Moss Animals

MOSS ANIMALS is an experimental film that considers “On Molecular and Microscopic Science,” a two-volume text published by the first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mary Somerville, in 1869. Somerville, a self-taught polymath studying physics, light, and biology, became well-known in 19th-century intellectual circles. The word “scientist” was coined for her in 1834, a feminized adaptation of the then-used title “man of science.”

"Perhaps no woman of science until Marie Curie was as widely recognized in her own time...not only did [Somerville's works] bring scientific knowledge in a broad range of fields to a wide audience, but thanks to her exceptional talents for analysis, organization, and presentation, they provided definition and shape for an impressive spread of scientific work.”

Focusing on “…the most prominent discoveries in the life and structure of the lower vegetable and marine animals,” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), Somerville’s work broke new ground. Her research addressed the professional scientific community instead of focusing on the education of women or school-aged children; in this sense, she shattered a glass ceiling to be taken seriously by the leading thinkers of her day. The philosopher John Stuart Mill so highly valued her work that he requested hers to be the first signature on his Parliamentary petition advocating for women’s suffrage.

This work draws from Somerville’s astute observations of the natural world, still applicable 154 years later. Shots feature her beloved “lower vegetable and marine life” forms, including algae and bryozoa in the Chesapeake Bay juxtaposed with folio scans, Somerville’s sketches and illustrations, and ephemera from her life. From the Greek “moss animals,” bryozoa are tiny, colony-dwelling organisms that coat strands of seaweed, surviving quietly through collective effort but often tossed by waves, maybe stranded by tides, shipwrecked on the sandy shore. These beings become metaphors for individual smallness and greatness, personal and collective effort and suffering alike, and resilience despite the circumstances of our time.

Deus magnus in magnis, maximus in minimis.
—St. Augustine