This artwork takes the geology of the Jurassic coast – 185 million years of the earth’s history – as it’s starting point.This sculpture was created in collaboration with two scientists; Sam Gibbs, a micropalentologist from Southampton Oceanography Centre, and mathematician Bjorn Stanstede from the University of Surrey. Together with a small group from the local community they considered the landscape around Durlston Country Park.

The title of the artwork, ShapeShift; landscape in motion, reflects the premise of the project that the landscape is essentially fragile and unstable, shaped by a range of environmental factors changing over the millennia, and that it is now shifting more rapidly. Our traditional sense of the landscape as more powerful than human influence has undergone a reversal with the widespread acceptance of anthropogenic climate change.

By analysing the microfossils which comprise the limestones and shales along the local coastline, huge climate changes can be seen. Over millions of years we can track how different species have responded to the changing climate as they come into being, evolve and become extinct. Their microfossils are part of the macro-shape of the coastline, and are amongst the factors that determine which rocks are hard and will resist erosion, which will collapse into bays and valleys. Ths data used by Samantha Gibbs determines the form of Shapeshift.