Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau
When we discovered the Microcosms website, we were in awe of the beauty of the microscopic plant images produced by confocal microscopy. The level of fine details and the complexity of the plants´ inner structures reveal a hidden universe that changes one’s perception of plants.
Learning that the biological samples were taken from sacred plants revered by Indigenous groups throughout the Americas, and that these plants contain fluorescent chemical compounds, is equally fascinating.
To produce and to bring together these detailed microscopic images, to provide botanical as well as cultural information about the specific plants depicted and to also care about the beauty of presentation as well as an art historical connection, is a great example of how nature inspires art and science, how science stimulated art and how art reciprocally can be advanced by science. This is exactly the kind of trans-disciplinary approach we will need in the future, if we are to join efforts in overcoming the environmental crisis by for example sensitize people for the secret lives of plants.
Dr. Christa Sommerer & Dr. Laurent Mignonneau, media artists and professors, Interface Cultures, University of Art and Design, Linz, Austria
