Matthew C. Wilson
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Geological Evidences

Year2017
Duration10 Minutes
PictureUHD near-infrared and color
SoundStereo
SupportersThe European Commission / NEARCH Art & Archaeology and Jan van Eyck Academie

Drawing from genres of science-fiction and documentary and filmed entirely in infrared, “Geological Evidences” address the current uncertainty about the position and future of humans in relation to the earth and climate change. An unclear and unsettling relationship between past, present, and future haunts a landscape that at times seems like another planet, the contemporary moment seen through non-human eyes, or a post-apocalyptic world. “Geological Evidences” was filmed in Schöningen, Germany, in and around an archaeological excavation. The immediate area also includes the open-cast coal mine within which the archeological excavation is located, an exhausted and backfilled coal mine, a coal burning power plant and its waste-water pool, as well as a pasture with horses related to the Paleolithic wild horses hunted in prehistoric Europe.  Infrared radiation is emitted by the earth; it is trapped by the greenhouse gases; this, and the ancient drive for calories (heat units) led to filming in infrared.

Credits

Sound Design
Francesco Cimino

Thanks

Made possible with the generous assistance of Schöningen site director Jordi Serangeli (University of Tübingen / Senckenberg HEP), Thijs van Kolfschoten (Leiden University), Wolfgang Mertens (University of Tübingen), Andre Ramcharan (Leiden University), and Ivo Verheijen (PhD candidate, University of Tübingen); as well as the Schöningen excavation team; the 2016 and 2017 field school-team from Leiden University; paläon – Research and Experience Centre Schöningen Spears; Leiden University Faculty of Archeology; and Monique van den Dries (Leiden University). Additional thanks to Lex ter Braak, Huib Haye van der Werf, and Tim Rutten.