Mount Storm Syndrome

Abstract

First timber, then coal, now rare earths — a century-long cycle of prospect and plunder has cast Mount Storm, West Virginia as a sacrifice zone in the hinterlands of the Mid-Atlantic. Anticipating the growing venture of rare earth recovery from acid mine drainage, Mount Storm Syndrome challenges the singular role of the extractive landscape as one of material production, instead exploring how the symptoms of previous industry can be retooled to test speculative futures. The Mount Storm Field Laboratory carries this mission: proposing a series of field experiments that tap into the physical byproducts of past extractions — leveled hills, drainage ditch networks, and contaminated aquifers — to place emerging practices of rare earth recovery in dialogue with former timber and coal operations. In doing so, the thesis provides a model for working in rural, extractive landscapes that embraces the novel perversities of their physical and ecological condition as a cultural asset to communicate a deeper history of disturbance. Within the broader discipline, Mount Storm Syndrome pulls from topics of disturbed sites, toxic discourse, and industrial heritage.