Terra incognita
by Spiros Zervoudakis
portfolio special mention call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2021', 2021
Category: Nature, Environment and Perspectives
Approximately 200 thousand years ago, mankind was an insignificant biological species lost in some corner of Africa. Myth was the first form of worldview. In the primitive universe of our forefathers, anthropomorphic gods determine the natural phenomena but also the fate of the people.
The memory of a destructive flood exists even in the most ancient texts; in the Gilgamesh epic, in Deucalion’s myth, in Noah’s ark and many others. In all those ancient myths, the gods decide to punish the corrupted human kind.
Several centuries later, science removed the mythical "cosmogony". Man adapted the environment to his needs and used his unique ability to live against all the other living beings who live on “his planet”.
Today, he is dominant on the planet, but also possibly the first species to record their disappearance.
*Terra incognita is a term used in cartography for regions that have not been mapped or documented.