A zoologist turned artist is using 3D printing, CT scans and
laser technology to explore the strange and beautiful hidden depths
of the ancient Jurassic Coast's geology.
Focusing on the umbrella concept of hidden inner change, Simon Ryder is
creating a series of installations to be exhibited during the
Cultural Olympiad along the 180 million-year-old stretch of
"I started to work with this idea of something that keeps its
shape, but changes what it's made up of," Ryder told Wired.co.uk.
Not surprising, since his inspiration was the Jurassic Coast, and in particular the scenic Portland Bill
headland south of Weymouth, a place abundant with pseudomorphs --
minerals altered internally through a chemical or structural
process that retain their original shape. Psuedomorph literally
translates as "false shape" in Latin.
At its basest level, the concept uses technology to engage with
the physical manifestation of history -- a 3D printed CT scan of the ancient Portland "roach" stone, a
type of Jurassic limestone indigenous to this part of the UK, is
one of the central pieces. How the rock came to be, the manner in
which Ryder manipulated it and the resulting image come together to
create a novel cross-section of past and present,
First off, the stone had to be reshaped into a 10cm-diameter
cylinder -- the optimal shape for the CT scan. Portland Stone has
been hauled from the coast and used in cities across the UK through
the ages, including religious institutions such as St Paul's. With
this in mind, Ryder took the raw rock to Gloucester Cathedral where
a traditional stonemason worked it into shape by night -- just for
a little added drama. The resulting sounds, a myriad of 15
different tools working away in a building with a seven-second
resonance, have been integrated into a piece of music specifically
composed for the exhibit. Having used traditional craftsmanship in
a historical venue, the smoothed out stone was then taken to
Southampton University where a CT scanner picked up its
extraordinary internal construct.
This type of stone is formed in warm, shallow seabeds where lime
mud becomes coated in calcium carbonate crystal deposits. Sand
and shell fragments stick to the calcite and lime mud and, after
rolling around the seabed, the Portland Stone we see today
materialises. The university scanner picked up where the
shells had fallen out of the ancient stone, leaving vacant swirls
and trapped air.
"Using the scanner we turned these spaces into animation," says
Ryder. "No one has ever done it before -- it looks like a swirling
cloud of shells, but is actually pockets of Jurassic air left
behind. To complete the process, I'm taking a scan of the air
pockets and printing it in 3D. It's the contemporary completion of
the Jurassic process."
Ryder is also scanning and 3D printing a 10,000-year-old
microlith -- a tiny shard of chert or flint, painstakingly
fashioned and stuck to the end of wooden sticks to create fishing
The other main element of the exhibit is the "Race". This is
where local folklore comes into play in Ryder's series -- a much
more recent history filled with fishermens' tales of the almost
solid path carved offshore by a passage of currents.
"I came across a reference to the famous Marie Stokes, who was a
resident of the island. It said she wanted her ashes spread along
the Race. It caught my attention, the idea that the Race was
referred to as a solid place. It has a very strong presence in
local history and culture. That's what got me interested."
The Race is in fact an area either side of the tip of Portand
Bill where opposing tides meet in a maelstrom of currents -- the
resulting rocky water is such a permanent fixture that it is often
depicted on nautical maps as a geological form. As such, it fit
perfectly into Ryder's idea of hidden change -- all is not what it
seems under the water's surface off the Jurassic Coast.
Having already taken aerial laser Lidar (light detection and ranging) scans of the Race, Ryder
decided he would have to experience it himself if he were to
replicate it in an art gallery.
"Today was the very human element of the work," Ryder told
Wired.co.uk after a morning spent battling the waves. "I wanted to
complement the science with the very human -- you often read
scientific field work, but the reality is usually very different.
It really is a solid place, I've never been in a sea like it. It
feels like rock, the way the currents are working -- one metre off
in cold water, you're suddenly in it. I'm just glad just we had a
very good captain."
Ryder fixed a small waterproof camera to the raft, and when he
had reached the Race, he let it wash out, filming the passage as it
went. The current was so strong, it ended up washed up on a beach
Using hydrophones, Ryder was able to listen to the sounds of the
Race in real time. "It's quite strange, because there you are, in
the middle of nowhere, but it seems just like being on motorway --
you could hear fishing boats a mile away." The sounds will be
merged with the Gloucester Cathedral recordings to create the final
Together, all three elements present a strange storyboard
depicting how the ancient land at Portland Bill came to be, how man
and nature have changed it, and the endless possibilities posed by
modern technology to infiltrate it.
The ExLab and
b-side-funded project will
display from 27 July until 9 September at Portland