Display, ‘rock concert’ celebrate world’s oldest stone

Even though it doesn’t talk, the little fella has quite a tale to tell us, for this microscopic bit of zircon has been in residence on earth for 4.4 billion years.

As the oldest known piece of the planet in existence, the zircon measures no bigger than a grain of sand. Scientists at UW–Madison and other institutions have found evidence from the zircon showing that the earth of 4.4 billion years ago had a relatively low temperature, oceans, the seeds of land continents and other conditions conducive to life.

The zircon originated in “deep time,” a concept usually invoked to describe unimaginably great age. This piece of zircon will be on display for one day only, Saturday, April 9, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the UW–Madison Geology Museum. After that the rock will be returned to its native Australia.

The museum’s Stony Muse project, a cross-disciplinary program that looks at various aspects of geology/geophysics and the arts and humanities, has commissioned “The Rock Concert” to bring deep time into clearer focus and to celebrate the zircon.

“The music will play with meter and relationship to pulse in an evolving way,” says composer and saxophonist Roy Nathanson. “The rhythm section will be comprised mostly of rocks. They will be played live as well as triggered by a midi device and desktop computer. Text will be orchestrated throughout the piece and augmented by Greek-choral parts sung by this distinctly un-Greek band.”

Jazz Passengers, a band that has toured in European and North American, and has worked with Elvis Costello, Deborah Harry, Jeff Buckley and many other artists, will perform “The Rock Concert” on Saturday, April 9, at 8 p.m. in the Great Hall of Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St. Tickets, which are free, but required, are available from Joe Skulan, director of the UW–Madison Geology Museum, (608) 265-4274 or jlskulan@geology.wisc.edu.

Stony Muse activities are entirely self-sustaining, Skulan says. Donations are welcome.

In addition to “The Rock Concert,” the Stony Muse is joining the university’s Elvehjem Museum of Art to sponsor a lecture by acclaimed alternative photographer Michael Ware. His talk is scheduled for Thursday, March 31, at 5:30 p.m. in L140 Elvehjem Museum of Art, 800 University Ave.

Ware recently began working in chrysotype, a photographic printing technique that renders images in gold, conveying longevity to a photographic image. Ware’s work is probably the first chemically novel method of precious-metal printing to be put into practice in more than a century.

Ware is a consultant to the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, England, and has supervised postgraduate research at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art in London. His work has been shown in galleries and museums across Europe and the United States.

He will exhibit cyanotypes (a type of “sun print” in which the final image appears only with the aid of ultra-violet light) at the Elvehjem as part of “The Color of Iron” exhibition, opening Saturday, Nov. 19. Co-sponsored by the Stony Muse and the Elvehjem, the exhibit will include paintings in ochre by Saundra McPherson, ceramics by John Britt and glass by Scott Shapiro.

For more information about Mike Ware and his work, visit http://www.mikeware.demon.co.uk/#anchor1717978. For information about the Elvehjem events, call (608) 263-2246 or visit http://www.lvm.wisc.edu.