Using the Djerassi clay, I began to test out an idea that I had been thinking about for the last year. As part of my project Total Archive, I had conceptualized interspecies ghost creatures which would be amalgamated forms algorithmically generated from the IUCN Red List. I wanted to make negative impressions of these hybrid creatures as future fossils—remnants of our current endangered species for a speculative future. I made a few prototypes from the Djerassi clay for the Djerassi land.

Image Credit: Still from Olivia Ting’s Song Without Words, provided by the Global Asian Creative Awards.

As promised, here is an update on our wild clay ventures. Over the past weeks leading up to our Open Studios with Leonardo@Djerassi, a group of us processed the collected materials from the riverside cliffs. This was an exercise in patience. The raw clay material had a significant amount of redwood tree detritus mixed into it, so we added water to bring everything to a slurry. This took several days and many buckets! We then filtered all of the material through a 60 mesh screen. We then let the clay settle to the bottom and poured off excess water.

A quarterly recognition of exceptional peer reviewers in our network for their in-depth and deeply constructive feedback on papers under consideration for publication: Jeanine Breaker, Katherine Buse, Ryan Conrath, Yijun Sun, and Fernando Martín Velazco.