Traversing the Noosphere

CURATORIAL NOTE

In his book The Biosphere and The Noosphere, Vladimir Vernadsky elaborated on the Noosphere as a new evolutionary stage in the development of the Biosphere when the human-and-nature interaction would be consciously balanced. In his projection of the future he considered the emergence of the Noosphere as a critical evolutionary step needed for preserving and reconstructing the Biosphere in the interest of humanity as a single entity. In our time of environmental crisis and deep rooted uncertainty about the future, Vernadsky’s optimistic premise of the Noosphere may seem like a stark contrast to the zeitgeist of the contemporary era, where collective consciousness is peppered with critique on a solely anthropocentric worldview and the environmental hazards of mankind’s activity. 

We live at a very special time in the history of humanity – a time of developing ecological crisis where our survival as the human race is threatened by the progression of climate change and depletion of natural resources. The Noosphere, as Vernadksy considered it, envelops the world as a sphere of thought that has emerged as a consequence of the increasing complexity of human consciousness, a natural culmination of biological phenomenon. The existence of the sphere is indisputable, yet its nature and consequence for humanity is an exploratory angle of Traversing The Noosphere. 

This exhibition calls attention to perspectives on the unprecedented rate of human development of our times, our rapidly evolving relationship with the world around us and our changing sense of self in relation to the natural world.