Event 2: Vivarium

Human-less Capsule

The Vivarium was an exhibit designed by Maru Garcia that features one enclosed environment with plant life and some insects and one similar environment except a human was inside the encapsulated environment. Cameras within each environment then showed close ups on large projector screens of what was inside each.

Plant Life
What struck me most about the exhibit was the juxtaposition. These two very similar capsules, with one distinct difference, the presence of humans. The human-less environment was planted, filled with necessary soil and water, and sealed. The result was that the plants were able to grow undisturbed without the unsealing of the enclosure. The roots would take up the water, have it evaporated from their leaves, the water would condense on the sides of the dome, and run back down into the soil to be taken up the roots again. The system could continue almost endlessly without disruption. Contrast this with the other enclosure. The system is not closed so the plants must be tended to and watered to stay alive. In addition, the human in the enclosure periodically disturbs the plants.

Human Capsule
This exhibit for me represented a lot about human interaction with nature. The Earth has had life on it for 3.8 billion years (History of Life on Earth). Only in the past 250 years have humans industrialized and it has already caused significant effects (History.com). Species are going extinct at a 1,000 times faster rate than usually due to humans(Dell’Amore), and we are losing around 80,000 acres of forest daily (Measuring). 97 percent of scientists have agreed that climate change is in part due to humans (Scientists Agree…) . To me this exhibit really highlighted all of these impacts that humans have on nature.


Works Cited

Dell'Amore, Christine. “Species Extinction Happening 1,000 Times Faster Because of Humans?” National Geographic, 30 May 2014.


 “History of Life on Earth.” BBC, British Broadcasting Company, 2018, www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth.

History.com Staff. “Industrial Revolution.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution.

“Measuring the Daily Destruction of the World's Rainforests.” Scientific American, 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-talks-daily-destruction/.

“Scientists Agree: Global Warming Is Happening and Humans Are the Primary Cause.” Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/scientists-agree-global-warming-happening-humans-primary-cause#.Wvj6logvxEY

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