No Pristine Nature

Extraction underpins everything from the materials we use to the systems we inhabit. This project began with a deceptively simple question: how can I source materials for creative practice in a way that does not perpetuate harm? In the extreme industrial landscape of the Riotinto mining basin in Andalucía, the author confronted this question. Provoked by local environmental scientists who proposed remediating the river by mining its metal pollutants, he engaged the site as both designer and prospector: sourcing copper as sculptural material while attempting to leave the water cleaner than I found it. This research interrogates the contradictions of environmentalism within the context of capitalist and the Anthropogenic logics, highlighting material literacy as a method for confronting the ethical paradoxes of working inside the very systems we seek to resist.