Material Manifestations
What Do We Lose When Experiences Go Extinct?Â
by Chris DesserÂ
Over many years as an activist, attorney and artist working on environmental campaigns, Chris Desser began to wonder about the sensual pleasures that will disappear from our lives as more and more species go extinct. That was the genesis of her “Catalog of Extinct Experiences†— a multimedia installation at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center planned for the Fall of 2013.
“At its most basic, as we lose these experiences we lose ways of coming to consciousness,†Desser explains. “These things are all part of the commons — these experiences belong to all of us.
Some of the exhibits that she is planning for the exhibition include: images of endangered landscapes preserved in jars, like extinct species preserved in formaldehyde; recordings of soundscapes from rainforests, deserts and other threatened places; vials of perfumes made from endangered plants; honey flavored by various flowers, with empty jars for extinct species; commissioned and curated work from other artists.
