Prophetic Botany

Up close and far away.

james mcGrath

All works by James McGrath, 2022, 4k pixels,above lidar scan of Orchid

Project Concept

The visual and sonic exploration of the Micro objects in Macro environments Significant Islamic Flora will be supersized into transparent point clouds At this scale we combine them with 3D star maps and placed like planets in a galaxy The Universe within nature Visually stunning immersive dream like abstract yet real spacious intimate
Project Execution Mockup of projection with lidar flower scan on page of the Kitāb Dīsqūrīdis fī mawādd al ilāj كتاب ديسقوريدس في مواد العلاج Dīsqūrīdis Dioscorides ديسقوريدس
Using botanical illustrations sourced from fourteenth century manuscripts and Codex written by renowned theologians such as Qayyim al Jawziyya d 751AH 1350AD or even earlier Texts such as the translations of Dioscorides De Materia Medica 9th C AD we will rebuild the illustrated plants in 3D while also using recent scanning technology to digitise culturally important Islamic plants into 3D models and datasets

Lidar scan of Orchid flower

Medicinal plants were a central part of medieval Islamic culture Aspects of their writings remain of interest to physicians even today

It would be an immersive exploratory journey where the audience travels through a galaxy-like experience, where flowers appear to be nebulae, and nebulae the pollen of said flowers. The intention of this is to illuminate the science of nature, not obscure it. Revealing the history of things through an act of seeing.

Macro Micro Combining huge scales of history and technology Macro Micro is an exploration of significant Flora from the Arab World using illustrations found in mediaeval Islamic codexes and combining them with digital 3D astronomical maps