The Aesthetics of Emptiness deals with an open-pit gold mine in Ontario, Canada.
The Aesthetics of Emptiness deals with an open-pit gold mine in Ontario, Canada. The research explores the topic of human made landscapes. Human activity is the reason for many active factors that influence geological processes and habitats on earth. Are such industrial landscapes part of our cultural heritage? The examination of this question also suggests defining a new category in the UNESCO World Heritage.
The expanding commodity trading and associated increase in value has led to the systematic exploitation of natural resources and landscapes. Consequently, these generated landscapes can be divided into two categories: addition and subtraction. The project examines the traces of former industrial activity. The scales, the patterns and the intervention of extraction itself are curated by contrasting connected spaces. The immensity, artificiality and the aesthetics of a mine is made accessible, whereas the architecture becomes the narrator for perception. Visitors are invited to experience this place from a different perspective.
2016
Anne-Catherine Jeanne Sonja Goebbels
Supervisor: Eric Sidoroff
