I use old encyclopedias and out-of-date fact books as material for my work. I’m interested in finding out what will happen to these images and texts when they are detached from their original contexts of describing knowledge? Do they forget what they once were proof of?

The grainy black-and-white photographs portray exotic places and animals, and the poetic entries describe the most recent achievements of mankind and technology. Is this science? Can sensible be beautiful? How will today’s knowledge look like in 50 or 100 years?

The 1952 edition of Pikku Jättiläinen (“The Little Giant”), a popular Finnish non-fiction book, describes a scale used for measuring the magnitude of an earthquake. It contains ten levels, the sixth of which is as follows:

Those asleep will awaken; all small bells chime. The clocks stop, and trees and bushes sway considerably.

Is it so that mere knowledge cannot solve the mystery of life?

All images ©Milja Laurila