They propose Making Time through volcanoes, alongside science and engineering, learning from ideas in origin of life studies – OOL – or Abiogenesis: materiality expressing agency and life. Novel material engineering in the geological and biological –acknowledging geological matter as the political object is it, in this case through the lens of the volcanic. Cross disciplinary questions they’ll address across research in all networks of this project include: What makes geological material political? What conditions give rise to abiogenesis? What materials of volcanic activity are used for climate remediation? Can volcanic materials be incorporated into sustainable sculpture practice rooted in queer, sick, feminist, de-colonial, intersectional social justice, and environmental care? Can they make like a volcano? 

Bio

Rachel Pimm is a UK research-based artist who works with words, objects and photography to trace origins and tell material stories with a focus on the animal, vegetable and mineral as they transform. They look to ecology for the political, feminist, decolonial, the sick and the queer. Recent work, most often collaborative, has been in programmes including Artangel’s Afterness, The Serpentine Galleries, and Whitechapel Gallery. Residencies include Loughborough University Chemical Engineering, Gurdon Institute of Genetics at Cambridge University, Rabbit Island, Michigan, USA, and as Whitechapel Gallery Writer in Residence 2019-20. They are Associate Lecturer at Camberwell College of Art and have a forthcoming exhibition with Arts Catalyst in Sheffield.