Time Horizon: Intersections of Deep Time and Biographical Time on the West Shore, Stromness, Orkney

Abstract

What is the significance of a human life in relation to the timespan of the geological processes that shape and reshape the terrain under our feet? Here, we ask how we might think on a planetary scale while being grounded in the everyday, tracing the relationship between biographical time and geological formation. Examining social relationships through the materiality of sandstone, uranium, and concrete, this paper presents a collaborative deep time practice, realized through the iterative process of walking, reading and inscribing a specific site, the West Shore of Stromness, Orkney.

地质过程塑造和重塑了我们脚下的土地。在地质过程的时间范围内，人生的意义是什么？我们提出如何在地球尺度上、同时又立足于日常生活，去思考这个问题，去跟踪个人和地质构造之间的关系。本文通过砂岩、铀和混凝土的物质性去探讨社会关系，并通过步行、阅读和书写的迭代过程,实现对苏格兰奥克尼的斯特隆内斯西海岸的协作式、深层次时间实践。

¿Cuál es el significado de una vida humana en relación con el lapso ocupado por los procesos geológicos que configuran y reconfiguran el suelo bajo nuestros pies? En este escrito, preguntamos cómo podríamos pensar en una escala planetaria desde nuestra posición acostumbrada en la superficie, trazando la relación entre el tiempo biográfico y la formación geológica. Al examinar las relaciones sociales a través de la materialidad de la arenisca, el uranio y el concreto, este artículo presenta una práctica de colaboración en tiempo profundo, realizada por medio del proceso repetitivo de caminar, leer e inscribir un sitio específico, la West Shore de Stromness, Orkney.

Key Words:

• Anthropocene
• coast
• geology
• stratigraphy
• temporality
• 人类世
• 海岸
• 地质学
• 地层学
• 时间性。
• Antropoceno
• costa
• estratigrafía
• geología
• temporalidad

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to our project collaborators, Lourdes López-Merino, Tony Krus, and the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness. Our understanding of the West Shore grew through conversations with John Flett Brown, Carol Dunbar, Antonia Thomas, Andrew Hollinrake, Janet Yeung, Hoi Yeung, and Mark Edmonds. Our thanks also go to Ness Point Battery and Stromness Museum for their assistance, and to all of the participants in the Festival of Deep Time.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, “Orkney: ‘Beside the Ocean of Time’” [AH/N007182/1].

Notes on contributors

Richard D. G. Irvine

RICHARD D. G. IRVINE is a lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews, 71 North Street, St Andrews, KY16 9AL, Scotland, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. His research spans environmental anthropology and the anthropology of religion, examining deep time and the moral relationship between humans and their environment.

Niamh Downing

NIAMH DOWNING is Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Regent’s University London, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4NS, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research explores contemporary literature and its intersection with discourses of place, space, landscape, and ecology.

Anne Bevan

ANNE BEVAN is an artist and Curriculum Leader in Art and Design at Orkney College, University of the Highlands and Islands, East Road, Kirkwall, Orkney, KW15 1LX, Scotland, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research and her artistic practice engages with water, the sea, and environmental change.

Carina Fearnley

CARINA FEARNLEY is Associate Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies and Director of the Warning Research Centre at University College London, 22 Gordon Square, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research examines concepts of scientific uncertainty, risk, and complexity, particularly in the context of disaster risk reduction and early warning systems.