Maker Faire Bay Area 2023
(1) Touch Deep Time; (2) Old copperplate engravings catch new light
Home: California, United States
(1) The layers of the “Geological Column” are pages of Earth’s diary, with the oldest on the bottom, newest on top. I’m collecting the first Geological Column of rocks formed during every epoch in Earth’s history. 41 different strata you can touch, from 3.4 billion years old to contemporary — more than 3 times as many as at Grand Canyon. Backed by a striking striped panel telling ages and what Earth and Life were doing in each epoch. Feel how Earth developed! (2) When copperplate engravings gave way to lithography in the 1970s, an astronomical magazine set aside its old pictures. I've polished them, and turned them into a mobile to catch new light.
https://www.everythingintheuniverse.com/touchdeeptime
Additional Project Photos
Maker
Norman Sperling
Astronomer. Editor, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, the science humor magazine. Many exhibits at Bay Area, Detroit, and East Bay Maker Faires. Long-time university and planetarium lecturer. More at: https://www.everythingintheuniverse.com.
https://www.everythingintheuniverse.com/What Inspired You to Make This?
The Deep Time of Earth's history is not the story geologists and museums usually tell. They concentrate on types of rock, the processes that made them, crystal shapes, the chemicals present, the economic value, the beauty, the colors. They show gorgeous specimens but warn 'Do Not Touch!'. I tell a different story: Earth through its many epochs. Each specimen's AGE is the most important. Every epoch outcrops somewhere. I research where, drive there, and select 5 softball-size specimens and 5 golfball-size specimens. By avoiding gems and fossils, I select 'just plain rocks' that nobody would want to steal — so 'Please Touch'. Here are the 41 layers I've already gotten; just 13 more to go.
