IN WAKE PART 1

Glaciers are one of our planets most important archives. Not only do they preserve organic matter such as plants and soil from the Earth’s past, but also air trapped within the ice ranging anywhere from 500 to 500,000 years old. This air contains important information about the progression and natural ebb and flow of our atmosphere. In light of climate change, these glaciers are receding at incredible rates, and along with them the important records that are held in their layers. To combat this recession of information, scientists drill into the ice to keep core samples in cold storage for further study to allow for additional data to be archived and analyzed.

In Wake creates a visual archive of the Pariacaca glacial range in the Peruvian Andes. At three points I have placed USB drives that have been waterproofed and cast in concrete that contain photographs taken from the exact location of the USB drive. The photographs, along with a text file translated into five different languages explaining the device’s function, are held only on these drives and will never be printed, published, or put online: they exist only where they were initially made. Through this action I have not only preserved a visual description of Pariacaca, but also the exclusivity of the space itself. In order to see what the glaciers looked like at that given moment, one must still physically travel to the location with a device that will read the USB drives.

The lives of the USB drives are finite. Despite their waterproofing and concrete casing, these drives will degrade over time and cease to function: they too, just like the glaciers, have their own mortality. There are no plans to service or repair the devices. Thusly they become a symbol of our actions towards our planet in the last century. Without proper care, they will of course lose their information and become worthless and dysfunctional.

Below each image on this page are the exact coordinates at which the USB drives were dropped, along with their elevation, and a photograph of them installed in the landscape. This information is offered as a map for those who so desire to travel and find the drives for as long as they exist: to compare the past and present side by side.

Dropped USB Devices

Drop Locations on Pariacaca

Drop Location #1
Coordinates: S 12°02.188', W 76°01.759'
Elevation: 14,642 ft

Drop Location #2
Coordinates: S 12°00.266', W 76°01.120'
Elevation: 15,374 ft

Drop Location #3
Coordinates: S 11°59.955', W 76°00.176'
Elevation: 16,482 ft