Evolutionary biologist Mike Dickison, surveying the nearby R. G. Findlay Reserve.
A series of wonder walks are being developed for visitors to enjoy. These are walks which create a physical way to explore ideas such as the massive scales of space and time which we find difficult to comprehend. In the current work, a walk through geological time has been proposed as a locally-driven sculpture trail project. Please see below for more details.
Various workshop opportunities also form part of House of Wonder activities. These include the below communal workshops to explore ideas and develop installations, and smaller on-demand workshops for visitors on retreat. Please check back here for more details on these shortly.
Walk Workshops – Developing A Walk Through Deep Time
From the early periods of the timescale – a thecate dinoflagellate species of the genus Protoperidinium in dorsal view showing the thecal plates (SEM). © Mona Hoppenrath
We exist largely within a human scale of time. Days, weeks, months, years and lifetimes. Maybe the previous century or two has some relative clarity to us in our imaginations. Rarely do we cast our minds into the awesome expanse of deep time to try to comprehend the timescales associated with existence of the earth, or of the universe. Densely complex and difficult to comprehend in it’s vastness and complexity, their contents remains mysterious and unknown to most.
A series of workshops are being held on this project to which all are invited. Come join us to design & develop a sculpture walk through deep time. Scientists, artists, and others with relevant knowledges to particular topical angles within the over-arching topic of geologic time, will be invited to each workshop.
In the inaugural workshop in September 2011, we discussed implications of timeline design in terms of scale, placement, direction, dimensions, were discussed. Delving into the periods of the earth’s formation, the evolution of life, and the many possible layers of meaning with the evolutionary biologist Mike Dickison, a simple timeline was laid out along a farm fenceline on the Miranda property.
In the second workshop in November 2011, the crossovers of energy and adaptation were more deeply explored. An interdisciplinary discussion was held as we walked along the fenceline, creating a cross-pollination of ideas, as knowledges from amongst geologists, biologists, ecologists, astronomers, artists, philosophers and representatives of non-western cultural perspectives emerged.
Further workshops have since been held as part of the Splore music and art festival in February 2012, and as part of the SCANZ 2013 wananga-symposium at Owae Marae in Waitara, Taranaki. In these walks, we wish to focus on drawing out different cultural as well as scientific perspectives on ‘Deep Time’ and the formation of life on our planet.
Please contact us if you have any questions.