Critics Page
An Accumulation of Events
Billions of years ago
Comets strike the earth.
2.3 billion years ago
Cyanobacteria cause The Great Oxygenation Event, one of the largest extinction events in earth’s history. Oxygen, a byproduct of cyanobacterial photosynthesis, accumulates, producing a toxic environment for oxygen-intolerant anaerobic organisms.
3.3 – 2.6 million years ago
Hominins create oldest known, recognizable stone tools.
2.58 million years ago
Pleistocene glaciation commences, beginning the current ice age.
32,000 years ago
A squirrel buries Silene stenophylla seeds in northeastern Eurasia.
10,500 years ago
On the slopes of an Anatolian mountain, a genetic mutation prevents wild grass seeds from dropping when they mature.
~1554 – 1558
The Popol Vuh—one of the few Maya books to survive Spanish conquest, colonization, and subjugation—is written, declaring that, after several failed attempts, the gods created the first humans out of corn.
1796
Twenty years after their steam engines’ first commercial use, James Watt and Matthew Boulton use steam-powered machines to produce all of Britain’s coins for the Bank of England.
1792 – 1819
James Watt attempts to heal his son’s tuberculosis through inhalation of newly discovered gasses; uses the same linkages from his steam engines to produce drawing machines, including a portable drawing machine to copy perspective; invents machines for copying sculpture, meeting emerging consumer demand for reproduced art.
1843
Anna Atkins self-publishes Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, at once the first book with photographic illustrations and the first significant application of photography to scientific study.
1859
Frederic Edwin Church charges ten cents per person to see his monumental painting Heart of the Andes, surrounded by tropical plants, which becomes a popular spectacle.
1873
Charles Darwin receives a copy of Das Kapital with the dedication “his sincere admirer Karl Marx, 16 June 1873.” Although Darwin only reads the first third of the book, he writes to Marx in October:
I heartily wish that I was more worthy to receive it, by understanding more of the deep & important subject of political economy. Though our studies have been so different I believe that we both earnestly desire the extension of knowledge, and that this in the long run is sure [to] add to the happiness of mankind. I remain Dear Sir Yours faithfully
(Darwin curiously and repeatedly uses the phrase “economy of nature” in his 1859 On the Origin of Species, reflecting the influence of the 19th-century philosophers of political economy Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus).
1946
Maize seeds are the first living organism to be launched into space and successfully recovered.
1970s
DNA structure co-discoverer Francis Crick refines the Greek idea of panspermia revitalized in the 19th century—suggesting that life on earth was “seeded.”
1982
With the help of volunteers, Joseph Beuys begins 7000 Oaks – City Forestation Instead of City Administration as a response to urbanization in Kassel.
2000
Bank of England issues £10 notes picturing Charles Darwin and a tropical scene recalling his 1832 travels to Brazil.
2007
Bank of England issues £20 notes depicting Adam Smith.
2011
Bank of England issues £50 notes illustrating Matthew Boulton and James Watt.
2012
A group of Russian scientists unearth and successfully germinate 32,000 year-old Silene stenophylla seeds from the Siberian permafrost.
2013
Voyager 1 becomes the first known human-produced object to leave the solar system.
2015
The editor and this writer make independent, unrelated trips to Brazil, releasing approximately 3.33 metric tons of CO2e into the atmosphere.
Contributor
Matthew C. WilsonMATTHEW C. WILSON is an artist based in Brooklyn who works primarily in video, sculpture, and site-specific action. He recently completed the MFA Visual Arts program at Columbia University and the Whitney Independent Study Program.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

Hell is a Place on Earth. Heaven is a Place in Your Head.
By Kathleen LangjahrMAY 2020 | ArtSeen
As COVID-19 continues to proliferate throughout New York City, forcing all art institutions to remain closed to the public, museums and galleries have been scrambling to convert their programming to an online-only format. A standout example of this adaptation is P.P.O.W.s current presentation, Hell is a Place on Earth. Heaven is a Place in Your Head.

Alan Sonfist: American Earth Landscape
By Norman L KleeblattNOV 2021 | ArtSeen
When you google land art one of the top options features two photographic examples: Robert Smithsons monumental Spiral Jetty (1970), perhaps the paradigm for the genre, and Alan Sonfists Time Landscape (1978). Smithsons earthwork is a massive and muscular transformation of terrain set in the vast open area of Utahs Great Salt Lake. Its image is quickly identifiable, iconic. Time Landscape is modest, non-iconic, and set in the heart of an urban metropolis.
Run Me To Earth
By Joseph PeschelFEB 2020 | Books
Paul Yoons new novel, his second, Run Me to Earth, takes place during the Laotian Civil War. While the Vietnam War rages on, Laos is engaged in a civil war between the Soviet-supported, communist Pathet Lao and the American-backed Royal Lao Government throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
Art, Activism, and the Environment in Puerto Rico
River Rail Puerto Rico | Editor's Message
Water issues have become one of the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century, and Puerto Rico is no exception. Although freshwater abounds, the islands streams and rivers are running dry, lakes are shrinking, and aquifers are being critically depleted.