Welcome to TERRA SYSTEMA. A new system of communication embedded with the significance of the natural world, non-human species, natural processes and the experiences that we all share.
Watch the short film depicting Terra Systema in Augmented Reality.
This project sought to develop new symbolic glyphs or ideograms that are embedded with nature, as a way to reinforce our new understanding of the planet and the effect that neglecting nature has had on our planet. Symbolic references have been devised to celebrate the experiences that humans and non-humans share, and how the natural processes of Earth combine with the symbiotic relationships found in nature.
The symbols are categorised by the ancient or classical elements such as Earth, Fire, Wood, Aether, Air and Water (a combination drawn from different ancient cultures). Set together as a framework to depict the relationships.
Translate the Symbols
Six Stories
EARTH
Our planet. Our rich, diverse orb-home of plenty. We have watered, cultivated, preserved, stripped and burned this home of ours. A few of us have started to look for somewhere else, somewhere thousands of miles away. Others have started to listen more carefully to the home planet to see what it might reveal to them; they want to stay and mend their home. A few envision the new space quarries, but many others feel Earth’s gravitational pull to its surface more than ever. Just beneath the surface, Earth houses the mycorrhizal network of fungi in its soil. It is a place for these chthonic beings to commune with the other plant and tree roots, a symbiosis that allows for what the Earth keeps underneath, to nurture what grows above it. Earth stretches out a field of magnetic arms from its central core, deep into space. Our home planet has a dense, heavy heart of metals: Iron and Nickel, ultimately reacting in ways that shield us from solar winds and guide a multitude of journeys for tellurian, pelagian and celestial species (inhabitants of the earth, sea and sky). Earth protects and exposes its inhabitants. It manoeuvres in such a way to reveal to us our cosmic situation by light and then by darkness. Each night, the map of the sky that Earth shows to us only further establishes its munificence.
FIRE
“Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favour fire.”(An excerpt from the poem Fire and Ice by Robert Frost 1920).
More than desire, the requirement of the resin-sealed cones of the pyrophitic Lodgepole Pine tree Pinus contorta awaits the rising temperature during a forest fire to release its seeds, as their waxy concealment is melted away. The flames of the fire flick over a nearby shrub and the chemical signals from its smoke and the vapour of burnt plant material enchant the seeds of the shrub to break from their dormancy. Although there is no question of fire’s rage, there is also a little appreciation to be had for fire as a starting pistol for rejuvenation.
WOOD
The weather is dry, and the Douglas Fir Pseudotsuga menziessi, stands tall overlooking the rocky river. It’s pine needles used to be blue green, and its bark the deepest smooth grey, but now bark beetles have eaten through its bark to the inner phloem. Parts of its bark now look burnt as they house larvae and its twigs and branches are dying.
This tree does not stand alone, as near to it there is a Ponderosa. Unwilling to allow its burden to spread to a family member, the Douglas Fir sends the Ponderosa a warning message. A chemical passes through its roots to journey through the mycorrhizal network of fungi underneath the ground. The ponderosa’s roots sense the alarm and it activates guardian enzymes to protect it from the beetle.
AETHER
Everywhere, nowhere. To journey from and towards, by appearing out of and disappearing into. Aether was breathed instead of air by the gods of Ancient Greek mythology. The son of the chthonic godly personifications of night and of darkness, Nyx and Erubus. Aristotle considered Aether as beyond the moon (Pimenidou, 2021) and the upper bright light that envelops the earth. There is no longer a place for the Ancient Greek god Aether in modern science, but there is still the joy of bright light and space and its ability to flood and surround.
AIR
‘‘I am the place for a rush of birds’’ wrote Elizabeth Jennings (Spell of the Air, 1987). The air described as a location, an object and a composite material. A wonderous concoction to sip from or to gulp from as we ponder our level of contentment. A place spiced by soundwaves, peppered by mote-sized organisms, stirred by the wind through choosiness of the Sun’s heat, then mixed by the Earth’s dutiful orbit.
The murmurations of Starlings convey to us the liberty of Air, as they skate its thermal planes and facets. They populate the sky spread sparsley and then dive into dense blackness, as if to blend a pencil sketch in the sky.
WATER
Off the coast of Chiba, Japan, no more than 300 metres under the surface of the sea, a male Pufferfish carves a sculpture in the sand with his fins. His art is to represent many things such as, beauty, skill, architecture, hydrology and sex and offspring. His ephemeral work will soon be swept away, but for now the preview evening can go ahead. His work is giant when he compares it to himself, but its grandeur must be fitting for the females. A Mandala of ridges and furrows to channel the water rather than succumb to its forces, where the radial grooves he makes will collect fine particles of sediment producing a dusting of uniquity amongst his competitors.
A female attends his gallery that he has decorated with shells from the locale and together as the microcosm, they descend to the central circle. A consecrated area from which the universe pours out.
Use the Key and the Six Stories above to identify each Symbol, its meaning and how it can be used…
Below are larger images of the Symbols so that you can view the Moire effects as you scroll passed WATER, AETHER and WOOD. This is an important dynamic feature of the otherwise static glyphs, further enhancing their meaning.
The Framework
The Framework was devised to categorise significant parts of the Earth by using the ancient classical elements. In doing this, we refer to the ancient world and its inhabitants at the same time as our own world. TERRA SYSTEMA is the Latin for ‘Earth System’ and can be used by anyone to signify the meanings explained in the Key at the top of this page. The Framework also conveys the symbiotic and destructive/regenerative relationships between these aspects pertaining to Earth’s materiality.
To learn more about TERRA SYSTEMA and how it can be used by institutions, organisations, businesses and individuals please get in touch using the contact page listed below.