W. Benjamin Bray - 1000 Years

1000 Years - Simulation (w/ Mark J. Stock)

digital video of virtual simulation
160’ x 12’, 60 sec
2018

This massive display combines the flow and accumulation concepts presented in earlier works of the series. The surface and deep flow dynamics of “1000 Years - Tubes” were rendered as a 60-sec simulation, and the concept of accumulation presented in “1000 Years - Core” was integrated into the flow via a single point source.

The Meridional Overturning Circulation is the primary system of ocean currents spanning the entire globe, driven by temperature and salinity-dependent instabilities, and large-scale wind patterns. Cold, salty water is more dense than warm, fresh water, and when you have this vertical instability in the water column, you have overturning. A complete overturning of the entire world's oceans occurs in ~1000 years, the same time scale over which human activity affects the Earth in the Anthropocene.

The "deep" domain of the ocean, according to many ocean scientists, is below 200m. This is the depth to which photosynthesis can be sustained - the deepest direct influence of natural illumination from the surface (the Sun). In the context of global climate, the deep ocean is the most dominant reservoir of heat on Earth, a density-driven, multi-layered network of flows connecting the polar regions. The deep ocean is essentially unfathomable, a vast commons for doubt, where our relationship oscillates between rigorous debate and detached ambiguity. Like the Arctic and the Antarctic, it affects innumerable downstream climatic changes, but is far more difficult and expensive for scientists to explore and sense directly. And so, it remains a hiding place - a dark, massive, subconscious presence that lies outside the domain of what society generally perceives as under its control or as its responsibility.

Relative to human activity, however, the ocean isn't deep at all. If there were an "Anthropic Zone" in the ocean defined by the depth to which humans affect ocean chemistry and habitat, it would extend all of the way to the bottom. And because so much of the ocean is dark, we don't see the profound depths of humanity's influence. The ocean is deep relative to our knowledge of it, but also shallow relative to our influence.

+

1000 Years - Tubes and Core

borosilicate glass, blown glass, saltwater, espresso, ocean sediment
3.04m x 44mm
2017

This is 1000 years - long, wet, salty and stinky, and sealed-up in 1.52m borosilicate tubes. One tube depicts the Meridional Overturning Circulation full of wet, salty and stinky flowing poop, and the other a layered collection of wet, salty and stinky poop at a single location.

The Meriodional Overturning Circulation is a system of ocean currents spanning the entire globe, driven by temperature and salinity-dependent instabilities, and large-scale wind patterns. Cold, salty water is more dense than warm, fresh water, and when you have this vertical instability in the water column, you have overturning. A complete overturning of the entire world's oceans occurs in ~1000 years.

This is the same amount of time represented by the accompanying long, wet and stinky sediment core. Oceanic detritus that's heavy enough and isn't recycled through ocean biochemistry eventually settles to the bottom, creating layers of sediment reflecting changes in the biogeochemical dynamics of the water column over many years. Sedimentation rates very considerably throughout the ocean, and in the Southern Ocean just west of Palmer Land, Antarctica, the sedimentation rate is approximately 1.52mm/per year, or 1.52m per millennia, the same length as the glass tube containing wet and stinky flowing poop.

1000 years is the time scale on which human activity affects the Earth in the Anthropocene. We can't see the depths of humanity's influence at this time scale, but if we could, it would probably look like poop.

FULL TEXT (PDF)

+

1000 Years - Tubes (detail)

archival pigment print
2017

+

1000 Years - Tubes (detail)

archival pigment print
2017

+

1000 Years - Tubes (detail)

archival pigment print
2017

+

MOC - Surface and Deep Flows