The Eriskay Connection, ISBN 978-9492051998, English, 108 pages, 2023, The Netherlands

This pocket-sized book, which was partly crowdfunded, is the documentation and analysis of a research process. Cornford (interviewed in Neural #72), during his time as an Earth Art Fellow at Bristol University, when he decided to melt his phone in a geological furnace at high temperatures (up to 1500°C). He then processed the resulting pieces, photographed them under a microscope and analysed the elementary composition. The result is what he calls a “speculative technofossil”. The book consists of three image chapters: C1olour microscope images of the molten samples, four-panel inserts showing some of the samples, and SEM images with notes on the analysis of their composition. It also contains three essays: Siobhan Angus talks about the historical relationships between photography and fossilisation, geologist Jan Zalasiewicz speculates on the possible future remineralisation of rare earth metals from modern electronics, and the author himself links the smelting of metals in furnaces to the practise of waste incineration and to the volcanism that is continually reshaping the Earth’s crust. The scientific process does not necessarily mimic the predicted petrification of these parts in the lithosphere, but it does provide a vision and understanding of this sheer materiality behind our shiny screens that are meant to last a very long time.