SPIRAL JETTY

Great Salt Lake UT | 2007

This documentary focuses on the ability of an infrastructure to amplify and make more legible natural processes occurring within a landscape. Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty utilizes the construction technique of standard stone jetties commonly found in industrial landscapes. Because of the spiraling geometry, as the salinated water migrates towards the center of the spiral, the brine is increasingly stagnated, causing the water to evaporate and densifying the salt. Correspondingly, red algae blooms intensify towards the center, reflecting the geometry of the industrial pier within a gradient of coloration. 

The observation that an industrial construct can increase the legibility of a natural process is further explored in projects for the urban environment, such as projections on the salt piles in Chelsea which make more visible the kinetic quality of the industrial salt landscape.

Sponsored by: 
Harvard University Druker Research Fellowship