Rock Collection

Wild Times merged 3D printing and a 2,680-mile thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (from Campo, Mexico to Manning, Canada) as a means of meditating on wild landscapes –  both geographic locations as well as the terrain of our psyche. I was particularly interested in the correlation between our shrinking untamed wildlands (only 3% of the contiguous US is considered wildland) and the intense pressure to mine our experiences for social media – to make our inner world “productive.”

Throughout my 5.5-month hike, I sent photos, 3D files, blog posts, Instagram posts, and related public programming to a series of five West Coast museums and art venues, where the transmissions were printed, installed, and shared, evolving into cumulative exhibitions.

Each day I hiked, I “collected” a rock using a photo app on my phone. These images were converted into 3D mesh files, which I then transmitted to the museums I was working with. The museums printed the files, live in the gallery using 3D printers, in colors coded to the elevation at which I found the rocks. Over the course of the hike, this pile of rocks evolved into a colorful cairn, a sculpture, and a map of my journey.