What? How? Why? Rare Earth Elements
Title
What? How? Why? Rare Earth Elements
Description
Text included:
What, How, Why
It began there. That rock. What?
Black among the red and white rabble of a quarry,
Sparked a chemist one snowless Swedish day
Heavy in hand, and handed on.
Each geochemist’s encounter
A provocation, an innovation:
Another acid extraction to base precipitation.
Oxides so similar they’re mistaken as one.
At the frontier of chemistry, nights were long
And good for pondering
The drudgery of fifteen thousand refinements.
First named for the trouble,
Then named for the quarry,
And then for more trouble
Until the What was answered.
Now here. This field. How? Why?
Steel silviculture’s whirling blades
Flash shadows on golden thatch,
Current harvested by two ton magnets yoked below.
Transmission to millions
Sister elements hold the charge.
Rare earth from another hemisphere
Transposed with cash, a caustic pond,
Bamboo reclaiming and reinforcing the scar.
At the frontier of technology, days are indefinite
And good for pondering
The future of eight, nine, ten billion people
Empowered, connected, and stranded.
Refining our How
Until our Why is answered.
Justine Owen
Rare Earth Elements: Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium
La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu
Encoded in binary text:
REEs Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium
01010010 01000101 01000101 01110011 00100000 01001100 01100001 01101110 01110100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000011 01100101 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010000 01110010 01100001 01110011 01100101 01101111 01100100 01111001 01101101 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01001110 01100101 01101111 01100100 01111001 01101101 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010011 01100001 01101101 01100001 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000101 01110101 01110010 01101111 01110000 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000111 01100001 01100100 01101111 01101100 01101001 01101110 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010100 01100101 01110010 01100010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000100 01110101 01110011 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110011 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01001000 01101111 01101100 01101101 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000101 01110010 01100010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010100 01101000 01110101 01101100 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01011001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01001100 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110100 01101001 01110101 01101101
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. William Blake
01010100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01000111 01110010 01100001 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01010011 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01001000 01100101 01100001 01110110 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01010111 01101001 01101100 01100100 00100000 01000110 01101100 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 01001000 01101111 01101100 01100100 00100000 01001001 01101110 01100110 01101001 01101110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01100001 01101100 01101101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01000101 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110101 01110010 00101110 00100000 01010111 01101001 01101100 01101100 01101001 01100001 01101101 00100000 01000010 01101100 01100001 01101011 01100101
Alles vergängliche, ist nur ein Gleichnis? (Everything transitory, is nothing but metaphor? Goethe
01000001 01101100 01101100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110110 01100101 01110010 01100111 11000011 10100100 01101110 01100111 01101100 01101001 01100011 01101000 01100101 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101110 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100101 01101001 01101110 00100000 01000111 01101100 01100101 01101001 01100011 01101000 01101110 01101001 01110011 00111111
What, How, Why
It began there. That rock. What?
Black among the red and white rabble of a quarry,
Sparked a chemist one snowless Swedish day
Heavy in hand, and handed on.
Each geochemist’s encounter
A provocation, an innovation:
Another acid extraction to base precipitation.
Oxides so similar they’re mistaken as one.
At the frontier of chemistry, nights were long
And good for pondering
The drudgery of fifteen thousand refinements.
First named for the trouble,
Then named for the quarry,
And then for more trouble
Until the What was answered.
Now here. This field. How? Why?
Steel silviculture’s whirling blades
Flash shadows on golden thatch,
Current harvested by two ton magnets yoked below.
Transmission to millions
Sister elements hold the charge.
Rare earth from another hemisphere
Transposed with cash, a caustic pond,
Bamboo reclaiming and reinforcing the scar.
At the frontier of technology, days are indefinite
And good for pondering
The future of eight, nine, ten billion people
Empowered, connected, and stranded.
Refining our How
Until our Why is answered.
Justine Owen
Rare Earth Elements: Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium
La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu
Encoded in binary text:
REEs Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium
01010010 01000101 01000101 01110011 00100000 01001100 01100001 01101110 01110100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000011 01100101 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010000 01110010 01100001 01110011 01100101 01101111 01100100 01111001 01101101 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01001110 01100101 01101111 01100100 01111001 01101101 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010011 01100001 01101101 01100001 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000101 01110101 01110010 01101111 01110000 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000111 01100001 01100100 01101111 01101100 01101001 01101110 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010100 01100101 01110010 01100010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000100 01110101 01110011 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110011 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01001000 01101111 01101100 01101101 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000101 01110010 01100010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01010100 01101000 01110101 01101100 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01011001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100010 01101001 01110101 01101101 00100000 01001100 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110100 01101001 01110101 01101101
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. William Blake
01010100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01000111 01110010 01100001 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01010011 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01001000 01100101 01100001 01110110 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01010111 01101001 01101100 01100100 00100000 01000110 01101100 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 01001000 01101111 01101100 01100100 00100000 01001001 01101110 01100110 01101001 01101110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01100001 01101100 01101101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01000101 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110101 01110010 00101110 00100000 01010111 01101001 01101100 01101100 01101001 01100001 01101101 00100000 01000010 01101100 01100001 01101011 01100101
Alles vergängliche, ist nur ein Gleichnis? (Everything transitory, is nothing but metaphor? Goethe
01000001 01101100 01101100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110110 01100101 01110010 01100111 11000011 10100100 01101110 01100111 01101100 01101001 01100011 01101000 01100101 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101110 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100101 01101001 01101110 00100000 01000111 01101100 01100101 01101001 01100011 01101000 01101110 01101001 01110011 00111111
Creator
Jan Owen
Date
2020
Format
51 x 18 x 2.5 inches unrolled
Acrylic and sumi ink on 4 layers of painted polyester
Mounted as hanging scroll with linen cord
Box
Acrylic and sumi ink on 4 layers of painted polyester
Mounted as hanging scroll with linen cord
Box
Collection
Citation
Jan Owen, “What? How? Why? Rare Earth Elements,” All of Belfast: Climate Dialogues, accessed April 18, 2024, https://abcdbelfast.omeka.net/items/show/67.
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