Mother Nature Investigating the relationship between The Schuylkill Center and its highly developed urban surroundings, I created a simulated environmental microcosm within The Schuylkill Center. This work consists of a large sculptural mountain, created to invite wildlife and human visitors alike, which is perpetually streamed to a website, in real-time, with a solar powered camera making the piece observable both on and off site, physically and digitally.
With its sense of dislocation, The Schuylkill Center’s existence on the edge of a major urban city reminds me of Las Vegas or Disney World; it has the quality of an island or oasis, a world unto itself, one place located within another. For many people living in urban environments, these green spaces are the closest connection to the natural world, beyond images from various forms of media. The mountain becomes a simulated experience within a secluded environment, a simulation within the real. I am curious if nature, over the course of the exhibition, will begin to interact with the micro-mountain blurring the boundaries between the natural world and the simulated environment, adopting it as its own.
More information about the exhibition and The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education can be found here.