When I selected this piece, I was thinking about the writings of Manuel de Landa (specifically 1000 Years of Nonlinear History), wherein he discusses rivers as organic computers, and marble / granite as the earth’s “hard drive”. As water flows down rivers, it carries different sizes of sediment—from silt to boulders—hence creating the geological record. Ben’s hand-painted overlay represents the liquid crystal display, whose very name echoes geology, and is the average person’s point of contact with the digital world.