Sometimes they have evolved. Sometimes they have only appeared briefly and then mysteriously lost all their functionality and appeal. Obsolete technological objects, once cutting-edge, turn into modern fossils in the hands of Chistopher Locke. With a special technique, a mold made of a concrete-like mixture similar to real fossil stone, the phone becomes a Deferovoculae Circumdactylos wheel, a simple audio cassette becomes an Asportatio Acroamatis, a Nintendo Controller becomes a Dominaludus Nintendicus. Some of them have been replaced, others have disappeared: for each fossil, a card displays its scientific name, function and possible taxonomy. The symbolic speed of this modern fossilization, which normally takes place over millions of years, suggests that it wasn’t dictated by the selective mechanisms of evolution. These new fossils are not the victims of a natural process, nor of aggressive predators, but of voracious and uncontrolled consumerism. Despite the message this work tries to convey, the objects used by Locke were borrowed (and returned!) from Austin Computer Works: an electronic recycling program, whose processes, in turn, do not release any harmful waste.

Chiara Ciociola