For my project, I want to explore oil shale, specifically its extraction as well as the renaturation afterwards in my hometown in in the Swabian Alb. Through my photographic practice, I aim to start engaging with the site spatially and visually, identifying traces, patterns as well as structures, and uncovering connections and interrelationships within the landscape, the mining area, the surrounding village, and the restoration zones. During this process I want to delve into the subject matter of oil shale, ecologies, and ecosystems to gain an understanding of the interconnections and patterns. I want to understand the idea of an idyll and the feeling of untouched nature (which is not what there is at all) and how that comes together in the industrial aesthetic of the mining area.
This will hopefully come from the artistic and theoretical input I hope to gain from the course as well as from and with local people I want to connect with to gain a broader understanding of the place and the organisms that inhabit it.
At the moment, I envision a conceptual presentation of a sort of cartography made from my photography series I’m attempting to create this semester. The visual and conceptual presentation should be informed and shaped by the research I will be doing.
Artistic references I find interesting (coming a lot from photography but also mixing it with other media/Media Art):
Susanne Kriemann, Eric Meier, Alina Schmuch