For 360 million years ferns continue to transcend time. Vessels of evolution, how can fostering stewardship with indigenous ferns encourage healthier endemic urban biodiversity?

 

The first exploratory installment of biodiversity’s relationship to the urbansphere, i.e. ‘biodivurbanization’. Sensory experiences catalyze cognitive connections between UK urbanites and indigenous ferns on an evolutionary timescale. Ferns have survived three mass extinction. What can we learn through their persistence and resilience?

As urbanscapes expand multi-dimensionally in a speeding digitized global metropolis, urbanites not only lose sense of self, but also their endemic biomes. Before the current sixth mass extinction (Holocene) and agricultural civilization reached the British Isles 6,000 years ago, tribes of people existed as hunter-gatherers. Sourcing sustenance from nature, humans played beneficial roles to planetary biological systems. Navigating the forest requires deep sensory awareness. Conversely, in today’s technological world we have evolved to primarily engage visually.

 

Distinct fern scents help UK urbanites build memory retention with present indigenous, past prehistoric, and future genetically modified ferns. Three scent vessels explore the biomorphologies of ferns and restoring ecological balance by sourcing materials from agricultural byproducts and remediated invasive species biomass.