Open a Volcano

March 2020
Book design 
Material | wooden frame, paper
Size | multiple

a mountain

an extinct volcano

stands at the edge of the city

quietly, silently

a long time ago

in the Carboniferous Age

the volcano was still active

erupting day after day

further to the earlier

there was only a flat sedimentary layer

not until 3 hundred million years ago

in eruption after eruption

when the inner power of the earth

broke through the crust

did the volcano slowly build-up

at that time

before the early humans arrived

it had no name

a nameless volcano

on an uncultivated land

burst into life

一座山

一座火山

總是安靜的

佇立在城的邊緣

然而

在久遠的石炭紀

它曾經燃燒不分晝夜

或在更早以前

它只是一塊平緩的土地

日夜堆積形成岩層

直至3.5億年前

熔岩從地心衝出地表

一座火山終於聳立

此時此刻

遠古人類尚未誕生於世

它也還沒有名字

一座無名的火山

在荒蕪的大地上

不分晝夜

綻放

Arthur's Seat is an extinct volcano standing in the edge of Edinburgh city. It erupted around 340 million years ago, the landscape we walk across today was once lava flow. The rock strata of Salisbury crags is the place where has inspired James Hutton's theory of the Earth about the Earth-making process. Today in a geological site called "Hutton's Section", it's clear to see the Salisbury Crags sill was formed from a magma that intruded into older layers of sedimentary rock. 

The artist’s book project develops the geological section of Arthur's seat. In this section, the geological history of a volcano can be seen via different stratum, which is built up in eruption after eruption. Through this book, people can read the strata, open it, bury their own secret texts under the hill.

​

(The section I refer to is retrieved from Geological Survey of Scotland,

亞瑟王座是座落於愛丁堡市區的一座死火山。它活躍於在3億年前，如今的岩層植被都曾是火山熔岩的一部分。在王座頂峰附近的Salisbury峭壁，是曾啟發18世紀的著名蘇格蘭地質學家James Hutton的火成岩理論之處。今日在"Hutton's Section"依然可清晰看見峭壁的斷面，是由不同的岩層組成的。

​

這本立體書是參考亞瑟王座的其中一道地質剖面製作的。從這道剖面可以一窺整座火山最精彩的岩層變化，不同的岩層則可推知不同年代火山及風化活動。透過這本書，我們可以閱讀一座火山的岩層、打開它、並將文字埋藏在山丘之下。