(00:28:51, stereo audio, 69.2 mb)
Concrete is a major energy-intensive product that makes a significant contribution to total global energy usage. The house had a tremendous amount of poorly poured concrete in a variety of forms that I’ve been breaking up and putting in two large piles. Because of the energy issue, re-use of that concrete is a priority, but it first has to be turned into a form that is usable. This means breaking large pieces, some weighing up to thirty kilos (50-60 pounds). The initial removal was accomplished with a large steel pry-bar and a lot of “elbow-grease” as my father would say. The subsequent work of reducing the size is with a 3-pound hammer. To break the material into hand size requires, on average, one hammer blow for each reduced-size piece. To take care of all the material will take many tens of thousands of hammer blows. This piece is a meditation on that process; it is also an homage to The Book of One Thousand Buddhas, itself an homage to Buddhist prayer books more than a thousand years old.