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CONTRIBUTORS: Paul Chaney, Iain Hamilton Grant, Kenna Hernly, Shaun Lewin, James Strongman, Jake Chapman, Thomas Moynihan, Steve Tarrant, Reza Negarestani, Caitlin DeSilvey

Hydroplutonic Kernow presents a first case study in post-‘site-specific’ geophilosophy. Documenting a weird field trip trip into Cornwall’s mining heartlands with geologists, philosophers and ecologists as guides, it drills down through nature, industry, and cultural capital to site the local within the global, unfolding the telluric plots that manipulated populations and devastated the landscape during the industrial age⁠—a historical portrait of geotrauma in action.

Discover the unique configuration of cosmic and terrestrial forces that creates a synthetic landscape⁠—a configuration that capitalism has retrospectively endowed with necessity.

This strange odyssey takes us through some of the remains of the region’s industrial past, reading them through the twisted prism of the geocosmic theory of trauma espoused by legendary ‘cryptographer’ Dr. Daniel Barker and further developed by philosopher Reza Negarestani, and uncovering the deep backstory of the Hydroplutonic Conspiracy⁠—the complicity between water and the depths of the earth.

As well as documentation of the trip, the book contains supplementary exegetical materials including an essay by Reza Negarestani, a poem by Jake Chapman, a foreword by Caitlin DeSilvey, and an in-depth interview with mining engineer Steve Tarrant.