field work: hraun
Case Study: NARD
[ED: I decided to re-work and re-publish some of the public-domain articles that I compiled and wrote for the CGS as they are no longer updating the widely-read >RockTalk< blog that I established for them back in 2016.
Public interest regarding human-caused water pollution from abandoned mines remains high following the Gold King Mine event in 2015. Complicating the overall water-quality issue is the presence of natural pollution sources that affect the baseline condition of many watersheds across the state. These areas are often accompanied by obvious surface indicators as depicted in the photos.]
Are so-called pristine mountain waters always clean and pure? Can streams unaffected by human activities and livestock influences be unfit for human consumption, or for aquatic life? The existence of natural acid rock drainage (NARD) suggests a “no” to the former, and a “yes” to the latter question.
But what exactly is NARD?
Gleði
Since the arrival of the “Yanks”—a moment when “never had so much fornication occurred in so short a time”—and the subsequent US occupation of Iceland at the outset of WWII, Iceland has had a substantive relationship with America. Especially so in the realm of consumerism. The occupation—which continued until well after the end of the Cold War, in 2006—brought what became staples to Iceland: Coke, canned peas (those really overcooked and mushy ones), Twinkies, and, yes, Cheerios. MacDonalds tried to forge a continuation late in the game, in 1993, with several franchises, but the last one, in downtown Reykjavík, closed in 2009. Since accession to the Shengen Agreement and the European Economic Area, not to mention a continuing liberalization of Icelandic society and a retrenchement of American theocratic conservatism, US influence in the country has waned, but Cheerios (pronounced Shee-rrr-ios) and Coke have hung on. A cold Coke along with a Prins Polo chocolate bar (from Poland) is still a (the!) national snack. The Prins Polo bars were the only chocolate allowed to enter the country for many years prior to WWII, apparently in direct exchange for herring. The peas, too, are now a staple at the traditional Christmas dinner that is consumed by 70% of the population on Christmas Day with hangikjöt, a very sticky béchamel sauce, and potatoes.
I recall one telling instance, watching the evening news on the (only) broadcaster, RÚV, it was presented as big news that the US national yo-yo champion was visiting the country. It wasn’t mentioned in the segment that it was a Coke-sponsored PR event, though obvious to me, the cynical Amurikan, as the yo-yo being used was bright red with the classic Coke-cola logo on it. Within 48 hours, every kid in the country had a Coke yo-yo in hand. The perfect consumer market. It brought to mind California-style consumerism, on steroids.
And just in case your holidays are feeling boring, you might want to tune into RÚV for a full program of Christmas content (in English, no less, or Icelandic).
Gleðileg jól, stríðið er ekki búið!
Oh, and late-breaking, the fourth eruption on Reykjanes in a couple years, this one between Sýlingarfells and Hagafells started at 10 PM local time. At the moment is in the form of a 3.5 km fissure eruption, with some fountains over 100 m in height. It appears that the topography may work in the favor of keeping the lava away from the small coastal town of Grindavík, as well as the nearby geothermal power plant and the Blue Lagoon, but that may change, depending.
Litli-Hrútur
A magma-encore … [more info]
Appendix 8: The Systems Process
[Ed: this document was written by Cleveland Hopkins as an addenda to an unidentified white paper produced in the early 1970s at the Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP) — a White House office dedicated to policy-making in a rapidly shifting telecom environment. It is meant as an introduction to the concept of the systems process for those unfamiliar with the approach. Cleveland Hopkins was involved as a Systems Analyst looking at USPS electronic mail-handling; international and domestic telecom policy; digital medical record-keeping in the context of universal health care, among many other projects. His early career included twenty years in weapons system development (radar and ICBM) with DOD and MITs Lincoln Laboratory and Radiation Lab (Rad Lab) among other organizations. See his obit for further information.]
APPENDIX 8: The Systems Process
It is the objective of this short paper to invite attention to the Systems Process, its concepts, its essential nature, limitations and capabilities, and its output.
Introduction
“The systems approach basically applies scientific methods to the solution of practical problems,” [1], Concepts of the systems process vary from regarding it as the most powerful intellectual tool ever devised to “…the vacuous systems approach…” Historically, some of these ideas were applied to the activity used during World War II by small groups of people in trying to solve problems that were beyond the capacity of one person in the available time; these initial applications were to radar matters involved in the defense of Britain. Larger business firms have used such a process for many years to pool the efforts of management to subsequently maintain or improve their profit margins. The process began to get widespread public recognition shortly after Robert S. McNamara became Secretary of Defense; he brought in a group of technical people, later called the “Whiz Kids“ by the military, who, after some effort were able to break up the massive military problems into pieces that could be profitably worked on by individuals of different professional backgrounds. Their results were then combined and modified by operational people so that the solutions were relevant to the real world. Some duplication was taken out of the military services, and great efforts were made to obtain maximum results for the money spent, giving rise to cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness schemes.
field work
field work
Reinecker Ridge, east of Fairplay, is a prominent north-south trending ridge rising almost 300 m to 3200 m altitude above relatively flat South Park, Colorado. The bulk of the ridge is comprised of South Park Formation, lower volcaniclastic stratigraphic member (lower Paleocene). It is a poorly sorted and poorly lithified, polymictic, coarse-grained conglomerate yielding isotopic ages ~64-67 Ma. The ridge forms the eastern border of the Buffalo Peaks Ranch, the site of the Rocky Mountain Land Library.
field work
= volcano = v
earth
combatant
against earth
life threatens life
= what subscribers
= what survivors call
= the weather
4 consonants
life threatens life
= Y-A-H-W-E-H
= the volcano
= becomes the god
a
_______________________
` ` `
Day 53 – an unkindness
I watch an unkindness of ravens (Corvus corax) circulating above the Ridge harrying a lone red-tail (Buteo jamaicensis) who has to execute full rolls, talons-up, and other acrobatic maneuvers to stave off pecking and otherwise tag-teamed attacks from the largest of the ravens.
And then there are the monsoon clouds that spring up, suddenly a full hammer-headed thundercloud with wisps of precip draggling below the flat bottom of the cloud. God, which way is the wind blowing? Will it skew off over there, 500, 1000, 10,000 meters. Causing a flash flood to gush off the slick-rock canyon sides into the wash that is already choked with sandy runoff. Erosion is quick here, much of the sandstone is so friable that a chunk the size of a shoebox can, almost literally, melt in a year or so. The glacier front-environment in Iceland is like that, although rocks there are chiseled apart with freeze-thaw. Those cycles can happen several times a day with oscillations around 0C +/- 2C. None of the degraded Holocene clays that occur between the volcanic ash and glacial silt will last long — hydrated, and also prone to extreme weathering. Both landscape extremes change in living human memory. It’s only a matter of looking, watching, to see the change, to set a state-observation (a memory) in mind for longer term. The storm brings these thoughts, although in the last days it hasn’t rained here at all. While there have been numerous large storms passing across the Glade, gully-washers, as they are sometimes called, putting cold clear rain down by the centimeter. Nope, nothing here. Thunder, and if at night, horizons flashing with Lightning. But no water. Damn. Still watching the sky.
Dr. George Vernon Keller 1927 – 2012
As I’m not on the regular alumni mailing lists and rarely going to the CSM alumni web site, I missed the passing of my main mentor from geophysics days—Dr. Keller was a big influence on my trajectory during my studies and, indeed, after I left the corporate sector. The first class I took with him was Geothermal Exploration, one that always included two weeks in either Iceland, Hawaii, or New Zealand. Our class opted for Hawaii. So, in March 1981 with our fearless leaders Drs. Keller and L. T. Grose, about 20 of us boarded a flight from Denver to LA and then on to Honolulu, followed by a short hop to Hilo, Hawaii, where we spent most of our time looking at the geology and a hot-rock portable 25 megawatt geothermal power station sitting on a fresh lava flow. I won’t go into the details of all the partying that went on when we weren’t in the field. I took the wheel of one of our vans and pretended to be a local, a ruse that worked well while I was driving, but my surfing wasn’t so great.
Robin and I stayed on the Big Island for an extra couple days with a rent-a-car after the rest of the group headed for some volcano hiking on Maui, we hung around the Kona coast and up around Hapuna. Then retreated to the Waikiki Hilton where I met Martin and stayed another two days there enjoying the pleasures of the amazing Waikiki Beach.
That following summer and school year I worked for Dr. Keller at Group Seven, Inc., doing a variety of jobs from field acquisition, data processing, and interpretation of TDEM for geothermal resources mostly in the Basin and Range province (in Nevada, California, and Arizona). I spent two weeks doing soil chemistry sampling around the Clear Lake in the Geysers region in Northern California.
Some day I’ll get some of the many photos posted from Hawaii and Group Seven.
Dr. George V. Keller received his Bachelor of Science (1949) and Master of Science (1952) degrees in Geophysics and his Doctorate (1954) in Geophysics and Mathematics from Pennsylvania State University. From 1945-46, he served in the U. S. Navy as a Seaman First Class. During his career he was employed by the U.S. Geological Survey (1952-1963) and by the Colorado School of Mines (1964 to 1993).
While with the USGS, Dr. Keller’s assignments included management of studies of geophysical aspects of nuclear weapons testing for tests carried out within the continental US; the impact of earth properties on Command and Control Communications (C3) systems; surveys of the Arctic Ocean during the International Geophysical Year from Drifting Station Bravo (T3); and participation in the early USGS planning team for Deep Sea Drilling (AMSOC).
At the Colorado School of Mines, Dr. Keller’s principal areas of interest were in development and applications of electrical geophysical methods to exploration for mineral and energy resources. He served as Head, Department of Geophysics, from 1974 to 1983. He retired from teaching May 1, 1993. He received a distinguished service award from the U.S. Department of Interior in 1959, was awarded the first Halliburton Award for outstanding professional achievement in 1979, served as a senior Fulbright scholar at Moscow University in 1979, was invited on a distinguished lecture tour by the Japan Association for Advancement of Education during the summer of 1986, and served as a Senior NATO Scholar at the University of Pisa in 1991. He has served as a consultant to many companies and government agencies involved in the earth sciences. Most important among the government assignments were as a member of President Johnson’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Mine Safety, as a member of President Carter’s energy Research Advisory Board, subcommittee on Geothermal Energy, and as a member of and chairman of the Committee Advisory to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory on the Hot Dry Rock (HDR) Project. In 1996, he was named a Centennial Fellow of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Keller formed Group Seven, Inc. in 1970 to provide electrical geophysical services to the energy industries. During the 1970s, Group Seven grew to a company with about 60 employees and carried out geophysical surveys for a large number of energy companies and government agencies, including Exxon, Chevron, Union Oil, Phillips Oil, Gulf Oil, the Governments of Indonesia and Nicaragua through the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Government of Kenya through the U.N. Development Program, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Reclamation, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of energy. Group Seven was integrated into United Syscoe Mines (Canada) in 1981.
In the Fall of 2004, he joined a floating campus for the Semester-at-Sea program. He taught three earth science classes to students from throughout the U. S. as the ship sailed around the world.
Dr. Keller has published extensively, including more than 200 technical papers in his own name, more than 2000 pages of translations of technical articles which originally appeared in the Russian literature, and eight books and texts on the electrical methods of geophysical prospecting. He served as translation editor of the journal “Soviet Mining Science,” published by Plenum Press from its inception in 1965 until 1994. During that period, he was responsible for supervisory editing of some 15,000 pages of technical articles originally published in Russian.
Most important among Prof. Keller’s publications are seven books dealing with the electrical geophysical methods.
One of these books became a classic reference and is regularly cited to this day. The book, first published in 1966, was co-authored with his colleague and friend from the USGS, Frank Frischknecht, and was titled “Electrical Methods in Geophysical Prospecting.” Its popularity is emphasized by the fact that a second edition was published in 1982.
In 1994, Dr. Keller began research on the detection and identification of hand guns. This research led to the award of U.S. Patent 5552705 on September 3, 1996.
Dr. Keller’s last position was president and chief scientist at StrataSearch Corp.
George Vernon Keller was born in New Kensington PA on December 16, 1927 and passed away on April 17th 2012 in Evergreen CO. He married his childhood sweetheart Amber in 1945; she passed away in 1995. He married Liudvika in 1997. George is survived by his wife Liudvika, son George Stephen and his wife, Chong, grandson Justin, and daughter, Susan Diane.
Chilean butterfly effect
the Wednesday flight to Auckland looks in doubt as of today. volcano Cordon Caulle shot so much stuff up to extreme altitudes (over 15 km) and some of that got caught in the jet stream of the Roaring Forties weather pattern, and now, a week later it’s traveled around the globe and hit southern Australia, Tassie, and eNZed. crossing the Tasman Sea is best done by boat. sheesh. Darwin Station keeps an eye on it all locally for the VAAC.
already entering the drone zone of movement, though, regardless of what goes on with the ash cloud. though would not relish being a passive observer of an ash-compromised turbine engine. Air New Zealand hasn’t canceled any flights versus all the other carriers who have up to Quantas which has canceled all their flights to Tassie and eNZed. what to make of that? the NASA images are at least definitive, and surprisingly not referenced in Australian media anywhere.
fog in Preston
a stroll around the Preston compound
gait and gluteals
The foot print, the pressure of the foot on the ground, walking in mud, on grass, ice, walking on the water.
Edward Tenner’s book intimates how walking itself is, at least partially, a learned social process, with variations introduced by the prosthetic (shoes) and localized environmental responses.
I had observed one aspect of this affect when I moved to Iceland. Icelanders are generally quite healthy — statistically, their longevity is second only to the Japanese. But one formal thing I did notice is the lack of prominent gluteal muscles. Flat arses! The difference was notable, coming the ethnically diverse US, where (aside from rampant morbid obesity) arses are, well, noticeable. In Iceland, they were noticeably absent: flaccid and flat. This puzzled me for some time until winter arrived and ice began to cover everything on a regular basis. Walking with a rolling gait that emphasizes a constant forward propulsion, ending with a final accelerating push off the big toe is fine when on a solid surface with decent traction. Try that on ice (this is Ice Land, right?), and one immediately discovers how, without traction, that ‘normal’ gait destabilizes the balance as the body is expecting acceleration, but not getting it (when it loses traction). The push off with the toe is ineffectual, and when one foot actually leaves the surface, between the lack of acceleration, and a compromised vertical positioning of the body (which was expecting the legs to be more forward), slipping and falling becomes a very real possibility.
Tenner, E., 1997. Why things bite back: technology and the revenge of unintended consequences, New York: Vintage Books.
Understanding this from being aware of my own movements (and instances of compromised balance), and watching locals, I noticed several major differences between their gait and mine. The primary feature of the local walk was that both feet never really left the ground and contact was flat-footed and somewhat stiff-legged. There was a substantial time when the full sole of the shoe was flat on the ice, and it was during that time when forward acceleration was made.
If you try this yourself, you will immediately see that the glutes are not the site of any muscular effort for locomotion as opposed to when accelerating off the big toe and Achilles tendon. Could this be the source of the predominance of flat bums in Iceland?
Aside from the glare-ice technique, there was another endearing and embodied gait by farmers when walking their fields. A thousand years of overgrazing sheep has seriously compromised most of Iceland’s grasslands. As the land was overgrazed, this exposed the underlying volcanic soil directly to powerful eolian erosion which could strip meters away down to a gravelly bedrock surface in no time. When life again attempts to establish itself on that surface, after sheep are removed from the picture, it first starts as minuscule moss colonies which grow in the shelter of a small cobble or so. The moss begins to capture wind-borne soil which gradually increases the colony size which increases the turbulent capture of airborne sediment. Over a period of decades these moss colonies form a hummocky surface with a relief of perhaps 50 cm (18 inches) and a horizontal frequency of a meter or so. To walk across such a surface is absolutely exhausting unless you conform your body in a particular way. The Icelandic farmer’s gait consists of the following: hands clasped behind the back, an exaggerated forward hunch of the upper body, and the knees bent dramatically. Leaning forward, and using the bend in the knees to essentially level out the distance between the upper body and the average ground height of the bottom of the hummocks, one takes long strides where the torso never goes up and down, but rather the level changes of the hummocks are compensated by different extensions of the knees. It’s humorous to watch, but is highly effective and a very rapid gait. If one tries ‘normal’ walking, climbing up and down the hummocks, it is slow and absolutely exhausting.
CLUI residency — Energy of Situation
Some final words on the residency period:
Energy of Situation
Rather than producing new material configurations of the energized world as a tool for individual continuance and relevance to the wider social system, I chose to concentrate on a fundamental closer to the bone, as it were: the production of new configurations of the energized world as a tool for individual continuance and relevance to the wider social system. What we do changes the cosmos, always, everywhere, (because everywhere’s are not separated nor distinct).
Traditional art production is (merely) the (re)configuration of certain flows in the near (and far) surround of the producer. My approach generally falls under this model but approaches the reconfiguration process from an entirely different path. Entering a ‘residency’ is (merely) moving from one (life)-situation into another: we are constantly doing this in life, transitioning from one semi-stable configuration to another, with periods of more-or-less instability in between. If one leaves traditional temporal and spatial metrics behind, this process may be seen simply as the modulation of a constancy of flowing condition. The particular conditions and configurations of a situation dictate the potential range of reconfigurations possible, given the energy input of the individual and the embodied life-energy/life-time that is available. The configuration is merely a cumulative apprehended set of flows occurring with a reductive purview (and is always relative to the observer!) There is the ‘locally external’ factor of the accessibility of external energy sources for reconfiguring, but if one approaches the situation as a more autonomous and self-contained instance, the range of possibility is limited just as life-time and life-energy is limited. It is along this approach that I undertook this residency. (I will here omit a wider discussion of the framework of my personal model of the cosmos as there isn’t the room here to undertake it even in brief).
more “CLUI residency — Energy of Situation”
CLUI: Day Twenty — raptors?
A nice hike with Neal, his last day before heading back to London (despite the volcano!) into the Toano Raptor Observation Area at the south end of the Toano Range. No big raptors except for a turkey vulture who didn’t fly away from a sheep carcass at the side of the track in until we were just 20 feet away (oi, pew!!). That’s as close as I’ve been from one of those huge birds. The hike in gets into snow pretty quickly, including corn snow coming down. But the sun is warm on the south-facing side of the canyon, and with the elevation gain, the view to the east over the playa and all the way to the Wasatch Range is fine. Apparently in the fall, during migration, more than 50,000 eagles, hawks, and falcons pass through the area.
fundament
CLUI residency looms on a completely other tectonic regime. Travel to that point will traverse no zenith, instead will follow flat-lying salt-pans after The Canyon and other intense impingements on the eyeballs. While the volcano simmers on Fimmvörthuháls, Ice Land.
“When stars form, they form from the collapse of a cloud of gas and dust. And in the process of the gas and dust falling in, it doesn’t fall directly in — it sort of spirals in slowly,” Fazio says.
He adds understanding a star’s formation may someday help astronomers understand the formation of our galaxy. “How did we get here, and where are we going? That’s what we are trying to understand.”
Seems to be a basic couple questions. Both which eliminate religion from view when religion posits irrefutable answers to both, without exception. And which suggests the social role of science (what else is there?) approaching the same role as religion. The feigned disentangled observer in science is immersed in such wide pursuit while playing with little bits of material: traces of answer to those questions. Or merely caught in the race that dominates this time — that between religion and science. One proceeding from apparent Truth, the other converging on it.
Moseley Ridge
not far as-the-raven-flies from the Baldwin cabin, over Ohio pass and to the east, here on the west side of the West Elk Wilderness. mild mountains. none within eye-shot breaking 12,000 feet. sedimentary, punctured by laccoliths, overlain by thick deposits of welded tuff, ash, and other volcanic ejecta, andesites, unstable, friable: the West Elk Breccia, 34 million years old.
and in the interests of not moving too far and getting as high as locally possible, Moseley Ridge, made up of those breccias, looks do-able, sort of. at least the view east from the top should be decent — the back of the Maroon Bells. bush-whacking. the first obstacle is an aspen grove with more downed timber than standing. the only progress possible is by balancing on the downed logs and moving along those. off the logs, it’s impossible. steep, turns out the whole western slope is slumping with fissures and extremely steep inclines. it is a real bush-whack. two hours of slow movement through the vegetation only to end up on talus that looked a whole lot smoother from the valley floor. very unstable. each step, leaping from rock to rock, never knowing which one might start to roll down the steep incline. the incline gradually steepens towards the base of the final (unattainable spires). giving up 100 meters from the saddle when rain starts making the rocks slick. low risk threshold. slow and wet retreat.
Ice Land
Wow, the lid is blowing off the formerly staid and sheep-like Icelandic society. Following the collapse of their entire economy from top to bottom, side to side, Icelanders are finally making a vocal and physically critical look at the excesses of the political and business leaders who they have supported without question over the last couple decades.
News from Iceland usually centers around glaciers, volcanoes, whaling, tourism, or in more recent years, music. But all that has been displaced by the spectacular fall from fifth highest on the world’s standard of living index to International Monetary Fund-ed pauper-hood, all in a couple months.
And of those same government officials, politicians, and business people, not one has paid any public price for their despotic (nepotistic!) greed (aside from some of their Empires collapsing, surely, though, after they have secreted away the cream). The Chairman of the Central Bank and former Prime Minister David Oddsson — nicknamed in the 1990s Little Hitler by the few who saw his rule as one based on enormous reserves of ego rather than economic expertise — has refused to resign or even admit any errors in judgment while the entire national economy has collapsed.
Not prone to display dirty national laundry in the international arena, Iceland has been ridiculed with an unprecedented vehemence in British and other international press outlets, often at the hands of expat Icelanders who are so fed up with the whole scandal that they are breaking the public self-critical taboo. Several leading international economists, familiar with the Icelandic situation are reminding the public of the warnings that were proffered months ago of the possibility of impending crisis, all which were ignored by a government who, in the run-up to the crisis, repeatedly claimed the economy was sound.
In private conversations, I frequently pointed out the deep nepotism in the architecture of power that suffused Icelandic society as well as the reciprocal sheep-like obedience of the general populace; especially among the government politicos but really everywhere in a system that sustains perhaps only three of the possible six degrees of separation. Everybody knows everybody.
At any rate, I had wanted to post some links to pertinent resources in this fast-developing situation if only that it might be an object lesson on the excesses of a system that Iceland was very talented in upholding — that of consumer capitalism in all its vain-glory.
There’s the Iceland Weather Report by native, Alda Sigmundsdóttir. She has taken some major strides over the history of her blog, most recently doing interviews with voices critical of the current regime including one with the Icelandic economist Thorvaldur Gylfason.
Another voice which I concur with strongly based on my long experience with Icelandic culture is voiced by New Zealand economist Robert Wade. Small dribbles of news in the more traditional style of Icelandic media (passive echoing of officials) may be found in English at the Morgunbladid (the main national newspaper). They have been absolute supporters of the Oddsson regime and the reactionary Independence Party that he represents.
I could relate many stories from Iceland, and, indeed, have done that here over the last 14 years, but these days, my attitude is that they deserve what has happened. The broader population accepted uncritically the fiscal direction of the Independence Party and the incredibly greedy business elite (very very large fish in a very very small pond). Some Icelandic voices have recently pointed out this very sheep-like behavior on behalf of the public — as something that hopefully is in the process of being purged through increasingly violent protest actions that are both long overdue and at the same time completely not disturbing the equilibrium of the ruling elite.
Kevin Karl Burger 1957 – 2006
Kevin passes away this morning after a three-year fight with brain cancer. A brilliant painter, the source of much pointed insight and incisive wry wit, a good story-teller, and all-around warm and lively friend. His embodied presence, removed, now transforms to empty space. We met way back during the infamous Conrans-Habitat catalog shooting that Bill was doing in the summer of 1990. Kevin was working for the Conrans crew, I was an assistant for Bill. Hot summer day after hot summer day, on location in Peters Valley for the first half of the shoot, a sense of humor was necessary. Then Kevin and I drove a U-haul truck full of furniture and location gear all the way to Acadia National Park, ME. Many stories to tell about that adventure. Nothing like shooting a four-poster bed on the top of Cadillac Mountain at dawn. It was an auspicious starting point for many friendships: I think it was all the lobster (lobstah) consumed in Bar Harbor (Bahhabba) with the crew. On the way back, we filled a huge cooler with lobsters and dry ice, and had a big dinner at John and Laurel’s place back in PV.
blow winds blow
finally, Iceland surfaces with an honest account of the genesis of much of what appears on the island as an exotic landscape. well actually it is a BBC expose by a reporter who happens to be married to an Icelander. severe deforestation, followed by the primary surface vegetation, grass, being totally eaten by sheep, who kill grass when overgrazing by eating the roots. followed by the normal strong winds, and there goes the 3 – 10 meters of rich volcanic topsoil, straight into the Atlantic. you are left with a hard cobble surface with partly eroded stones of varying size. occasionally you can see the process as it is happening — mesas sitting some meters above the hard pan surface, mesas made of topsoil, capped by thick shaggy green expanses of grass. all the land was once up there, covered with grass and trees. (more images)
descent into purgatory
1.2 GHz G4 Powerbook, my mainstay for mobility and the core machine of an array of three other machines dies today. ignominious, blanked gray screen demanding a restart that will not take place. stupidly take it in to the local authorized (and monopoly) Mac repair place, Argosy West, run by Gary Beverly, one of the most arrogant and disagreeable persons that I’ve had the misfortune to run across. seldom anything but a condescending comment. last I’ll see of it for more than three weeks and $1.5K later.
hadn’t made a primary backup since before leaving for California three weeks ago. whups. so the data on the drive along with the drives integrity suddenly leaps to the foreground. older data is backed-up with triple redundancy. after the two historical drive crashes (1996 and 1999), aside from having alternative off-site storage for a third rotating backup, I am religious about regular backups. period.
the month starts. hottest temps, dry. and a fire on the southern horizon that occasionally resembles a volcanic eruption. it’s threatening to become the largest in Arizona history. no danger here, but as always, people start to get nervous with dry grass and tinder all around the area. just takes a cretinous smoker or off-roader driving without a spark-arresting muffler. instant conflagration. the party weekend looms.
kachina
6-inches of wet snow, starting last night, but by noon, the sun begins to drive it away rapidly. the normal view from the porch where the photo is taken is about 90 miles all the way to the San Francisco (Kachina) Peaks, the remains of a 16,000-plus-foot stratovolcano (now only 12,633 feet left after a catastrophic explosion before human habitation of the area. the Hopi Indians consider the peaks a holy place, the winter home of the kachina spirits and the source of rain clouds for crops. of course, you can’t see them today. too many clouds
after floods and a root canal
high water. seemed like Iceland there for a few days, gale rains straight from California, turning the yard of dark brown basalt soil to a soupy flow. rain barrel full many times over. dry washes overflowing (surprising neophyte Westerners), streets awash (pavement rapidly pounded to soaking pot-holes from cheap aggregate of soft volcanic ash from the cinder cones around San Francisco Peaks), then a day later, cloudless blue, and the normal total dryness in air, sky, and land. no end to the drought, though for the days of rain, those recent arrivals think it is now okay to plan ten new golf courses instead of two.
Dr. Donaldson performs a root canal on the four long roots of a molar, the one that was giving me so much trouble over the last eight months. low-grade infection had been irritating the nerves so this is the only way to go. his technique is incredibly focused and attentive: I spend the 90 minutes in the chair concentrating on my breathing and listening through bone to the sounds made by the different borers, rasps, probes, and sonic cleaners. wishing it would be possible to record. contact mike on forehead perhaps? have to have direct bone contact, though, no flesh. one could mount a small contact mike directly onto a tooth: noize!
eldgós uppkominn
The future belongs to portent, as on the night that the first Gulf War started back in 1991, when Hekla vomited back what the US military throwing at the earth in the Gulf region; so, as on the eve of the unfortunate re-election of the Bush Regime, Grímsvötn in the middle of Vatnajökull feels intense gastric distress about future warring and earth-raping, and belches in protest: so it goes. This is the same volcano that caused the massive and catastrophic flooding in the fall of 1996, when the sub-glacial lake of the same name located in a large caldera breached its banks and sent a huge volume of water blasting out under the glacier, coming to the edge at and blowing out a 2 km wide chunk of Skeitharárjökull, cutting a 1 km wide swath through a terminal moraine that stands about 200 meters high and a kilometer across. This flood left giant pieces of glacier ice, some the size of large apartment blocks scattered across the jet-black expanse of the sandur (out-wash plain). And took out 15 km of the national ring road. All in 5 minutes. There’s the story of the local policeman from the town Vík nearby the glacier who had gone out on early morning patrol on the ring road, and forgot his coffee thermos, right after he turned around to get it, he saw the flood in his rear-view mirror. Thank god for caffeine-addiction! MB, Loki, and I cruised through the region and jeep up to the glacier face in the early spring of 1997 where I shot quite a bit of material. Good thing, as all those huge chunks of ice were completely melted before the tourists arrived that summer. Quite an incredible sight though.
over the glaciers
after getting away from the Big City on takeoff, now moving over a landscape that is familiar at all distances possible, from the face pressed into the wet moss to stereoscopic squinting at satellite imagery of rifts, grabens, shield volcanoes, and glaciers. the fascination with geo-morphology never lessens. hanging out in the International Space Station would definitely be cool. but speaking of chill. on the way to the airport, the ex asks “why are you doing this residency in a land that you hate?” “hate? I never said that.” “yes you did, many times.” child in the back adsorbs this and the unmanageable dis-reality of being. I drag a suitcase into the domestic terminal, no check-in line for Akureyri, the guy behind me is already pushing at the counter in the moment I step over to heft my suitcase on the scale. excuuuuse me.
Hrefna meets me at the airport and takes me on a short tour of town to show some of the changes since the last time I was here onto 4 years ago or so. do some quick shopping, enough to get me through the next few days. no internet access.
Keillir
A trip to Keillir, on Reykjanes, on the way to the airport. A volcanic cone that I have been wanting to climb for ages. Good imprint to have in mind/body, ’cause it’s visible from many points of the region. And has that special shape. A cone with a slightly rounded top. Was feeling like I was hallucinating a bit, looking closely at the moss-covered Quaternary lava surfaces at macro- and micro-scales, stepping in mud, lying in small grass patches out of the cold wind, eating apples and cookies, drinking water, scaling the final pitch to the top, sliding, slipping, and at the top, looking at the surrounding land, small ash cones poking up everywhere, flow upon flow forming the flat matrix of earthly presence, and certain evidence that there is a big fuckin’ crack somewhere below the surface just aching to spew again, someday, sooner than later. Clouds skimming off North Atlantic, sun pale blue, really.
gravitatus
on board the MS Gabriella, just left Stockholm, imagining that there will be an open window of time while en route. plane flight from Iceland, the usual 0415 wake-up to catch the 0730 flight, east to Europe. waking and sleeping are the same state. car, bus, plane, bus, bus, boat, taxi. will be the cumulative way. and little thought. except for the cycling of separation from Loki. my boy. we decided at bed time last night that I should wake him for a hug and kiss before I went out the door this morning. after exactly three months together all the time, traveling so many kilometers, now yet again, leaving. no less easy than five years ago when I did it the first time.
wandering around. Stockholm, the airport, the bus terminal, the ship, here, there.
using the model of energy — life energies, quantum energy fields, chi — life looks different, but still the gap of praxis is massive. like there is a chance there, a minuscule crack in a plate-metal covering. for the Lightness to slip through. for meaning to replace the vacuum of materiality. (how can this be? that I conclude material presence is a vacuum? presence is an absence? what is absence? maybe impression, the leftovers of presence are the traces of the energy that has been transmitted to the surroundings (to the Other) in the time of presence. take care of the conditions of presence, or else absence can be devastating. we all spend all life in both conditions simultaneously. (boat listing rhythmically, we are in the open Baltic, though it is only as deep maybe as the ship is long. a sea, no ocean. it would be different sailing over the Marianas Trench, it would feel different. like on my second visit to Iceland. Stefan’s family has a summerhouse in one of the most revered national locations in all Iceland, Thingvellir. it is the location of the original outdoor parliament site, literally astride the mid-Atlantic Ridge in an area that technically is a classic spreading center — a fault-graben structure characterized by long north-by-northeast-south-by-southwest trending faults, frequent seismic and volcanic activity, and constant subsidence. we go out there on a short weekend trip in late summer. there is a rowboat that we take out on the enormous spring-fed lake. for the only time I ever go fresh-water fishing in Iceland, the first cast and there is an enormous hit on the line, and I bring in a very large lake trout. a farmer on the shore is watching us suspiciously. the slow sun-going makes the lake pass through millions of form and color permutations. we drift. Stef then says he has to show me something and begins rowing north along the coast past the summer house. there are some small linear islands a meter or two across and maybe 20 long. he rows between two of them. there is the sensation not of sinking, but of being drawn downward, body amorphous, without a center of gravity. the water which is absolutely clear, even with the bottom 10 meters down, turns black, there is no bottom.
over the volcano
already some place different. two flights yesterday, one from Reykjavík to Oslo over lovely Hekla, who decided with moment’s notice to erupt on Saturday evening. the second flight ends in a heavy Vestfjordene cross-wind and the pilot almost sliding off the runway, just two or three meters from the edge with the leeward wheels. and a hard double bounce with a sharp list in between. not a nice feeling that time. but back in Bergen. rain, and another workshop. interesting situation. complex groupings of beings. needing to continue extending the research into the dynamics of group interactions. chafing at the cafe9.net morass. the conflict between whatever and whatever. in the invisible arena of remote presence. ah, f**ked-up.
Aglio e olio (once)
running around. MediaBase, talking with Oliver, Visa — visiting his studio and flat. Tarot-tossing, fast and sure. dinner with my favorite Icelandic students Solveig and Sara, along with Sara’s son Arnar. ghosts and the Wittendorf Venus. MTV and wine. pachouli on my fingertips. garlic on my breath. making garlic noodles again — ever since that afternoon in 1988 on the upper slopes of the main volcano on Isola Ischia off of Napoli, Italia. waiting for the others to do some shots elsewhere, I find myself at a small bar/restaurant, ceramic figurines everywhere, but my memory is not too clear. I lost one roll of film (I remember every roll of film that I have ever lost in processing, a total of five) in the period from Isola Ischia to Isola Stromboli, on account of an old developing canister I was using at Bill’s lab in Jersey City at the end of that summer. running two rolls in the tank, and the LID POPPED OFF in my hand. I was pretty quick to get it back on, but not before the top roll was pretty badly fogged. so, images of this little place where I first experienced the pasta dish l’aile d’olia (not sure if that is the correct Italian spelling, but) are not extant. garlic-breath the day after, especially if there are any left-overs, they make the perfect filling for a fabulous omelet! the recipe is simple — enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a cold frying pan. heat on medium heat, add at least eight cloves of garlic pressed or chopped, more if it suits your inner desires to fend off vampires and other forms of obnoxious life. sprinkle with pepper — preferably coarse-ground black or Tabasco, cayenne, but any will do, more to your tastes. let this mixture saute slowly — if the heat is too high, the garlic can burn, and that is definitely a no-no. start the pasta. it is best to use spaghettini (smaller in diameter than regular spaghetti), or angel hair. I find that heavy pasta pieces soak up too much oil. put a spoon full of crushed basil in the boiling water with a little oil (little or no salt), cook pasta. drain, and then quickly pour the hot oil and garlic over the pasta, mixing everything well (using a pasta spoon or two forks). the oil will quickly spread throughout the pasta. serve hot with baguettes, a good Bourgogne, water, a green salad, and lots of grated Peccorino Romano cheese. Plan ahead, make extra: the next day, leftovers can be used to make that scrumptious omelet!
Fujiyama
I am in Japan with a carload of friends. we are touring around. after some scenes, telling someone that, no, Mt. Fujiyama is not 6,000 feet high, it is 12,365 feel high (learned this on a tour bus on the way to the mountain in 1974, by saying 12 months, 365 days…). we are climbing the mountain. it is a mix of the Matterhorn at Disneyland, and the mountain has been sliced through by some kind of retaining wall. there are lots of volcanic rocks. there is a paved parking lot next to an outdoor cafe where a few Japanese men are sitting at tables. I start to photograph a triptych panorama of the scene, but the camera is either on time delay or the shutter is locked, I keep trying to reset the delay but it keeps coming on. the large seated Buddha is in the background, we begin walking towards it, somebody is talking about Michael Jordan. the alarm goes off.
jokullhlaup
The drive today passes through the fjords of the east coast and around the corner to the south coast following the perimeter of Vatnajokull glacier, the largest in Europe and the site of the volcanic eruption last October. About a month after the eruption, there was a massive flood of melt-water that burst explosively from under the Skeidarasandur glacier tongue and spread over the 40-km-wide sand desert below the tongue to the sea. It took out about 20 km of the ring road that circles the island and a number of bridges. The road has been rebuilt temporarily and the site of this unusual geophysical phenomenon has become quite the destination for visitors.
memories of three infinite half-spaces
00:03:00, Hi8 NTSC, stereo audio, 1997
An infinite half-space is a mathematical tool used to construct, model, and analyze a theoretical spatial representation of the earth or any situation where two unlike substances are coming in direct contact. A sphere of infinite diameter is bisected by a plane. This plane represents the surface of the earth. Above this plane is nothing (or, a dialectric constant, depending on the model), below is the substance of the earth itself, made up of whatever defined substance the geophysical model-maker constructs. In this short video, a cycle of memory becomes the constructive framework for three transits across seemingly infinite half-spaces. Reality is subsequently transformed by the infinitude of the model. The concentration of the tool-wielder is momentarily lost. The plane is skewed and rotated 90 degrees,and contains non-linear imperfections that cause instability in the model calculations. Nothing is what it seems. Quantum Darwinism perhaps? The Observer shares the vision — despite the specious chaos generally reigning — and provokes the transformation of idiosyncratic isolation into infinite union.
The raw material for this video came from Hi8 NTSC footage filmed on location at the foot of Langjökull, Iceland in May 1997 at a scene of catastrophic post-volcanic jökulhlaup (sub-glacial flood-burst) the previous year. It was dumped directly into an AVID digital video system for non-linear editing during the Polar Circuit artists residency program in Tornio, Finland. The video imagery was heavily processed with existing AVID image-manipulation options and then a final mix was made. The six-track stereo audio, also taped in Iceland, was mixed down from a variety of sources including a flock of gulls and terns attacking a school of small fish near Akureyri, an old Toyota station wagon driving the ring-road, and other ambient samples. Countries of production: Finland and Iceland.
May Day
Well, I suppose all good communists were out in force today, what few there are left in the world. Very cold here, the north wind blowing razors all the day. MB was home as May Day is a holiday across Scandinavia, this haven of mild and modest socialism. I spent the morning cooking a batch of chili down, in preparation for our road trip that begins tomorrow. Fortunately for my soft disposition these days, we won’t be camping, rather we will staying with friends and friends-of-friends on our way south via the east fjords route. We choose this longer route to Reykjavík (500 km longer) so that we can view the rather unique and transitory results of the sub-glacial volcanic eruption and subsequent violent and massive flooding that occurred late last fall. It is possible to get right into the flooding area — a sand plain covered with giant blocks of glacial ice up to ten meters high! Should be very film-able!
exile
Up early again. Sunshine. 0930 ferry into town, packed everything last night, so took my backpack over to the Silja terminal and left it there in a locker, then went direct over to Muu to get one more fix of fast digital life for the time being. I meet Tapio at Café Fazer, off the Esplanade. This week he is attending a conference put on by the American Studies Department of the University of Helsinki concerning a critique of media and culture. The prospectus looks, well, typically academic, and it is certain that they have good funding given the number of American … academics … giving papers. We have a long conversation about some of the issues that concern us both. At the moment the boat is slowly pirouetting away from the dock and heading past Suomenlinna to the open Baltic. more “exile”
field work
Fulbright Application:
Statement of Proposed Study
I would like to photographically explore the Icelandic people, my relationship to them, and their relationship to their land. My current work is about personal relationships in the context of daily life. Specifically, my photographs are visually sophisticated fragments that allude to the complex interaction between the photographer and subject and explore the synergy between the subject and environment.
A three-week trip in the spring of 1986 left me with a strong impression of both the Icelandic people and their surroundings. Physically and culturally, I have found few locations that have retained the unique sense of place that Iceland has. The visual reality of the landscape is dominated by the seasonal variations of the Arctic sun; I was overwhelmed by the extraordinary quality of this natural light. As a native Alaskan and avid mountaineer, I feel I am physically and visually tuned to the extremes of the sub-arctic environment. My geophysical background has given me a direct intuitive connection to the primarily volcanic and glacial landscape. I made this trip to visit an old friend working for the geologic survey of Iceland. He introduced me to a number of Icelanders who have since become close friends. It is through these friends that I will have an intimate entry point into the contemporary culture. Many of these people have extended families living outside Reykjavik, so I will also have the opportunity to travel widely around the island.
The Icelandic sense of independence has generated a strong artistic community that is both influenced by contemporary Western movements yet remains distinct from them. Many Icelandic artists extend the themes of Iceland’s traditional literary heritage, the Sagas, by presenting them in contemporary visual-art forms. Others, primarily painters and sculptors, are involved with more global political and human issues. The academic tradition is carried on by the College of Arts and Crafts in Reykjavik, where most working artists are also centered. While undertaking my own photographic work, I plan to engage in a collaborative exchange of Ideas with this established art community. To this engagement I bring my broad cultural experiences, my technical expertise in black and white printing, my own personal vision, and a willingness to share.
Art is a powerful unifying tool to explore and understand cultural difference. It also allows for direct communication unencumbered by language or politics. Without the personal and cultural exchange of ideas and experiences, Art becomes hollow and profane. To promote cross-cultural dialogue I would like to arrange at least one collaborative exhibition in Iceland. A more ambitious goal is to establish a precedent exchange of artists and artwork between the Unites States and Iceland. As a member of Avantiere, an actively exhibiting group of European painters and sculptors (I am the only American and the only photographer in the group), I have access to galleries both in Europe and the United States for this type of collaboration.
I hope to exhibit in Iceland the photographs created during this time as well as using them as the core of my MFA thesis exhibition at the University of Colorado in the fall of 1990.
portrait, Dr. Keller, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
