In the microbial metropolises that thrive in and on the human body, underground networks of viruses loom large. A closer look at human skin has found that it's teeming with viruses, most of which don't target us but infect the microbes that live there.
Almost 95 percent of those skin-dwelling virus communities are unclassified...Those unknown viruses may prune, manipulate, and hide out in the skin’s bacterial communities, which in turn can make the difference between human health and disease...
— Ars Technica
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OK, so this is going a little far afield, but I love thinking of the world as having no discrete entities, but everything interconnected (it was a good acid trip 25 years ago that reinforced this belief that already existed in my psyche).
When the original GRNASFCK profile went up, I was in Syracuse for juries and saw this Neuroscience Research Building by Goody Clancy:
(I've been having image posting problems lately, so I hope that shows.)
I walked by the building in the day then again at late dusk. When it was dark, that lower overhang that conceals downlights on the stone base was glittering like a Christmas tree. I went closer to see how that effect was achieved and found this:
it was tens or hundreds of thousands of tiny moths attracted to the light and then fluttering around making the top of the wall sparkle. GRNASFCK's work makes me think about providing habitat and then using animals - in a humane and even beneficial way, of course - to enhance our architecture experience.
Embrace your multitude of inter-dependencies! Even if the idea 3% of your body mass being made up of micro-organisms terrifies you.
This happens whether you want it to or not. If it's considered at all mostly it's to keep bird crap off sills and ledges. I agree wholeheartedly that buildings should be holistic. Except of course for that fucking squirrel that keeps building a nest under the chimney cap, flies come down the flue into the house.
Squirrels are useless destructive creatures. A squirrel pandemic would be fine by me.*
*totally joking, of course.
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