The concept of Slow Violence is a term that Rob Nixon explores and refers to as a type of "violence that occurs gradually, invisibly, slowly and persistently destroying and expanding through time and space." Human-induced environmental conditions that actively cause harm to people are forms of Slow Violence. But this evil is slow, diffuse, and often perceptible only in retrospect. Not all violence is fast; hidden from the eyes of society, there is a kind of harm that develops too slowly to be recognised in time.
This piece proposes a space to rethink some of those long-lasting effects and formulates a visual exercise on the geological transformation and destruction of living ecosystems by representing a landscape flooded with radioactive eruptions.
We wanted to create a visual that reflects on the great acceleration of these changes (the Anthropocene) and the repercussions they have on climate and biodiversity. The piece is a visual and living fresco that encapsulates the unstoppable disaster before our eyes, devouring and consuming nature in an exercise of terrible beauty, where we contemplate in a sensory and almost tactile way, the effects and changes produced on the earth’s surface.
The work is based on observing the effects and changes produced on the earth's surface as a result of erosion, thawing, volcanism, and human-induced environmental catastrophes.
Technically, for the geological transformations, we used cymatic principles to create reactions on a variety of materials: dust, concrete, paint, and ashes collected from the recently erupted volcano of La Palma; using sound recordings of real geological catastrophes.
We also created living frescos with plants and fungi that grow and decay at a slow pace through the time-lapse technique, whilst absorbing the luminescent liquids.
Using photographic techniques to capture light beyond our visible spectrum (UV and Infrared), we explored ways of seeing complexities, forces, and details that are not obvious to the human eye. We wanted to develop this method to take an exploratory, deep, and conscious look and make visible the invisible forces of nature, observing the ecosystems that surround us from a different perspective.
This piece is a commission of The Science Museum Cosmocaixa, and was presented in the form of a large-scale mapping in Barcelona,2022.
Created by Hamill Industries (Anna Diaz, Pablo Barquín)
Music: “Holograms” Nil Ciuró
Hamill Support team: Francesc Sòria, Sidney Latil, Carles Clemente
Projection Tech Support: SMODE, Jose Valiña
Material:
Video and sound installation, 2K, 25 fps, stereo
Technique:
Analogue, in-camera effects: cymatic experiments on dust, concrete, paint, and volcanic ash from La Palma with real sound recordings of geological catastrophes. Time-lapse sequences of plants and fungi with self-developed motion control rigs. Photographic processes in UV and infrared spectra, induced luminescence, ink and paint.
