new land, miðsúla jörð, 25”x10”x10”, cast porcelain, vending machine, at Útúrdúr store, Reykjavik Iceland.

My vending machine allows you the ability to participate by owning a memento of a place that is unknowable. Surtsey Island emerged at 63°18' N - 20°36'W out of the North Atlantic Ocean in a volcanic eruption off the southern coast of Iceland in 1963. Now it is protected land where research is conducted, but humans are not allowed to go. You can purchase small iterations of what Surtsey has looked like at different stages of its evolution thus far. Objects labeled 11.63 depict the shape of the island when it first appeared out of the ocean in November 1963. By April of the following year (4.64) just 5 months after the initial eruption, the island had been colonized by bacteria, molds, insects, and birds. And 08.08 brings us closer to the present as we witness Surtsey’s slow erosion, now down to 505 ft. from its highest point of 560 ft. above sea level.