Insurgent Geology: Mineral matters in the arctic

Abstract

“Insurgent Geology” is about oil, fossils, power, and people. It is about blowing up pipelines and taking care of the soil. Shifting from deep time to speculative near future, it calls for both insurrection and geo-poetics for environmental and social justice in the Arctic. Projected in 2051, “Insurgent Geology” unearths past land trauma, speculates on the post-oil landscapes of Alaska, and investigates alternative geo-social practices and mineral kinships. It critiques geology as an extractive, neocolonial discipline and practice, where a novel geo-social classification and geo-ethics is proposed and alternative geo-aesthetics is explored through the design of “mineral gardens.” “Insurgent Geology” reinterprets the concept of the Site and Non-Site. A counter-exhibition is designed (the non-site), paired with a pilgrimage through the extractive landscapes of Alaska. Following the oil, the pilgrimage is connected by site-specific interventions designed along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (the sites).