PhD Candidate Chris Devery is an animator and theme park designer with a background in environmental education; he is currently a professor of VR and Immersive Media Design at Drexel University. 

 

What does it mean to build worlds not in fiction, but in living matter? This dissertation redefines world-building as humanity’s oldest inheritance from nature; the impulse to shape, pattern, and imagine new forms and functions of life. By uniting bonsai, penjing, terrariums, permaculture, aquaponics, and themed-environment design, it develops a practical craft for creating small, self-sustaining ecosystems. These miniature landscapes foster awe, ecological literacy, and regenerative practice, proving that paradise can indeed be built at human scale. At its heart, the work offers a post-natural optimism: that art and science together can co-author new living worlds, carrying forward nature’s patterns through human creativity.