Deep-Time Decay

About

Deep-time decay is a project concerning the spatiotemporal scales of the energy transition, and poses questions on the physical impact of technological innovation beyond our lifetimes. Exploring the aesthetic dimension of time through decay, this project aims to expand upon the meaning and materiality of infrastructure in the context of civilizational collapse. In this project, we fabricated a hydrogen infrastructure machine so that we could then observe its unravelling in deep time. The name of the machine is H.E.D.O.N.: Hydrogen Explosion Device for Ordered Noise. H.E.D.O.N. is constructed, used, deconstructed, and fossilized. Like a mummy, it will remain embalmed, to be (re)discovered. This fossilized machine is presented from the perspective of the deep future, such that the observer views reality with a distorted sense of hindsight. Reconsidering infrastructure from the perspective of deep-time requires shifting the frame of reference from the functional outcome to the material reality of a machine. By looking back at the present from the future, we aim to shed light on what machines really are, what we are doing, and what traces we will leave for our future selves to understand. From this shifted perspective, we reassess the value we place on its accomplishment of a functional end at the expense of other possible unknown effects. This reflection on scale leads to a design practice that is more aware of unknown relationalities and the knock-on effects occurring in design, both of which are typically outside the scope of consideration.