2016 / writing
In 2017, Terraform published an installment of The Great Sublimation, titled Dust As. It was a brief entrance into a speculative world of circuits, elements and memory told through translation and observation. The story extends beyond Dust As in important ways; what follows is a two part continuation that addresses unresolved questions. The series provides a world-making narrative of life and form. It explores the link between the materials of a planet and the conditions of possibility for artificial life. It connects the consciousness of Atad, a mysterious life-form, to the specific materials they are made from. Through Atad, a world is discovered. Is the world outside or inside Atad? Is it synthetic, organic, or an unknown dimension of being? The real question this story poses is whether language itself can adequately depict what it aims to represent and what this might mean for Atad and other concepts of life.
– Brian Merchant, Contributing Editor of Vice Terraform
Dorothy R. Santos, Ph.D. 