Background info: “Visually altered landscapes”
“Oil-shale, termed as the only Estonian natural resource, has been called brown gold. It has been both the glory and misery of the area.
The processes in the beginning of the 20th century seemed to be progressive, as they for example provided the country with electric power. Yet the production of oil-shale started to change the appearance of landscapes. In the conditions of naturally flat plateau, the anthropogenic land forms arisen from oil-shale mining and processing, have become important landmarks(Lynch 1960; Pae et äl.2005) as they resemble a “mountain range”
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“The identity value lies in anthropogenic landforms created by at least three human generations and the recreational value .in the use of these unique forms in tourism (lda-Viru maavalitsus 2003). The Kukruse hill serves as an example of one of the first victories over environmental problems caused by oil-shale production: the ever-steaming hypergolic gangue hill known as "Kukruse volcano" was flattened in the 1950s 1960s. When the smoking stopped, air pollution issues were relieved in the nearby villages.” -Locality, Memory, Reconstruction.
Objective:
I’m interested in the Ash Hills ‘the moving mountains’ and how they reshaped geography, altered and still altering the significance of the land. Mountains are typically seen as symbols of permanence: solid, unmoving, and enduring unless acted upon. Yet here, they present a paradox. These hills and mountains are not static; they are active agents of change, embodying the forces of the Anthropocene and dramatically altering the landscape’s appearance over time. I would like to explore the contrast/opposites between what lies above ground ‘artificial mountains’ and what remains hidden below ‘mines’, highlighting the differences between the visible and the invisible, the mountain and the emptiness below.
Concept 1:
Solid Ghosts: Valuing the Remains
This concept begins with the ash hills we will visit, artificial mountains formed from the waste of oil shale extraction. These are not natural features of the landscape, but industrial residues, solid ghosts of the Earth’s burned body. What once lay hidden beneath the surface has been unearthed, combusted, and left behind in skeletal form.
PART 1: Material Analysis
I propose a study of the ash collected from various ash hills, comparing their elemental composition to one another. This process seeks to identify variations in the ash’s physical makeup, differences shaped by geography, industrial method, or geological history. What metals, minerals, or trace materials remain in these supposedly exhausted byproducts? What stories does the composition tell about the land’s past and its transformation through human intervention?
PART 2: Economic Entanglement
From here, I intend to calculate the monetary value of the ash, based not on function, but on its material content. Assigning a speculative value to each sample according to present-day market prices for elements like aluminum, vanadium, or carbon, I ask:
What is the worth of waste?
PART 3: Value Across Time
By situating ash within economic, environmental, and speculative frameworks, I ask:
> How was ash valued in the past
> How is it viewed today: economically, politically, and environmentally?
> Could its value change in the future: as resource scarcity shifts, or technologies emerge that reframe it as useful?
Ash becomes a material archive of human extraction and excess, and a potential commodity of the Anthropocene. Can in the future ash be traded like lithium, or reclaimed as a source of rare elements?
POTENTIAL OUTCOME CONCEPT: The Future Market for Ash
To extend this speculation, I propose a conceptual framework for a “Future Market for Ash” — a fictional or semi-fictional economic system where ash is bought, sold, or speculated upon like a raw material.
This could take a form as:
1- A satirical catalog of ash-derived products from a speculative future.
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2- writing prices directly into the ash hills using a stick — drawing commodity values onto the ground where the ash itself lies. These temporary inscriptions will mark the speculative economic value of ash samples based on their elemental composition and current market rates.
This imagined market highlights the absurdity of value itself, questioning how capitalism assigns worth, and what becomes valuable only when it is scarce, extractable, or technologically redefined.
These handwritten numbers are not fixed — they will disappear with the wind, footsteps, or rain, just as market prices fluctuate and the landscapes they depend on erosion. This act becomes a ritual of valuation, performed on a ground that has already been devalued.
Photographs of each price written on site.
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Concept 2:
Visual to Sound / The melody of the seen. (Punch Notation)
Using a hole punch system to create music box strips based on direct visual observation.
ex: Skyline outlines, Window patterns, Fountain silhouettes, Ash hills
>The punched card becomes a score of the landscape.
Played through a crank music box - results in a ‘haunting’ or accidental melody.
Sound Frequency to Notation / The melody of the unseen. (Ghost Frequency)
Create a companion score—‘what the space is whispering.’
>Using a contact mic or frequency pickup device to capture ambient sounds or sub-audible vibrations.
>ex: The hum of pipes, Vibrations from fountains, radio waves
Outcome could be paired scores:
One visual score (punch card from what’s seen)
One audio-derived score (based on hidden frequencies)
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References:
1- A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the World by Zhao Renhui
https://steidl.de/Books/A-Guide-to-the-Flora-and-Fauna-of-the-World-Steidl-Book-Award-Asia-0406434953.html
2- Francis Alÿs. "When Faith Moves Mountains (2002). Two decades later”
https://proa.org/eng/exhibicion-proa-cuando-la-fe-mueve-montanas-francis-als-textos.php
https://francisalys.com/books/WhenFaithMovesMountains.pdf
3- Carolina Caycedo - Serpent River Book and Serpent Table, 2017
https://www.afterall.org/articles/when-walls-become-rivers-carolina-caycedos-serpent-river-book/
4- Mycorrhizal interactions of orchids colonizing Estonian mine tailings hills
https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3732/ajb.95.2.156
5- Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule-11,000 Trees