Milton Fernando González Rodríguez
Microcosms
Microcosms is many things. It is a science-art project that allows us to visualize plants from the intimacy of their own morphologies. The images in this unique Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas show those structures that are hidden to the human naked eye. In the process, the platform offers unique opportunities to expand the perception of those visiting the site. But also their awareness. We see aspects of plants that if we all knew about, there would probably be a shift in our attitudes towards nature. Microcosms is also a knowledge-art project. By magnifying the scale, format and granularity at which we can engage with the plants often reduced to binomials, the site educates the visitors optically. Once these names reveal their “stomata, trichomes, vascular tissue and xylem”, among other elements of their being, it is difficult not to stop and reflect on the messages hidden in them. More importantly, Microcosms is an “ecodigital repository” and an expression of celebration and respect for the cultural meaning of plants and their sacred role for many of the native communities of the Americas.
Milton Fernando Gonzalez Rodriguez is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at KU Leuven (Belgium) and author of Indigeneity in Latin American Cinema and Ontologies and Natures: Knowledge about Health in Visual Culture.
