The Anthropocene Surge - evolution, expansion and depth of Vienna's urban environment

The term Anthropocene, a potential new unit of the Geological Time Scale, symbolizes the rising anthropogenic influence on the Earth System and the environment. The proposed project aims at looking at the growth of anthropogenic influence, the Anthropocene surge, in the urban environments of Vienna and it surroundings by classifying anthropogenic strata, evaluating geometry and topography of the
Archaeosphere, developing GIS-based 3D models and the evolution in time of different anthropogenic layers, geochemical methods to characterize the Anthropocene and the translation to Arts.
The main methods used are (1) sedimentology and geochemistry, i.e. trace metal enrichment of urban anthropogenic strata; (2) GIS-based mapping of anthropogenic sediments, its 3D-distribution in time using various existing data bases such as existing well register; (3) archaeology contributes to the data base and excavation data, providing sites for cooperate field work and sampling, and dating of different layers. (4) An essay film by the visual artist Katrin Hornek will accompany the research and digitalization process in Vienna’s multilayered underground which aims to re-frames natural and human induced shaping-forces causing social, geological and abstract environments to materialize in forms. Tension fields between growth and construction, deep time and leap seconds, analogue and digital mechanisms will build the ground to compile an intertwined narrative of urban environmental systems.