Biosphere Dreaming

An exhibit at UC San Diego’s Gallery QI, “Biosphere Dreaming” explores the “Dream Diary” of Mark Nelson, a participant in the closed-ecosystem experiment Biosphere 2.

A recording of the opening night for “Biosphere Dreaming” is available at https://www.youtube.com/live/T87vT_flc6g.

Summary

“Biosphere Dreaming” is an audio-visual installation based on the “Dream Diary” of Mark Nelson, one of eight people who lived inside Biosphere 2, a closed-ecosystem complex located outside the little town of Oracle in Southern Arizona, from September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993. The installation features excerpts from Nelson’s diary and logbook, as well as a series of photos documenting life inside the complex. The material is presented as a 30-minute montage through three projections (two with texts from the diaries and one with the photos) and is accompanied by an exclusive music score written by Michael Garfield. In the hallway outside the gallery, a series of large photos of Biosphere 2 set the stage for the material presented inside.

As the first public presentation of Nelson’s diaries, “Biosphere Dreaming” offers a unique perspective on one of the most visionary ecological experiments of the 20th century. Revisiting the experiment more than 30 years after it ended, the installation explores how inhabiting an ecosystem as Mark Nelson did is both an intimately physical and imaginary experience that opens up critical and inventive rethinking—through dreaming in the widest sense of the word—of how we humans are deeply connected to nature. Moreover, in the context of the contemporary climate crisis, “Biosphere Dreaming” engages with questions of new ways of inhabiting the Earth—“Biosphere 1”—that offer more hopeful futures for life inside it.

Biosphere 2 was built between 1987 and 1991 by the Institute of Ecotechnics. From 1991 to 1993, this large, green-house-like complex served as an experiment in engaging with ecosystems through science and technology, and gaining new insight into their care and care for the life they hold, including humans. The structure hosted seven different biomes, including a rainforest, an ocean with a coral reef, mangrove wetlands, a savannah, a fog desert, an agricultural area and a human habitat.

Though its original plan was to run “missions” inside Biosphere 2 for one hundred continuous years and generate deep data sets, the experiment was terminated less than three years after it began. Yet it still stands as one of the most visionary attempts to rethink the relationship between humans and nature for the better.

Bios
Mark Nelson was part of the first crew of eight “biospherians” who lived inside the Biosphere 2 for two full years. He is an engineer and the founding director of the Institute of Ecotechnics. He has published the books “Pushing Our Limit: Insights from Biosphere 2” (2018) and “The Wastewater Gardener” (2014). He lives in New Mexico.

Michael Garfield writes music for which new words must be invented. Simultaneously tender and apocalyptic, intensely technical yet vulnerable, his tunes marry the singer-songwriter and electronic live producer, updating “solo artist with guitar” to suit an age of planetary renaissance. Committed to adventurous venues and collaborations, Garfield has played everywhere from Portugal to Australia, Canada to Costa Rica, Arcosanti to Moogfest, Synergia Ranch to Meow Wolf to the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. His experience includes residencies in Austin, Santa Fe, and Black Rock City; concerts at the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science, the Santa Fe Institute, and the MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference; and features on PBS and in numerous acclaimed documentary films.

Jacob Lillemose is a writer and a curator based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He recently curated the Danish pavilion at the Venice biennale and published the novel “Architecture Zero” (2022) which incorporates references to Biosphere 2.

“Biosphere Dreaming” will be on display in the Gallery QI from Thursday, April 27 – Friday, June 9, noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more on the Gallery QI in Atkinson Hall, visit https://galleryqi.ucsd.edu.