Ohio University March 2024
This investigation was part of a large body of work and ongoing research to address a disconnect between our awareness of living in a time of mass extinction and our inability as a species to respond collectively to this crisis. My work with the effigy investigates notions of human and other-than-human life. This research proposed a series of vessels arriving on Earth from Gliese 581c with a corresponding group of extinction vessels. Our species would send to other worlds in reciprocation. For this research, I chose the Gliese 581 system because Gliese 581c, one of seven planets that orbit this star, is the first potentially habitable exoplanet discovered by our species and the first one our species sent a digital message in October 2008. The motivation behind this research comes from a desire to engage with environmentalism not only through writing and individual actions but through the lens of art and how understanding the importance of perception/awareness can influence our behavior. The research that has informed my work primarily focuses on science, particularly the work of E.O. Wilson around biodiversity, Lynn Morgulis’s study of microbiology and the origins of life, James Lovelock’s Gaia Theory, and Donna Haraway’s research into understanding the broader implications of the use of the term “Anthropocene.” Within this historical context and understanding and the choice of clay as a material in my work, this research addresses life’s vulnerability by channeling other-media pathways in relationship with clay that shows the intersectionality between human and other-than-human life. My vessels attempt to recognize the place between the viewer and their experience of the other-than-human in the context of a time concurrent with knowledge of exoplanets and the technology to find habitable worlds.
CHRISTOPHER ST. JOHN 