The photographs in Terraria Gigantica: the World Under Glass focus on three of the world’s largest indoor garden complexes that function as both research laboratories and tourist destinations. The Lied Jungle and Desert Dome at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska display animals in enormous, painstakingly created immersive environments using both living and manufactured plants. Built in the late 1980s to study possible space colonization, Biosphere 2 near Tucson, Arizona, was designed as an airtight replica of Earth's environment (Biosphere 1). This glass and space-frame structure contains 5 biomes, including an ocean, a rain forest, a desert, agricultural areas and a human habitat. The Eden Project, in southern England, was developed around a strong environmental conservation mission, boasts the world’s largest conservatory and has welcomes over a million visitors annually. It is the newest of these three institutions that represent the pinnacle of controlled, studied and aestheticized nature made possible by new technologies.
The title of my project refers to these enclosed glass structures that permit total control of temperature, humidity, insects, weeds and irrigation to allow the cultivation of species from many different biomes including the ocean. Human attempts to cultivate non-native plants have a long history that parallels advances in engineering technology. Early Roman efforts to shelter plants from the cold but not the light were resurrected in the design of British orangeries around 1600. Interest in growing tropical fruit in northern Europe drove the innovations of Georgian conservatories throughout the 18th century. Engineering wonders of their time, crystal palaces of the late 19th century fueled the Victorian passion for botany and collecting. The giant high-tech terrariums of today draw from this rich lineage of cultivating the exotic but also serve as laboratories for scientists to study everything from soil conditions to global climate change. Seduced by the aesthetics of architecture and landscape design that often seamlessly blends the real and the fake, I seek to illuminate these artificial landscapes as a reflection of our complex relationship with the natural world. Specifically, I am interested in the seeming popularity of visiting these enclosed simulated landscapes and if they have become a substitute for less controllable and convenient outdoor experiences. I wonder, too, if these domed replicas of threatened landscapes are an effective educational tool for motivating visitors to preserve the actual places they represent. Through this work, I examine the evolving nature of nature.
Terraria Gigantica: The World Under Glass
