I was sitting on my front porch one day, watching the birds come and go at my neighbor’s camera bird feeder. As I observed them, I couldn’t help but think about how fascinating it would be to document these birds — not just for the sake of cataloging them, but to explore how we capture and make sense of the natural world around us. That’s when the idea for this site came to me: what if I could experiment with the way we document not just birds, but everything that makes up the environment around us?
I started digging into the birds, plants, and trees native to California, but rather than just compiling information, I wanted to experiment with how we interact with and experience these things in real time. How can we bring together the raw, unfiltered details of nature and present them in a way that feels more intuitive, more fluid, and less rigid than traditional documentation methods?
This site is an experiment in that idea — an exploration of what it means to document something in a way that’s less about the “final product” and more about the process itself. It’s not a tool for identifying birds or trees; it’s a space to think about how we can approach documentation in a more creative, open-ended way. I want this site to encourage curiosity and experimentation — to push beyond the typical methods of recording and to let the process itself be just as interesting as the information we collect.
Ultimately, it’s about discovering and appreciating the natural world, but also about questioning how we capture and interact with it.
To zoom in or out on the page and get a closer look at the elements:
Scroll up with your mouse wheel to zoom in.
Scroll down with your mouse wheel to zoom out.
This allows you to focus on the details or take a step back to see the bigger picture.
The globe is interactive! To maneuver it:
Simply move your mouse around the screen to rotate and explore the globe from different angles. The globe will respond as you move the cursor, giving you a dynamic view.