Research Items

Entropy tears apart our creations. It is destroying what exists to make way for new growth. If we suddenly disappear, cities will gradually be reclaimed by nature. Life can pop up anywhere and adapt, even to a rough and chaotic environment. My current work is centered around the questions “What will the ruins of our civilization look like?” and “Which species will survive?”

Therefore, I research abandoned places and ghost towns. I am looking into patterns, into the ways that events flow from one to the next after humans have disappeared and into the means by which new things develop out of old ones. I study the dissolution of patterns, the destruction of matter and show an artistic vision of the future.

Ocean Beach erosion reveals ruins of old San Francisco

Time slips like sand between our fingers. Although that time never returns, you can witness right now a reverse process on Ocean Beach. The old times of San Francisco just came back through shifting sands that revealed mysterious structures like the cobblestone stairs and seawall near Taraval Street on the beach.

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Live fast, die young - Rhyolite, NV

There is always a uncertainty of outcome in life. Rhyolite used to be the third largest town in Nevada during the early 1900s. The gold rush settlement grew from a two-man camp in January 1905 to a town of 1,200 in two weeks, and reached a population of 2,500 by June. If you read through old newspaper articles of the Rhyolite Herald, you get a feeling of its glory days.

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New Life in Death Valley

Death Valley usually is just rocks, soil, and barren land. After the gold-mining boom in the early 1900s, towns were left behind. You find many abandoned settlements in the area. The ghost towns, and sandstorms in the wide open space of the desert are perfect for my research, but this year I was aiming for something else - I wanted to see the extreme rare wildflower blossom.

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