Swimming in It (2012)
Mixed Media
The project Swimming in It is a site-specific exploration of the transition of a former open-pit iron mine and current aggregate production site into a hydro-electric pumped storage facility. The site was originally developed as an iron mine by Bethlehem Steel but was decommissioned after 30 years of production because of the incursion of water from the surrounding karst landscape. In the time since its decommissioning, the pit has gradually filled with water, trembling aspen and goldenrod have colonized the overburden, and the remainders of equipment have rusted into ruin. Soon the pit and overburden will be connected through the electrical grid to an entire province of distributed electrical objects that will move the water into the upper reservoir and back into the pit every day. This project creates two swimming pools within the pit which provide visitors with amplified material and physical access to the infrastructure of consumption which helped produce the site.
