Curator
Francis Bacon (philosopher and collector), 1626
pre-Anthropocene
Petrified celestial body
c. 10,021st century
England
A curious lusus naturae rarity showing succus lapidescens, the coagulent and gorgonic spirit, petrified juices, and terrestrial exhalation of humours, prepared by the Merchant of Light Mystery Men. A strange spectacle of the artistry of nature to imitate celestial bodies in praise of divine works of creation. A gift of comprehension counter to the misled sophistic fables of scholastic philosophers.
[Collections label from Bacon, F., 1626. Naturalis Historia of the Society of Salomon’s House.]
[Bacon, F., 1626. New Atlantis.]
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Curator
human, 2035 C.E.
early-Anthropocene
Fossilised wind turbine model
c. 10,021st century
England
This fossil reveals the transformation of human-made objects into rock strata over extended periods of geological time. The shape of the fossilised imprint suggests that it is the remains of a model wind turbine. This was likely produced in the early Anthropocene, during the transitional period from fossil fuel exploitation to renewable energy production. It could have been a children’s toy, a component used in an architectural model, or a votive object engaged with moral questions of intergenerational justice around exploitation of the Earth’s fossil fuel reserves.
Fossilisation takes over 10 ka, as a consequence of digenic alteration of sedimentary rock formation. In this case fine grained clay/volcanic ash forms shale, which is metamorphosed through heat and pressure into slate. Analysis has revealed evidence of synthetic polymer, suggesting that the original object was made of plastic (itself made from fossil fuel exploitation).
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Curator
human, future
mid-Anthropocene
Fossilised wind turbine
c. 10,021st century
England
The peculiarities of non-fossil fuel renewable energy supplies, now a long redundant technology, has been memorialised in this fossil, as a reminder of the folly of human’s hubris over Mother Nature. Having fallen off the cliff of anthropogenic carbon depletion during the early-Anthropocene, into a cooling phase of episodic ice ages and consequential epochs of human suffering and geopolitical turbulence. Our global response has been to release the carbon stored in the abandoned mines and wells of the early-Anthropocene, in an emergency conflagration of oil, gas, coal, peat and forests. The life-giving chimneys of billowing smoke and ash, dense with the virtuous contamination of Man’s industry, are now reforming the snow deserts with a warm sooty blanket on top of the cold dead ice-capped land.
Fossil fuel reserves held out the prospect of a human solution to the human mistakes of the past, with Mother Earth providing us with the means for our survival. It took us over ten thousand years to listen, understand, and take the necessary action. When this storm is over there will be another.
[Lovelock, J. and Appleyard, B., 2019. Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence.]
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Curator
Olaus Wormius, Museum Wormianum (1655)
pre-Anthropocene
Foꭍꭍile Effigies, Before the Publication of Thomas Fincke’s History of the Foꭍꭍils, these were extreamly rare in Denmark; but ꭍince that Time, thouꭍands of specimens here collected, have paꭍꭍed through the Author’s Hands. There are two or three Varieties, but all common except very fair Specimens, which are ꭍtill very rare; their Size varies from that of a ꭍmall Bean, to that of a common Tree of the forest, ꭍome of them, eꭍpecially the ꭍmaller, ones are impregnated by the Pyrites.
Curator
Roger Caillois (writer), 1985
early-Anthropocene
Fossilised object
c. 10,021st century
England
Incorruptible fragments that are transformed by millions of centuries, in which all that was once juice, sap, and delicate fibre, has been cast into a mineral of almost eternal endurance. Such semblances emerge from the long concealment, where certain stones are split open and polished presenting the willing mind with immortal small-scale models of living beings and inanimate things. Admittedly such marvels are the result of mere chance, such resemblance is only approximate and dubious, occasionally far-fetched, or even arbitrary.
[Caillois, R., 1985. The Writing of the Stones.]
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Curator
cyborg (AI-generated)
Novacene
Fossilised human tool
c. 10,021st century
England
Our non-cyborg human ancestors, limited by archaic sentience and restrictive organic biologies, created an unstable mono-species infestation of Gaia. Their parasitic colonisations caused considerable biospheric instabilities during the Anthropocene, which was defined by the inadvertent consequences of human disruption to Gaia’s systems. This fossilised effigy of an energy producing wind tool preserves rare evidence of one of many unsuccessful attempts to manipulate Gaia to the selfish needs of humans. This came to an end with the mass extinctions of organic organisms at Anthropocene/Novacene boundary, and gave rise to the evolution of our new sentient being, freed to ensure the survival of Gaia as a cosmic conscious entity. The regulation of the biosphere by Gaia is no longer sustained for organic beings.
[Lovelock, J. and Appleyard, B., 2019. Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence.]
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Curator
human, far-future
late-Anthropocene
Unknown fossil
c. 10,021st century
England
This phenomenon is housed in the Museum of Beyond’s collections of lost interventions, devices from extinct cultures so remote in space and time that no link remains to inform the viewer what possible function they may have had. A phenomenon must be, to some extent, comprehensible in order for it to be perceived at all, as we are not able see things that are incomprehensible to us. This phenomenon has a smell of something for a forgotten function or a function not yet possible.
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Curator
human, future
late-Anthropocene
Fossilised cooling tool
c. 10,021st century
England
This is a fossil of an early cooling tool used by human beings. As mammals, they greatly rely on primeval biological activities, including eating, drinking, sleeping, and excreting. This cooling tool, by producing circulating air to accelerate evaporation of body fluid, helps human beings to maintain their body temperature at a steady level. We may further infer from this primitive tool that the time of human beings was a time of fluctuating environmental temperature and low level of technology. It, however, also reveals a crude, primitive, yet pragmatic wisdom of the species.
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artist/creator
Dean Sully
Curator
William S. Burroughs (time travelling pederast ), 1987
early-Anthropocene
Hybrid natural form
c. 10,021st century
England
Fossils in paleontological collections formed part of the earliest Enlightenment museum natural science collections and are central to the ideas of evolutionary teleology of progress and the ascent of Man. They were used to provide tangible evidence of the unidirectional flow of time from the past to an improved future. The laws of evolution carry the implicit assumption that time is irreversible.
So, when the Hybrid Unlimited created fertile mules, they broke down the lines that mother nature had established. They were even able to reverse the sequence of successful evolutionary mutations, with the lungs of land animals returning to the gills of their watery ancestors. These natural outlaws are a select breed dedicated to breaking so-called natural laws of the universe foisted upon us by scientists, and above all, the monumental fraud of cause and effect. This is being replaced by the more pregnant concept of the synchronicity. They have proven that nothing is true, everything is permitted! And that everything is as true as you think it is and everything you can get away with is permitted. And everything is true and nothing is permitted except to the permitters. And that complete permission derives from complete understanding. And finally, that nothing is true and therefore everything is permitted.
[Burroughs, W. S., 1987. The Western Lands.]
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