organised_atoms.mdwn (2399B)
1 **Organised Atoms** is an exploration into the nature of semiconductors centred on a series of workshops for families in Cornwall, UK – an area with a rich mining history (usually in the living memory of the participants). The project encompasses searching for and identification of crystals in waste on abandoned mines, and puts them to use by tickling them with cat's whisker wires to create point contact semiconducting junctions in DIY noise making circuits inspired by radio technology at the dawn of the semiconductor age. 2 3 A spin-off of the project - "Cornish Semiconductor Corporation", is an artistic endeavour to publish techno made with mine waste to raise awareness of conflict mining in the electronics industry. 4 5 Relevance to permacomputing 6 --------------------------- 7 8 Digging through an environmental collapse from the dawn of the industrial revolution, navigating mildly radioactive terrain scarred by arsenic and sulphuric acid to search for precious minerals the miners and 'bal maidens' (women workers who processed the mine waste) threw away provides a particular insight and humility regarding the situation we exist in today. Listening to crystals that formed 270 million years ago (each mineral creates different sounds, and the same mineral has different sounds from different locations) puts the frailty and impermanence of human civilisation into stark perspective. 9 10 This project is what is required after all the existing silicon has oxidised back into quartz. 11 12 13 Limits and challenges 14 --------------------- 15 16 As use as electronic components, these materials (pyrite, galena, chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite, wolfram and cuprite have been tested, amongst others) are extremely unstable and affected by changes in temperature, vibration and light. Much literature from the early 20th century on methods for their use has been lost, and this forms an an ongoing thread of research, along with practical circuits that expose and sonify their unique properties. 17 18 Whilst locally abundant to the point of this being problematic (houses containing mine waste in Cornwall are common, banks will not lend you money to buy them), it needs to be taken into account that these minerals, like all others, are a non-renewable resource. 19 20 21 Links 22 ----- 23 24 - <https://cornish-semiconductor.com> 25 - <https://thentrythis.org/projects/organised-atoms> 26 - <https://cornish-semiconductor.bandcamp.com> 27