SUMMER 2014_A WORLD ADRIFT Part 02
_China


Projects


The Unknown Fields Division is a nomadic design studio that ventures out on expeditions to the ends of the earth to explore peripheral landscapes, industrial ecologies and precarious wilderness.


This year we travelled East to ride the waves of massive container ships and trace the shadows of the world’s desires along supply chains and cargo routes, to explore the dispersed choreographies and atomised geographies that global sea trade brings into being. These are the contours of our distributed city, stretched around the earth from the hole in the ground to the high street shelf. Consignments of the precious and industrial, raw and refined, mechanical and alive, drift across infrastructural seas on vast Panamax, Aframax and Suezmax from cavernous factory floors via huge ports like Shanghai, Singapore and Busan and through the bottleneck excavations of Panama and Suez. Our journey to Asia will took us behind the scenes of our modern world, cutting a cross section through the secret lives of products, where intense pockets of activity in wildly unexpected places supply cultures far removed with the fulfilment of their every need and desire.


Summer 14 Division Roster


Leaders: Liam Young and Kate Davies


Special Forces: Embedded photographer Toby Smith, Science Fiction Author Tim Maughan, Data Artists Sha Hwang, Programmer Dan Williams et al.


Photo Gallery by Unknown Fields



Rare Earthenware: Radioactive Ceramics Commission for the Victoria and Albert Museum
Unknown Fields Toxicology Lab_Summer 2014_China 40°39'50.5" 109°50'11.4"


Project premiere April 22nd at the Victoria and Albert Museum 'What is Luxury' Exhibition


While journeys to extraordinary places are the cornerstone of luxury travel, this project follows more well-concealed journeys taking place across global supply chains. It retraces rare earth elements, which are widely used in high-end electronics and green technologies, to their origins. A film, composed as a single panning shot along a planetary scaled conveyor belt, documents their voyage in reverse from container ships and ports, wholesalers and factories, back to the banks of a barely-liquid radioactive lake in Inner Mongolia, pumped with tailings from the refining process. To accompany the film, Unknown Fields Division have used mud from this lake to craft a set of three ceramic vessels. Each is proportioned as a traditional Ming vase and is made from the amount of toxic waste created in the production of three items of technology – a smartphone, a featherweight laptop and the cell of a smart car battery.


You can watch the full 'Rare Earthenware' film exclusively on our project page at the Guardian


Rare Earthenware by Unknown Fields. Film and Photography in collaboration with Toby Smith, Ceramics assistance from Kevin Kevin Callaghan, Animation assistance from Christina Varvia


To discuss the project and image use please email us here.


Rare Earthenware Film Trailer © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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The finished vases are made from the exact amount of toxic waste produced in the manufacture of 3 objects of technology- the smartphone, the laptop and the electric car battery cell. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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Unknown Fields collecting radioactive tailings material from besides the worlds Largest Rare Earth minerals refinery in Inner Mongolia. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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Radiation scientists test the toxic clay collected from the tailings lake and find it to be 3 times background radiation. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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The amount of toxic clay produced in the manufacture of a single smart phone is moulded into a traditional Ming vase form. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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A Chinese factory worker assembles the components of our tech gadgets along a conveyor belt that stretches from Inner Mongolia to a London retail store. Film Still © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields



Baotou Rare Earth Mineral Refinery tailings lake © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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The highly restricted Bayan Obo Rare Earth mine. The treasure mountain deposit is certainly the worlds largest and, as of 2005, responsible for 45% of global rare earth metal production. © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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A worker steams cyrstals from an industrial scale precipitator in a stage 1 rare earth refinery. The cyrstals contain an elevated concentration of rare earth oxides that are then further refined before a usable concentration is achieved. © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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A rare-earth refinery with centrifuges concentrates Rare Earth ore into industrial application before it is force dried into powder form. 76% of the world's rare-earth magnets are produced in China. © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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A metal-worker extracts molten Lanthanum and Steel from a forge and decants into magnet molds before they are polarised. © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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View from Monkey Island above the bridge of the Container Gunhilde Maersk as she loads with containers at Nansha port. 11.4 million containers processed annually at this port alone. © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields



Behind The Scenes of Technology: Voyage onboard the Container Ships
Unknown Fields Reconnaissance Team_Summer 2014_China 31°36'7.68" 128°32'31.22"


Unknown Fields developing an expedition to follow the unmaking of an object, travelling across sites stretched from the high street store, through the mega ports and shipping lanes of our global logisitics infrastructure, the factory floors of China and the rare earth mineral refineries and mining territories of Inner Mongolia.Unknown Fields has chronicled the landscapes behind the scenes of our modern technologies, from the point of consumptiuon to the holes in the ground where our devices and tech gadgets begin their lives.



2 days aboard the Gunhilde Maersk © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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Cargo ship, CMA CGM Blue Whale, arriving in Kaohsiung port, Taiwan en route to China. Image © Kate Davies/Unknown Fields


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Unknown Fields explorers stand dwarfed beside a Maersk cargo ship loading containers at Shanghai port. Image © Liam Young/Unknown Fields


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A specialist pilot climbs aboard the Maersk Seletar container ship to guide it safely into Ningbo Port. Image © Liam Young/Unknown Fields.


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From the deck of the Maersk cargo ship the vast container fields of Ningbo Port, China, stretch to the horizon. Image © Liam Young/Unknown Fields.



Behind The Scenes of Technology: Shanghai Mega Shipyard
Unknown Fields Reconnaissance Team_Summer 2014_China 31°14'5.7" 121°28'46.2"


Unknown Fields developing an expedition to follow the unmaking of an object, travelling across sites stretched from the high street store, through the mega ports and shipping lanes of our global logisitics infrastructure, the factory floors of China and the rare earth mineral refineries and mining territories of Inner Mongolia.Unknown Fields has chronicled the landscapes behind the scenes of our modern technologies, from the point of consumptiuon to the holes in the ground where our devices and tech gadgets begin their lives.



Shanghai shipbuilding yard © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields



Behind The Scenes of Technology: Shenzhen Electronics Factories
Unknown Fields Reconnaissance Team_Summer 2014_China 31°14'5.7" 121°28'46.2"


Unknown Fields developing an expedition to follow the unmaking of an object, travelling across sites stretched from the high street store, through the mega ports and shipping lanes of our global logisitics infrastructure, the factory floors of China and the rare earth mineral refineries and mining territories of Inner Mongolia.Unknown Fields has chronicled the landscapes behind the scenes of our modern technologies, from the point of consumptiuon to the holes in the ground where our devices and tech gadgets begin their lives.


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Scores of workers line the continuously moving conveyor belts of a Microwave oven factory in China. Image © Liam Young/Unknown Fields


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The components for GPS devices are assembled at a factory on the outskirts of Shenzhen. Image © Liam Young/Unknown Fields



Behind The Scenes of Technology: Yiwu Christmas Decoration Factory
Unknown Fields Reconnaissance Team_Summer 2014_China 29°24'21.58" 120°2'56.62"


Unknown Fields developing an expedition to follow the unmaking of an object, travelling across sites stretched from the high street store, through the mega ports and shipping lanes of our global logisitics infrastructure, the factory floors of China and the rare earth mineral refineries and mining territories of Inner Mongolia.Unknown Fields has chronicled the landscapes behind the scenes of our modern technologies, from the point of consumptiuon to the holes in the ground where our devices and tech gadgets begin their lives.



Christmas Card © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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In a Christmas decorations factory in China, young girls, paid per unit, feverishly glue and stich decorations to red felt Santa's hats and tree ornaments before export to an American department store. Image © Liam Young/Unknown Fields



Behind The Scenes of Technology: Yiwu Wholesale market
Unknown Fields Reconnaissance Team_Summer 2014_China 29°24'21.58" 120°2'56.62"


Unknown Fields developing an expedition to follow the unmaking of an object, travelling across sites stretched from the high street store, through the mega ports and shipping lanes of our global logisitics infrastructure, the factory floors of China and the rare earth mineral refineries and mining territories of Inner Mongolia.Unknown Fields has chronicled the landscapes behind the scenes of our modern technologies, from the point of consumptiuon to the holes in the ground where our devices and tech gadgets begin their lives.


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Yiwu is the worlds largest wholesale market, an entire city reimagined as a trade floor, consiting of suburbs of various objects. Somehow, everything we own has passed across the floors of Yiwu. Image series © Rich Seymour/Unknown Fields



Behind The Scenes of Technology: Inner Mongolia Rare Earth Mineral Mines
Unknown Fields Reconnaissance Team_Summer 2014_China 40°39'40.16" 109°50'36.12"


Unknown Fields developing an expedition to follow the unmaking of an object, travelling across sites stretched from the high street store, through the mega ports and shipping lanes of our global logisitics infrastructure, the factory floors of China and the rare earth mineral refineries and mining territories of Inner Mongolia.Unknown Fields has chronicled the landscapes behind the scenes of our modern technologies, from the point of consumptiuon to the holes in the ground where our devices and tech gadgets begin their lives.



Baotou Rare Earth Mineral Refinery tailings lake © Toby Smith/Unknown Fields


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In Baotou, Inner Mongolia, the worlds largest rare earth mineral refinery pumps toxic and radioactive tailings into an adjacent artifical lake. Images © Liam Young/Unknown Fields