur' is 'Besides a Dinosaur, Whatta Ya Gonna Be when you grow up?', authored by the noted sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury. He is a prolific writer and his works includes classics such as 'Farhenait 451' and the 'Martian Chronicles'. Bradbury attributes his lifelong habit of writing every day to an incident happened in 1932. Mr. Electrico, a carnival entertainer, touched him on the nose with an electrified sword, made his hair stand on end, and shouted, "Live forever!".
It was from then that Bradbury wanted to live forever and decided his career as an author in order to do what he was told: live forever. It was at that age that Bradbury started his interest for magic. Curiously, Bradbury was a close friend of Charles Addams, an american cartoonist who invented the characters known as 'The Addams Family'.
Ray Bradbury has long had a fascination with dinosaurs, as demonstrated his stories and poems about the mesozoic beasts. Some of Bradbury's stories on dinosaurs are included in the volume 'Dinosaur Tales'.

William Stout. Among the artists who illustrated Bradbury's 'Dinosaur Tales' there is William Stout, which also provided some works of art for 'the Ultimate Dinosaur'. Indeed Stout is either a fantasy artist and a paleo-artist, moving without difficulty between the two worlds.
His double otlook can be seen in his numerous incursions outside the 'traditional' 2D-art. For instance, he worked on over thirty feature films, including both 'Conan' and Gulliermo del Toro's 'Pan's Labyrinth'. His expertise with paleontology is witnessed by his role in the computer-animated movie 'Dinosaur' (Walt Disnet Pictures; he was the character designer).
It is worth to note that eleven Stout paintings were selected for the traveling exhibition 'Dinosaurs Past and Present', an important group show depicting the history of paleoart.
Stout is also an outdoor enthusiast.
In Antarctica he climbed Mt.Erebus, made several dives beneath the ice, camped in the dry valleys, and produced over one hundred painted studies on Antarctica's wildlife. His experiences resulted in several exhibitions: 'William Stout's Visions of Gondwana - Past and Present Life in Antarctica', 'Dinosaurs On Ice - William Stout's Antarctica', 'Dinosaurs, Penguins & Whales: William Stout's Antarctica'.

The multi-faceted interests of William Stout recall the personality of Charles Willson Peale, an American painter born in 1741. Peale had a great interest in natural history and organized the first U.S. scientific expedition in 1801.
He founded the Philadelphia Museum, later renamed the Peale museum. Notably, the museum was among the first to adopt Linnaean taxonomy. Peale's museum was among the first to display mastodon bones and the artist also illustrated a paleontological excavation of a mastodon.

Charles Willson Peale, Exhuming the First American Mastodon (1806).

Paleontologic inspirations in James Cameron's Avatar

2010-03-04T03:52:00.000-08:00

Like many other sci-fi enthusiasts, I saw James Cameron’s blockbuster film Avatar.
My opinion is twofold, divided between two aspects of the movie: filming and watching it.

Filming Avatar. Cameron invested substantial resources in creating a revolutionary filming framework and probably set a reference point for the technology of filmaking. For instance, Avatar introduced a very efficent virtual camera system, displaying an augmented reality on a monitor. Thanks to this technological advance, the director can see the actor's virtual counterparts into their digital world in real-time.

Watching Avatar. Here Avatar is less revolutionary. The movie is aesthetically impressive, but the final result is fully comparable to the last-generation computer graphics. Outstanding, but nothing new. Similarly the the 3D glasses represent a juicy old-fashioned technology but they are not critical to appreciate the elaborate visuals. Despite the significant hype raised, Avatar is not a breakthrough in the aesthetics of moving images.
As most of the movies, Avatar isn't only visuals. Indeed I greately appreciated the themes, revolving around a sense of ecological awareness. Avatar criticizes the environmental and social effects of imperialism, coming out at the right moment of the development of human civilization.
Unfortunately, the themes are developed through an extremely linear plot. After the first 30 minutes you know already all the movie. Nothing unexpected happens and there is the persistent impression to have seen something like that before. As many people said, Avatar is nothing more than 'Dances With Wolves in space'.
Avatar is a phenomenon you can't ignore, entertaining and done with extraordinary expertise. Nevertheless, it is definitely not a masterpiece.

Paleontology in Avatar. You might ask why I dealt about Avatar. Isn't this a blog about Geology and Art?
The answers are quite subterraneous, and they regard the fictional biology created by Cameron.
Avatar witnesses an enormous effort into bringing a fictional biological world to life. The result is convincing, although many creatures are modeled closely on familiar animals.
Under this point of view, Avatar is an eye-catching interpretation of how evolution might toss up on another planet. Paleontology is one of the strongest evidences of evolution, therefore I started to look for any paleontological references in Avatar.
Many creatures are obviously dinosaur-like or pterosaur-like, but I didn't find any explicit reference to precise prehistoric animals. Consequently my quest could finish without a result, but then I found the words of Wayne Barlowe, one of the creature creators of Avatar:

"I was influenced by manta rays and skates – sea life motifs were prevalent in my thoughts at the time – when it came to my initial concepts. Their lines informed everything from wings to head profiles. And, yes, being a huge paleontology buff did make me think of the vast variety of relatively little-known pterosaurs and plesiosaurs with their many, unique aerodynamic and hydrodynamic solutions."

Bingo! This demonstrates the origin of the reptile-like flying critters from planet Pandora, coming straight out from geologic times. In conclusion, Avatar is neither a paleontologic movie or an example of geologic art, but it shows how fossils can inspire modern artists.

The Thagomizer

2010-03-04T01:09:00.000-08:00

The thagomizer is an arrangement of four to ten spikes on the tails of certain dinosaurs, of which Stegosaurus stenops is the most familiar. It is believed to have been a defensive weapon against predators, although some researches propose a display function only.

Stegosaurus by Heinrich Harder, a paleoartist active between 19th and 20th century. Note the spike arrangement on the tail: it's the Thagomizer!

The term "thagomizer" comes from a 1982 comic strip: the Far Side by Gary Larson. The strip shows a caveman professor discussing about the spikes on the tail of Stegosaurus. The professor explains to the audience that the spikes were named "after the late Thag Simmons" (Thag Simmons is a fictional caveman from Gary Larson's comic).

"Now this end is called the thagomizer...after the late Thag Simmons."

The paleontologist Ken Carpenter picked up the term and used it when describing a fossil at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting in 1993.
Thagomizer has since been adopted as an anatomical term!

The author of the comic strip has a background in Life Sciences, which explains his frequent use of animals and nature in the comic. For this reason too, he is well aware that dinosaurs and humans did not exist in the same era. Indeed he suggests that "there should be cartoon confessionals where we could go and say things like, 'Father, I have sinned – I have drawn dinosaurs and hominids together in the same cartoon.'"

The Thagomizer is not the only scientific term brought by comics. A nice example is given by a strip from "Calvin and Hobbes", criticizing the naming of the Big Bang as unevocative of the wonders behind it. The strip coined the term 'Horrendous Space Kablooie', which has achieved some popularity among the scientific community, particularly in informal discussion.
What about the suggested alternative to Tyrannosaurus rex, 'monstrous killer death lizard'?

Geology in Art Special Review: Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular

2010-02-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

Visual artists often depict reality through painting, but theatre offers the chance to imitate reality in form and movement (see Taddei et al, 2005). For this reason, machines are used since the origins of performance arts.

For instance, Horace used the expression "deus ex machina" when referring to the conventions of the Greek tragedy, where a crane lowered actors playing gods onto the stage. In more recent times, many of the most important engineers and artists of the Renaissance were often involved in making machines and stage settings for the theatre. Leonardo da Vinci is no exception. For a festival in Lyons, Leonardo designed a lion which after it advanced, opened it chest spilling lilies onto the stage.

Tonight I have seen the same visual potential in the mimetic representation of the Mesozoic given by ‘Walking with Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular’. It is a live adaptation of the award-winning BBC TV series ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ and it features tens of mechanically-operated dinosaurs. Originated in Australia in January 2007, it toured North America in 2007, 2008 and 2009. An Asian tour is being scheduled, while it currently travels through Europe. More than 4.4 Million people have seen the show worldwide.

I went to the Assago Forum (Milan) for seeing this live performance show. It’s a 'Geology in Art Special Review'!

Spectacular. This is the first word that came into my mind after the début of a 10 meters long Plateosaurus, moving realistically and interacting with the stage. After that, it was just a series of “whoa!”. It is amazing to see a 17 meters long Brachiosaurus, staring at you from more than 10 meters of height. These are only two of the eight huge hydraulically-operated dinosaurs (Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Torosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex), accompanied by a flying reptile (Ornithocheirus) and five suit dinosaurs (3 Utahraptors, baby T-Rex, Liliensternus).

The gigantic dinopuppets will make you feel that you are looking at real dinosaurs. I also enjoyed a lot the flora, recreated by tens of inflating elements decorated with psychedelic colors.

Engaging narrative. The entire show is narrated by a paleontologist, which is necessary to explain the scientific details of the show. This is a very risky choice, because the presence of a human on stage could suggest an erroneous coexistence of humans with dinosaurs. Fortunately, the show is perfect even under this point of view. When dinosaurs are acting, the actor-paleontologist occupies always a marginal place. Moreover, the actor-paleontologist often reminded explicitly “dinosaurs and humans never lived together”. Great!

Technology. The technology which animates the dinosaurs is amazing. But there is more. Indeed the show uses both live and recorded video to enhance the scenes. Two screens shows the details of the arena and a huge cinematic scope plays recorded video for creating an immersive experience. Dramatic lighting, growls, symphonic music underline the performance.

Science. "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" is a 1973 essay by the evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky. Evolution is one of the most fundamental scientific discoveries of our time, and gives precise answers to the basic human questions “Where Do We Come From? What Are We?”. Evolution is the unifying force in modern biology.

The show promotes the understanding of evolution, dealing with themes such as coevolution, arms race, competition and natural selection. In one word: this is a wonderful educational experience!

Obviously, the main focus of the show is paleontology, which is presented in a very appealing way, discussing also about paleoichnology (the study of trace fossils). This discipline is almost ignored by the general public, so I was very happy to see the actor discussing about the importance of fossil footprints, burrows and coprolites.

In conclusion, I had an enthusiastic impression of “Walking with Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular”: it’s the creative show of evolution and paleontology!