Punctuated Equilibrium (2020)
50″ x 7″ x 6″
glass, wood, microcontroller, light

Looking back on a life, certain memories stick out in contrast with large periods of unremarkable repetition. In evolutionary biology the sudden appearance of species in this way is explained by punctuated equilibrium theory (in contrast with that of gradualism, where change is slow, constant, and uninterrupted). Our window into records of past life is maintained in the fossil record, which is constrained by preservation of and access to rocks of varying ages.

Punctuated Equilibrium 2 imagines the physicalization of a person’s memory of their life through this lens, taking their memories and contracting them into a mountain range of glass. Each layer represents a moment, which when aggregated with the rest, yields a complex block of uplifted and eroded relationships. In the oldest part of the range, on the far left, novel and colorful pieces abound, but with age the predominance of clear, uninterrupted strata becomes apparent.

Viewership of this accumulated experience is informed by the random acceleration and movement of a light beneath that mountain, traversing forward and backward through time, reflecting the subject’s conscious reminiscence.