Leaving Biosphere
2
By
Holly
White Feb 2022
Partial
Key
When I started working on the video
game Leaving Biosphere 2 I wanted to try and
look into my grandad’s archives, papers he may have had on his work on
Biosphere 2, or research he was doing at the time. It was more difficult than I
thought, but here is some of that material, some of the things that came up
when researching for the game and some of the things that came out of making
the video game itself, and times where there was a mix between the two …
From the Fossil Grove brochure from Hugh,1948
I
first came across Biosphere 2 in 2013, when I went to a talk in London on
psychedelics with my granddad Bill Chaloner. It
turned out Bill knew a few people at the talk, who I learnt had been some of
the people behind Biosphere 2. My granddad, who was a palaeobotanist, told me
he had been involved in the early stages of Biosphere 2, at the point where
they were deciding what should be living inside it. I talked about the project
with him at great length, and borrowed all the books he had on it, most written
by the Biospherians themselves. I still don’t know a
huge amount about my grandad’s involvement, but I know he remained friends with
many of those who had been part of the project.
A slide of Bills from 1954 (reversed sorry). Google image search tells me it is of a mural called “California” by Maxine Albro, 1934, located in Coit Tower in San Francisco.
Here is the other half from Wikipedia:
Orange drinks and carrots in the market scene of Leaving Biosphere 2. I made this before I found Bill’s photo.
Ecology books of
Prof. WG Chaloner, FRS:-
1: Lincoln, RJ et al. 1983. A
dictionary of ecology, evolution & systematics.
2: Tootill,E. 1983. Penguin
dictionary of botany.
3: Woodward, FI. 1987. Climate
& plant distribution.
4:Clarke,R. 1987. The ozone layer.
5: NASA. 1988. Earth system
science; a closer view.
6: Jones, G. et al. 1990. Collins dictionary of environmental science.
7: Gates, DM. 1993. Climate
change & its biological consequences.
8: Primack, RB. 1995. A primer
in conservation biology.
9: Archibold,
RW. 1995. Ecology of world vegetation.
10: Crawley, MJ. 1997. Plant
ecology.
11: Allaby,
M. 1998. Oxford dictionary of ecology.
12: Bailey, RG. 1998.
Ecoregions.
13: Calow,
P. 1999. Blackwell’s concise encyclopedia of ecology.
14: Mackenzie, A. et al. 2001.
Instant notes; ecology.
15: Townsend, CR. 2003.
Essentials of ecology.
When my grandad died a few years ago we gave some of his books to his friend Hugh. When I started this project I got in touch with Hugh, who kindly sent me a list of relevant books that had belonged to my grandad, and in turn sent some of these books in the post. I was really happy when he wrote to me about how much he and my grandpa had loved the fossil grove in Glasgow where I now live, and included this copy of the 1948 brochure. I went to try and visit the fossil grove a few times recently, but sadly it has not managed to reopen after lockdown.
From the Fossil Grove brochure from Hugh,1948
While I was working on this project
I had been growing a lot of vegetables, fruit and flowers, trying to learn
about saving seeds, and sharing, swapping and gifting them. It was great to
meet and work with the Glasgow Seed Library and learn a little about what they
were working on.
Some of mine waiting to be planted this spring.
It had also been a summer of trying to identify
wildflowers
Some watercolours that I animated for some of the characters in the game
A slide of Bills from 1954
Another slide from 1954
Another of his of Kew Gardens in 1975
Another from 1988
If you’d like to play the game it is currently here:
From the Fossil Grove brochure from Hugh,1948
