Field Station 4: Confluence Ecologies

Illinois / Kentucky

Reshaping the Shape, © Andrew Yang

The Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers flow together in southern Illinois and in western Kentucky. Field Station 4 is investigating this region for further confluences and overlaps, such as addictions to opioids and to fossil energies, or the loss of “native” and the establishment of “invasive” animal species. Against the background of human intervention in landscape and ecosystem, the ethical questions of possible future geo-engineering and terraforming projects will also be discussed.

Members of the Deep Time Chicago collective will record the field studies using experimental maps, videos and multimedia documentaries and discuss the ecological-economic-technological infrastructures of the Anthropocene in public events. In addition to an exhibition that seeks to network local actors, paleological field trips explore the habitat of the Asian carp, a species of fish settled by humans on the Mississippi.

More about the work of Field Station 4