Ore

experimental film, installation, photographs, 2018

ORE is an experimental film about the appropriation of the planet by humans. Using the example of large mining areas, such as the Styrian ore mine (Erzberg) and the Japanese sulphur mine in the Hakone region, the film aims to make the transformation of nature and the process of mining work tangible. The British philosopher Timothy Morton coined the term "hyper-objects "* to describe things that survive space and time, such as climate change, capitalism, a black hole or an oil field. Hyperobjects explore the commonalities of entities that are characterized by large spatial and temporal dimensions. ORE is an approach to such a hyperobject that goes beyond all calculations. The effects of mineral extraction on ecosystems and the human body are still very unclear scientifically, which led me to consider mining as a kind of hyper-object that defies the limits of our traditional thinking. ORE explores relationships between minerals, the miners, the human body, the landscape, noise, rare earths, the economy, consumer forces, territorial and technical desires, and the products of our digital age.
(Claudia Larcher, 2018) 

* see Timothy Morton - Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World, University of Minnesota Press, 2013