The Spell of the Virtual: from geological outcrops to virtual superficial philosophy

Roger F Malina 10 16 2024

Because of reading texts by Brian Burnham, Trudy Reaghan, Beverly Kleiber, David Hodgetts

Older rocks:

David Abrahm: The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a more than human world Vintage Books 2017

Ylem Rode the Wave: 1981-1986 by Trudy Myrrh Reagan

Brian Burham et al.: Outcrop conservation: Promoting accessibility, inclusivity and reproducibility … emergence of virtual geology

Virtual Geology

At a recent ArtSciLab Watering Hole, Brian Burnham introduced us to the emergence of virtual geology.

The technoskeptic in me listened loudly.

Traces

Trudy Myrrh Reagan: “Ylem Rode the Wave, 1981-1986: A Bay Area member organization that served artists using science and technology until 2009” (2015). Her article is an outcrop giving access to hidden recent history around Silicon Valley.

https://thesedimentaryrecord.scholasticahq.com/article/31901-outcrop-conservation-promoting-accessibility-inclusivity-and-reproducibility-through-digital-preservation

David Abram documents in detail how the invention of writing transformed what it means to be human.

Dante Hin-Gasco manifesto:” the culinary is never objective” led us to uncover the geological history of cooking:

The first recorded cookbook is said to be four clay tablets from 1700 BC in Ancient Mesopotamia.

Writing cookbooks led to gustatory geology.

Writing destroyed geological intimacy; Abram might claim.

Trudy Myrrh Reagan wrote on 2014-10-02 “YLEM Rode the Wave 1981-86 documenting the emergence of computer graphics which was a bedrock of virtual geology.

I met Trudy Reagan and Beverly Kleiber in 1983 according to Ylem rode the waves.

I first met Brian Burnham when I joined the faculty at UTDallas in 2012 https://news.utdallas.edu/faculty-staff/interdisciplinary-professor-embodies-blend-of-arts/

Brian was a geology student; Tom Linehan and I helped him become an Art and Technology student expert in virtual reality and gaming engines. Hence his startup in inclusivity in virtual geology.

One of his professors, Carlos Aiken, died the day after giving a talk at one of our ArtSciLab Watering Hole seminars.

Because of Carlos we were funded to develop data sonification as a way of understanding data otherwise.

https://bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/labs.utdallas.edu/dist/9/165/files/2019/09/ScotGresham-Lancaster_WaysOfListening_ArtSciLab_v1.pdf

Cook Book Lessons

As Dante’s manifesto emphasized, cooking lessons can/should be transferred to other activities in life. Complexity is not always tastier.

But Brian S. Burnham compellingly argues that virtual reality tools for geology has opened the field to all kinds of people who never went there before.

Accessibility to cliffs that cannot be climbed by humans.

To humans of all sizes, colors, genders and disciplines and ages.

He concludes: The time has never been more appropriate, and the tools never more accessible, to preserve outcrops and promote a more open and inclusive environment for geoscience research, education and training.

Maybe high tech can introduce new forms of ethics. My techno skepticism pauses.

Intellectual Outcrops

An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth and other terrestrial planets.[1]

Inevitably the word ‘superficial’ I interpret as a criticism of philosophical outcrops. But outcrops are also indicators of desirable pasts: Abrams argues that the technology of writing enabled human memory.

Superficial, just as the word YLEM makes no sense of the sensuous.

For some reason outcrops are part of the storyline of the artscilab. We are now working with geologist Robert Stern to develop other methods for detecting, understanding and reacting to emergent phenomena.

I will contact Brian Burnham today and see if I can accompany his field trip in Texas, to make philosophical outcrops accessible to all.

References

https://thesedimentaryrecord.scholasticahq.com/article/31901-outcrop-conservation-promoting-accessibility-inclusivity-and-reproducibility-through-digital-preservation

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/319/the-spell-of-the-sensuous-by-david-abram

http://archive.olats.org/pionniers/memoirs/reagan/Reagan-YLEM.pdf

High Performance Visualization of Multiscale Geological Outcrop Data in Single Software Environment https://www.earthdoc.org/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201412862

If you have nothing better to do listen to:

https://www.ojornalistaapp.com.br/chapter/85299670

Creative Disturbance

Ideas for Breakfast: Virtual Reality Geological StudioBrian Burnham just received his PhD in Geology from the University of Manchester. He discusses the field of sequence stratigrahy, a field crucial for understanding the changes of sea level in the past and interpreting current climate change sea level change. With Roger Malina he discusses transdisciplinary collaboration between the geosciences, computer sciences and art and technology.

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