Microscopic Landscapes
1 media/Innerspace - Michael Oliveri_thumb.jpg 2022-09-26T17:18:53-07:00 Sigi Jöttkandt 4115726eb75e75e43252a5cbfc72a780d0304d7d 30986 1 Photo as part of 'Innerspace', a collection by Michael Oliveri. Taken with a scanning electron microscope to take images of things 1000x smaller than the width of a human hair. plain 2022-09-26T17:18:54-07:00 Sigi Jöttkandt 4115726eb75e75e43252a5cbfc72a780d0304d7dThis page is referenced by:
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2022-09-26T17:21:44-07:00
Landscapes We Cannot See
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Leon Burfield
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2022-09-26T17:21:44-07:00
There exists landscapes that are imperceptible to the naked eye, which seems to challenge the definition of landscapes as “all visible features of an area of land…” (1). Electron microscopes have enhanced human perception, allowing observations of the basic units that form us all. It is arguably the microscopic world that has shaped the world the most, from the minerals, nutrients and proteins that constitute us all; to pathogens and our cells; and to air. Looking closely at the micro-level, we see that it bears an uncanny resemblance to our macro-world, containing features resembling sky, plants and soil. It is a landscape that we are ordinarily oblivious to, despite its significance to our being. Perhaps these landscapes are easy to ignore as they are one-one thousandth the width of a human hair. Through technology, we are granted heightened perception, allowing these miniscule worlds occupy a much larger space in the mind. For me, it provides humility and strange comfort in knowing that there are entire worlds and forces that control every micrometre of our existence that we simply cannot perceive.
(1): “Landscape.” Oxford Languages, Oxford UP, Accessed 24 September 2022.
