Abstract
Spiders creatively built structures in their shifting environments. Cyclosa spiders make compositions in their webs using fragments of plants and other animals they attach to their woven threads. These compositions range from geometric shapes to sculpted images of large spiders with colors and patterns resembling their own bodies. And though the Cyclosa may make these larger-than-life spider forms in their webs to repel predators or attract prey, there is something else here in their singular self-awareness. Something ineffable is experienced by the Cyclosa in their exclamation of proportion and something in these spider-made colossi calls out to be seen. Many spiders are solitary and live in burrows in the ground sheltering under leaves. When their habitats have been flooded, different species of spiders form a collective of builders using threads emitted from their bodies to create massive webs of up to 500 meters suspended across tops of shrubs and trees. This carpet of threads creates a temporary safe space for millions of spiders and other insects until the flooding subsides and they return to their solitary lives on the ground. Their display of cooperative building without any sign of aggressive between predator and prey jolts the mind to think through ways human communities could learn to respond to the growing onslaught of climate disasters. As individuals and collectives, both Cyclosa and ground-dwelling spiders are conscious builders of complex sculptural and architectural forms crisscrossed with practical and aesthetic brilliance.
Presenters
Anna BlumeProfessor, History of Art, State University of New York, FIT, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Animal, Architecture, Solitary, Communal, Innovation, Survival
