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.

SCORE (reflection-movement-weblog)
─=≡Σ((( つ＞＜)つ for post-internet cyborg in psychosomatic crisis:
 

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.

For the past few days, the mist is being particularly electric as it tenaciously sculpts the landscape. On Sunday morning bright and early we went to catch the new moon low tide in Moss Beach. Lots of new non-human friends such as anemones, crustaceans and hermit crabs to add to my current list of hawks, crickets, gophers and alligator lizards...

Rob Jackson, Sanna Fogelvik, Anthony Acciavatti and I went on a little hunting expedition this past week. We went hunting for wild clay at Djerassi. Rob, Sanna and I were interested in doing some personal experiments and artworks with the clay while Anthony was interested in exploring the creek where we would be searching. We set off to the nearby Harrington Creek where we had been advised clay was most likely to be found. A first spot was a bit sandy and dry. A second spot was located that looked more promising. Rob then rounded a corner of the river bend and found a clay-rich area for harvesting under a redwood tree!

Yesterday was our first full day at Djerassi. Danny Goldberg took us on a hike in the mid-afternoon. We departed from the Artist's Barn and walked a loop trail.

Along the way, we stopped at the many different artworks made by previous residents and Danny explained the botanicals along the pathway. The poison oak was especially evocative, with its many forms, shape-changing along the trail—from light green matte semi-translucent leaves in wispy singular growths to thick dark green oily leaves in tall dense bushes to bright red leafy lines.

July 9, 2023 (?)

It's hard to believe that we're almost halfway through.

It seems as though we have only recently arrived.

Despite our disparate origins and experiences, there is an intangible thread connecting us (of this cohort) like a switchboard of long distance tin-can phones.

A lingering conversation from the past, waiting to be had -- longing to be heard.

 

I cannot help but reflect

upon the truth of the moment.

The stories unearthed into our bodies

though our feet and our hands,