Growing Granite: The Recombinant Geologies of Sludge

Paton, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2790-7687 and DeSilvey, Caitlin (2014) Growing Granite: The Recombinant Geologies of Sludge. In: Making and Growing: Anthropological Studies of Organims and Artefacts. Anthropological Studies of Creativity and Perception . Taylor & Francis, Farnham, pp. 221-237. ISBN 140943642X

Abstract / Summary

This chapter examines the processes of material growth and transformation implicated in the working of stone. We begin in motion, with the movement of a saw through stone, and the movement of water over both. The chapter works through one of the authors’ – David’s – lived experience as a sculptor, sawman, mason and researcher at Trenoweth dimension granite quarry, near Penryn, Cornwall. Through extracts based on David’s fieldnotes from 2010–11 we follow the flow of material through the quarry’s spatial and temporal contexts, with a particular focus on how sludge’s movement weaves together embodied geographical knowledge and durational geological processes

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