The Species Act

SPECIES ACT: Part 1: Microscopic Invocation
Meditations on the tree of life and our intangible, essential ecology

This installation asks the viewer to reflect on the micro-environments that inhabit every aspect of our world, from the soil beneath us to our bodies, inside and out. While these images are based on observations of water, for me they evoke a microbiome. Microbes are the basis of all life and our true ancestors, if you will; we would be nothing without them. Microbes, through our lack of understanding, have not only gotten a bad rap but have been completely ignored or even poisoned until more recently. Certainly there are bad microbes, or pathogens, but there are more good and we depend those good for a healthy world. We have essentially and unwittingly waged war on the microbiome communities of our soil and plant life, and bodies. The complex communities and relationships, as well as the diversity and interactivity of species, rival our own collectively ‘seen’ environment. We are the macro world to these micro worlds. Yet we know so little and take so much for granted as a species regarding the multitude of complex interactions between our ‘known’ plant, animal, soil, water life. This piece is a meditation on the unseen. Sound is by composer Jonathan Freilich.