The Crystal World Open Laboratory, a 6-day open laboratory hosted by Jonathan Kemp, Martin Howse, and Ryan Jordan for CTM12 at
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien Berlin, January 30th - February 5th 2012, with exhibition until February 19th.
In The Crystal World Open Laboratory various decrystallizations of the digital were conceptualized to return to the earth the recrystallized mineral substrates of a dystopic machinery.
Operating from the level of the circuit board, up through computations abstracted architectures to levels of complexity beyond, computers are assumed to effect both a necessary and sufficient scaling of bio-geologic volatilities within a crystalline logico-mathematical tradition of universality. Yet in the deep gore of the earth, telluric forces are always elaborated, undermining any such logos of necessity.
Laboratory activities
Such forces were emulated or registered in the laboratory's interrogation of selected computational substrates; in other actions the dangerous processes undertaken in their extraction and exhibition by the dispossessed were mimicked. The laboratory attempted to expand these world interventions further through experimentation in the formation of arrays of crystal signal processes and novel bio-geologies.
Lab projects included mycelium semi-conductors, synthetic bio-fossilization, various high heat metallurgies and the subsequent bio-doping of their pig products, crystal precipitations, crystal signal processing, liquid crystal cryptography, high voltage fulgurite construction, imaging odic diffractions, earth mineral batteries, high heat synthetic geology, and the preparation and ingestion of colloidal silver drinks.
Projects
mycelium semi-conductors
growing oyster mushrooms doped over a substrate of crushed pcbs, galena, magnetite, local earth, straw: semi-conductor project hothoused in two terrariums
synthetic bio-fossilization
synthetic fossilization of eukaryotic cell samples (onion) immersed in sodium silicate/pcb contaminated water mix
high heat synthetic metallurgy
making melt casts from malachite, haematite, powdered silicon, then oxidized and/or doped with bio-infestations (mycelium/cyanobacteria/algae)
crystal precipitations
supersaturated crystal-bearing solutions (alum, copper sulphate, ferrous sulphate, mono-ammonium phosphate, rochelle salts, sodium borate, urea), for further excitation
crystal signal processing
signal generators constructed with crystal precipitations of alum, mono-ammonium phosphate, ferrous sulphate, salt connected via copper, aluminium, or magnetite, with additional pyrite and galena cats whisker receivers, and PA
artificial fulgurites
synthetic geological samples created by applications of high voltage discharges to silver sand, silicon powder, magnetite, gold, copper, silver mixes
odic diffractions
the injection of contaminated cpu leachate/saturated chemical solutions into film container pinhole cameras loaded with pieces of photographic paper, their subsequent freezing and exposure using a photographic enlarger
earth battery
electrolytic battery using bucket of earth, lead and copper electrodes, with addition of sulphuric acid to increase voltage, and measured via a laser display
high heat synthetic geology
attempt at synthetic geology using a thermite reaction concentrated over a computer case, laptop, computer boards, and selected mineral ores
images by Kathrin Guenter, Martin Howse, Tamami Iinuma, Ryan Jordan, Jonathan Kemp, Joon Kim, Rachael Ward, 2012
