Who is writing the chronicles of the planet? What are the tools and practices that allow us to read Earth’s changes? For many years, artists Giulia Bruno and Armin Linke have closely followed the Anthropocene Working Group’s (AWG) research on the geological evidence for the new Earth epoch of the Anthropocene. Earth Indices portrays both the natural landscapes from which anthropogenic sediments are extracted as well as the complexities of laboratory processes and the inscription devices they employ to transform the sediment into data that can be interpreted. For the exhibition, a multilayered archive was created that relates the anthropogenic traces in the Earth system to the emerging body of knowledge of a new geological epoch.

The navigable image map and PDF that appear here constitute an in progress digital publication resulting from the artistic installation presented at HKW Berlin 19.05-17.10.2022 and are part of the artwork developed and activated through commenting sessions with the scientists of the AWG hosted by Giulia Bruno and Armin Linke. Taking the installation as a starting point, this artistic archiving initiates a conversation with the process being undertaken by the AWG, as they work towards concluding their research and voting on a reference point in order to have the Anthropocene officially recognized as a new subdivision of the geologic time scale.

To view the image map, click on the interact button below.
To download the PDF in full, click the link at the bottom of the page.