casper johnson A proposal for a site-specific art work to be carried out during July/August 2000 for Estacio 2000.

The artist studied Archaeology and Geology at Bristol University (UK) before studying Fine Art at the University of Barcelona. He works for University College London and the University of Sussex.

Background

Archaeology allows one to see and touch time. For the archaeologist the past exists in the form of material objects joined in complex physical relationships. Each identifiable physical unit or interface is a context for an event in the past. The archaeological process, as field technique, requires the definition and potentially the destruction of a series of physical contexts in order to tell a story of the human past. In the process a parallel physical archive is produced with the excavated physical relationships transformed into drawn, written and digital data. The original complexity can be expressed in the form of a matrix. From this basis many different stories can be told. During excavation stratified contexts are revealed and recorded one above the other. They are removed like skin, peeled back to reveal greater depths of time. Seeing, touching and understanding these physical units of time transforms the appreciation of the wider and apparently timeless landscape. It forces us to see change and see ourselves within time.

Aims

To create a site-specific work for the community at the Benifaillet Station which will expose the physical relationship between the Station building and its wider context and act as a focus for a shared sense of time.

Methods

The work will involve the selection and definition of a suitable site adjacent to the Station building, (Size dependent on location). Once defined the area will be cleaned by hand and all separate physical units will be assigned a Context Number and their physical nature and relationships described. When these have been fully recorded (written, drawn, photographed and levelled) the most recent physical unit or context will be removed by hand. Subsequent contexts will be recorded and removed in the same manner to the top of significant archaeological contexts or to a maximum depth of 1 metre, whichever is the higher.

Results

The result or outcome of the work will exist in three parts;

1. The excavated trench as void with sections revealing time depth,
2. The separated contexts removed from the trench and stockpiled (samples in plastic bags),
3. The site archive and matrix in the form of a record file, plans, sections, levels and photographs and any finds. The physical relationships of the excavated units will be expressed as a site matrix to be produced as a two-dimensional image. (see hypothetical example attached)

Conclusions

The community will be able to experience the process and the product of excavation. A new perspective will result which will be both unique for each individual whilst being shared by the wider community. The archive and matrix will remain within the community at the Station as a record of that shared experience.

Responsibility

The artist recognises that the archaeological resource is both unique and irreplaceable. If significant archaeological remains are encountered they will not be excavated.

Hypothetical Excavation and Section

Hypothetical Matrix