Acid Art: An Artist Uses Mine Drainage, Dissolved Electronics, and Other Pollutants as Paint
This morning Wired Science posted a fascinating Q+A with San Francisco-based geologist-artist Dave Janesko, who creates works of art by intervening in natural--and unnatural--environmental processes. Using acid runoff from mines (above) and the fumes created by electronic components dissolving in electrified salt and vinegar, Janesko doesn't just capture geologic processes but, in his words, "collaborates" with them to create visual art. Janesko isn't some eco-artist trying to ram an enviro-agenda down viewers' throats, but rather an observer who has spent a lot of time thinking about how humans and the planet interact. And, as mentioned above, his art isn't passive; he creates it by getting actively involved with his media, plunging watercolor paper into polluted streams and manipulating the iron-reddened sediment to create the effect he wants, or dissolving discarded electronic components in a carefully prepared bath so that the evaporated toxic stew creates color on his canvas (below). The Q+A on...