A really quick post. What's changed in 3 weeks?
Not a lot.
New corrosion may be happening, but it's going so slowly that there's nothing really to show.
Thus, another rethink (or perhaps "threethink" at this point). I was so busy narrowing things down that I think I lost sight of the forest. The beach isn't one event, it's a system. It's sand, wind, salty air, wet times when the tide comes in, starkly dry times when it goes out. People kicking things around, burying them. It's dynamic, unpredictable. It's not a can sitting in a bucket of water on a countertop for a month.
So, my rethink: Make a soda can experience real beach conditions. A can should be drunk, crushed, shaken around in wet sand, shaken around in dry sand, tumbled, rolled, exposed to bright light, buried. Only by doing that will I be able to say whether it was a beach environment that causes a can to rot like those that I've collected.
More to follow!
That's a good point. Have you read about the beach combers over in Cornwall...the things they pick which have come across the Atlantic. I've just remembered in the flotsam and jetsam of my memory - this gentleman: Nick Darke:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074rj7
http://www.thewreckingseason.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Darke
Goodness knows how I've salted away his name. He sounds/sounded absolutely fascinating and I'd love to know more about him. I did read an excellent broadsheet article about him and I'll see if I can find it. Must dash..Haltwhistle Carnival beckons!
Hmm. Still can't find that article.(Frustration.) There are some interesting obits on him though...
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for these links! It's one of those fields of study where every time you learn something, you open up yourself to a half-dozen new questions & things to explore. A year ago I'd have never thought I could find oceans & currents & plastics, etc., so amazing. Now I'm spellbound.
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