The term “cosmology” is made up of the Greek kosmos and logia; the logic of the cosmos. It depicts a causal view of how the universe is configured and how its various parts come together—in time and space—in the manifestation of life. In the temporal sense, a wetland cosmology proposes that rather than a continuously and linearly evolving system, the (wet) world goes through repetitions and causal cycles1 that are partly pre-arranged, and partly improvised.2 In other words, wetland cosmology depicts the circular movement of water through a set of phases and modalities.

Movement results in flow, while containment leads to segregation. In the hydrologic sense,3 upward (evaporation, transpiration) and downward (precipitation) flows of water set the stage for a wetland cosmology. Between these two, the Earth-bound movements of water result in various bodies of water being formed, contained, and eventually extracted. This results in various periods of life and activity on Earth. A flood is the final process that pulls our segregated reality back into the hydrologic cycle.

Media description:

Starting with the tautology that all lands are wetlands, this piece depicts the life of a wetland as it cycles through the phases of segregation, flow, and flood. In segregation, the universe gets divided into “wet” and “dry” areas.4 In flow, water steadily moves from the wet to the dry, mapping out a wet-space in its footsteps.5 In flood, a small drip continuously picks up speed and volume until the wet and dry merge back into a holistic wetland.6