Alex Chohlas-Wood

Our planet is a busy place. Since the beginning of life on Earth, countless beings have altered their surrounding environment, however subtly. Scientists have come to understand the past though the examination of these records – a physical history that provides tangible records of the world from long ago.

My Comprehensive Study examines physical record from modern times. As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, polluted, and removed from geographic boundaries, opportunities arise for "physical records" where they would never have existed before. By preserving intangible processes, the project becomes a paradox, preserving something in physical form that was never physical to begin with.

For me, histories are more immediate if they relate somehow to sight or touch. But as a resident of this fast modern world, I simply can't imagine a million years of steady sediment accumulation happening uninterrupted on the bottom of the ocean. So I respond by recording something which is fleeting, impossible to capture. Maybe this urge to preserve is just instinct, tradition, human fact – a glimpse, much like a photograph, to the distant past.

A.D.
Clay, Slides