Text reads:
Calthemitic Sticky Thinking
MA Contemporary Art & Archaeology, University of the Highlands & Islands Final Project
Trans-life collaboration with matter as mentor.
Calthemite, a pseudo-karst also termed ‘urban stalactite’ – ‘grows’ under aged concrete urban architectures. In response to pollutive airborne particulate found in them, this study investigates calthemite ‘archaeologists of airs’ as creative collaborators and mentors.
Ideas of affective and creepy lithic agency draws on Jane Bennett’s vital materiality(1) and Mark Fisher’s interpretation of the uncanny(2.) The weird and creepy signposted speculative approaches to exploring contemporary archaeologic space by creative art archaeology practice.
Attempts were also made to respond to needs for humility in ecological understanding, navigate different vulnerabilities produced within the trans-life collaboration, and uncover calthemite pasts within urban and cement production landscapes.
The outcome: a deck of 16 awareness cards and a booklet, suggests serendipitous prompts can filter research archives and widen human consciousness to lithic being in trans-life collaborations.
1. Bennett, J. (2010) Vibrant Matter: A political ecology of things. Durham: Duke University Press.
2. Fisher, M. (2016) The weird and the eerie. London: Repeater Books
Images: 3D Polycam scan of calthemite on Coventry Canal Basin Footbridge, High res scan of calthemite deposit on a maple leaf. Collected in Coventry, May 2024, and mentorship meeting (with calthemite in Coventry, March 2025.