ABSTRACT
The saw cuts multiply the slab's surface area, and all the cast off micro-blocks of granite drift outwards, seeking new connections. Granite sludge concentrates in the quarry at different densities and at different locations. Tim Edensor, in his investigation of the processual activity of building stone, comments on the presumed durability of stone as 'matter emblematic of obduracy, with a hardness, weightiness and apparent immutability epitomized by the phrases "hard as rock" and "stony-faced". The making of a granite headstone or an ashlar block is not a linear performance; it branches and twists, takes odd paths and loops back on itself. The concept of recombinant geology extends from work in ecology that has focused on the emergence of novel plant and animal populations in sites with a legacy of intensive human use, where ecological processes absorb the chemical and mineral residues of the industrial past with often unpredictable results.
