Remains of a burned-out fire pit in a desert with a sign indicating an restricted access area for employees only, in front of a chain-link fence and salt flats in the background.
A hole in the ground with visible wiring and snow around the edges.
A barren rocky desert landscape with two vehicles in the distance and mountains under a clear blue sky.
DeWalt 60V Flexvolt lithium-ion cordless power tool with a yellow and black design, placed on a truck bed, with large rocks in the background.
Close-up of a rocky desert landscape with a vast flat expanse stretching into distant mountains under a partly cloudy sky.
Dirt road in desert landscape with a barrier gate and a sign that says 'No Entry' in the distance, under a clear blue sky.
A collection of rocks and soil with some white mineral deposits, along with electronic equipment including a white box with wires and a small black cylindrical object in a rocky outdoor environment.

Intimacies of Multispecies Space-times

by Dana Burton

In the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert, certain geological formations called halites are the havens of microbial communities thatare able to endure just 2milimeters of rainfall a year. A NASA scientistexplained how this was possible, "In the window of time during theday when [microbes] have access to both water (from fog) andsunlight to do photosynthesis, they are able to produce enoughenergy to power the rest of the community." Because of their ability tosurvive the dryest hot desert on Earth, these communities are an analog for life in extreme locations on this planet, as well as models for what may have occurred on others, such as Mars. These intense desert conditions, that are a result of thousands of years of climatic changes, draw our attention to other significant intensities such as the centuries-old mining industry that has deleterious repercussions on human and environmental health, Chile’s former dictatorship and their institutionalization of neoliberal policies as a national project, and much more that provoke us to recognize the intimate ways these phenomena have affected our lives. The following images invite us to linger with microbes. Taken during the 10 days I spent following scientists in the Atacama Desert, Chile in March 2020 as a part of my research of astrobiology at NASA, these photographs are a window into scientists’ efforts to understand the parameters of life on and beyond Earth. Or lifes as scientists remain open to how the emergence of biology in other planetary contexts may have generated divergent forms from what we see on Earth. As such, the images are intended to visually prompt us to attend to life as it is experienced differently multispecies space-times from the tempos of microbial diurnal survival and millennial adaptation, to the cyclicality of wetness and dryness across the desertscape. What kinds of critical questions and speculations may we be pushed to grapple with from re-situating ourselves to a multispecies rather than human position?

Archaeological excavation site with white bones and a hammer on the ground.
A road sign in Spanish indicating a mineral circuit and activities like hiking and photography, with a stop sign in the background against a desert landscape and clear blue sky.