info
google maps scr
eenshot of paths between 8 bogs
inf
o
44,320
is the
st
ory of 8 bogs.
These spong
y piec
es of e
arth c
ont
ain ma
tt
er from t
ens of thousands
of ye
ars ag
o and dis
tinctive his
t
ories. V
arious cultures have used the bogs as sourc
es of ener
gy
,
medicine, preser
va
tion, and even sacrific
e. They have been the b
asis of shared
st
ories and
mythologies, and the sit
es of artis
tic ende
avors. Bogs remain vit
al
to
the e
arth, functioning as
carbon sinks, and t
oday are na
ture preser
ves and t
ouris
t sit
es.
The
st
ories in
44,320
came out of an equal p
arts frus
tr
a
tion and c
elebr
a
tion of our current
state
—
a nos
t
algia for wha
t onc
e was [the e
arth] and an absurdis
t pursuit of informa
tion result
ed in this
pilgrimag
e
to
the 8 bogs. The resulting
st
ories c
ont
ain these bog his
t
ories, yet also tie them
to
diverg
ent m
at
erial, including memes, pop songs, politics, glob
al crisis, et
c.
The
st
ories exis
ts on multiple platforms
—in an 8-chap
t
er book
, an audio ins
t
alla
tion with 8
lis
t
ening
sta
tions, and this websit
e. They are nonline
ar
, and thus can be re
ad or lis
t
ened
to
in any
order
. In addition,
L
andsc
ape Piec
e
—a looping audio work in c
ollabor
a
tion with sound artis
ts Buck
McDaniel and Jac
ob Kirkwood—ac
c
omp
anies the 8 works.
Ple
ase c
ont
act me
at
chelsea.a.polk@gmail.com
for further inquiries
back
44,320
chelsea polk
This sit
e a
cc
omp
anies my MF
A Thesis E
xhibition, May 3-19, 2019
at
Massachuse
tt
s Museum of Cont
empor
ary Art
.
Thank you
to
Buck McDaniel
, my c
ollabor
ato
r,
and
Jac
ob Kirkword
(Buck
’s
c
ollabor
at
or);
Declan Malone
y
, for editing and voic
e acting;
Be
a Aldrich
, for visiting Ireland with me and int
er
viewing bog experts;
Cleo Miao
for building this sit
e;
Zhidong (
Jude) Zhang
for ins
t
alla
tion
support
;
Tim Wolf
for carpentr
y;
Dennis Svorono
s
for Arduino help;
Jona
than S
trick
er
,
Gabe Barbo
za
, and
Srin Chakr
avorty
for voic
e
acting,
John
St
einer
for audio t
ech support
;
Evan Swinerton
for
driving 7 hours with me
to
go
to
a bog;
Giorgi De
Vit
o
for c
oming with me
to
ano
ther bog; and of c
ourse, my c
ohort,
te
achers, and gr
adu
ate
st
aff
at
MassArt
.