Category Archives: decay

ABSTRACT, ART, climate change, compost, cycles, decay, enviroment, environment, FINE ART, herb, home garden, photography, plants, terrarium, Uncategorized

Revisiting Cycles: Composting the Prints

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So when I was working on the cycles project I made some C-Type prints of all photos I took of the jars.  Cycles had always been a project I wanted to go on for a while and it led me to create a small home compost jar for my kitchen waste.  Inspired by Matthew Brandt I decided to add the prints to the pile.

I added the photos to the compost on March 1st and pulled them out of the compost on the 5th and was pleasantly surprised by the changes in only a few days.  Large swathes of red are now apparent on the print, oranges and yellows are streaked amongst  the previously high key greens and browns.  The white has been stained in a great umber color.

Overall I am very happy with these results and will do it with the remainder of the prints.  I am very curious to see what may happen as the the compost continues to break down will different chemical compounds reveal themselves and effect the print.  Also the compost is extremely moist right now and I am waiting to see what will happen as it dries out.

 

ART, cycles, decay, enviroment, Uncategorized

Cycles Day 77: The Final Entry

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So this is going to be the last update to this project. I want it to morph into something new.  My friends are dying and I have not been able to help them.  The people I have spoken to believe its the sudden chilly weather in San Diego.  This is several day late I know finals are looming and I have not been able to get to posting.

There is still something poetic in this it is kind of a perfect life cycle beginning to end.  The ups and downs growth death and rebirth.

ART, climate change, compost, cycles, decay, environment, gardening, growth, herb, home garden

Cycles Day 70

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The 10 week mark…Still stagnant, not a whole lot of change in either jar at this point, and if anything the plants are looking slightly weaker again.  I made the decision to leave them in the growing jar for another week for two reasons.  I am hoping that next week they will appear stronger again and in order to get a good layout on the grid part of the project.  I did not like the grid that came out this week.

Again these jars appear to be reflective of life for me.  Existing in some sort of strange holding pattern with minor movements forward, but no complete collapse at the same time.  No leaps and bounds of change.  Maybe the transplant see big change is what they need to move forward.  Or maybe it will be the death of them.

ART, compost, decay, growth, organic, photography, plants, soil

Cycle Day 7, Amazing Changes in the First Week

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Compost Day 7
Growing Day 7
Together Day 7
Day 7

I have been monitoring the terrariums daily, watching for changes in the environments.  I tried to make some decisions on how i was going to forward with this, how often was i going to photograph them, in order to show change.  I decided weekly at the beginning of the project, but as i monitor daily I may adjust the schedule if something exciting happens and choose to photograph at a different time.

So the compost was significantly less volume in one week, and I already have some significant growth of the seeds.  I have not needed to water the plants at all the soil is still plenty moist as well as the compost.  This is very exciting and seems to be progressing nicely.

I realized in my last post I did not describe what was in the jars.

Compost Jar (from bottom up)- rocks, activated charcoal, organic moss, organic soil, orange peal (fresh and dried), egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds, yard waste green and dried.

Growth Jar (from bottom up)- rocks, activated charcoal, moss, organic soil,  basil seeds, purple basil seeds, chive seeds

The first layer of rocks, activated charcoal, moss, provide for drainage and filtering of the water that is in the environment.

The only thing I have done to these since the beginning is to mix the compost before photographing.  After researching compost in order to achieve best results you should turn the pile.