The Micro World
How does scale orient our understanding of the river? In this short film, artist Jenny Schmid heads down into the mud to make legible many unseen worlds of river life while traversing the different practices—from engraving to computer modelling—that have made these world graspable for humans over the centuries.
The Micro World employs scale to amplify what is unseen in the Mississippi. Down in the mud, symbiotic and antagonistic relationships play out, the result of sequences of events touched off by human inputs from waste disposal to farm and flood runoff. Bacteria, pesticides, and antibiotics enter the river in the Midwest, remaining mostly unseen until their effects appear as an expansive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The Micro World uses drawing and animation to connect us to both the sources and the consequences of river pollution.
My work connects with environmental themes through the use of mythical figures who confront the realities of encroaching technology and diminishing wilderness while continuing the search for utopian ideals and indulging in desire as a form of resistance. I am inspired by the history of fantastical beasts in printed imagery from the 1500s and 1600s as well as maps charting the sea, populated by various serpents, mermaids, mermen, and sea monsters.
The Micro World is inspired by a time when stylized engravings and allegorical images were used to depict scientific information. Prior to the invention of photography and subsequent emphasis on diagrammatic objectivity, artists drew the miniature world from life, sometimes discovering natural processes and scientific inventions along the way as a result of close observation.
Engraving after Robert Hooke from “Micrographia” 1665 © Courtesy of Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine, University of Minnesota Insatiable, 2018. Etching. by Jenny Schmid
The current method of identifying bacteria in waterways uses DNA sequencing, with river water samples processed through computer software to replace taxonomies that were based on direct observation. Metagenomics has allowed scientists to efficiently measure river pollution at various locations and more accurately identify and compare multiple sources of human interference.
Yet the image of bacteria viewed firsthand under the microscope remains compelling. A magnified drop of water reveals an unseen universe filled with infinite alien shapes and textural variations. By amplifying this tiny world through detailed drawing and projection, The Micro World gives voice and context to the importance of the smallest forms in the Mississippi River.
The Micro World, in process animation still, 2019. by Jenny Schmid
"The Micro World," in process animation still by Jenny Schmid, 2019
Reference:
Hooke, Robert (1665) Micrographia: or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses. London: J. Martyn and J. Allestry.
Thanks to:
Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine
Assistant Professor Robin Shields-Cutler, PhD and his students at Macalester College
Minnesota Mississippi Metagenome Project at the University of Minnesota
