Statio Tranquillitatis marks the spot where humans first set foot on another world. Located in the Sea of Tranquility on Earth’s only moon, life visited this spot for a fleeting moment, and hasn’t returned since. 

 

For our final project in Spatial Dynamics we were prompted to create a parallel world, exemplified through a digitally fabricated environment with a living component. In collaboration with Adriana Gramly, Ika Zhao and YoonJin Bae, I developed a habitat for rearing Luna Moths from their pupal stage to adult moths. In the last stage of their life, Luna Moths emerge from their cocoons to live only for a week, before dying of starvation. When they hatch as moths, the Saturniids no longer have a mouth.

 

Taking a stage of metamorphosis, the closest thing in our world to reincarnation, and placing it on an astral plane, we are commenting on the cycles in life, and then questioning the permanence of death. As the moths emerge, live and die, we play no role except as observers. The 2ft cube is sealed on every side, thus creating a completely parallel world. Human intervention is impossible. When the moths die the piece transforms from habitat to sculpture, and continues on as a vessel for the remnants of life.