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One red square can change your entire perception of the world
New film explores how scientists see nature differently from each other—and from everyone else
SCIENCE
21 March 2025
By Alexa Robles-Gil
At the Necropolis of Pantalica—a 3000-year-old outcrop with rock-cut tombs—on Sicily, geologist Marcia Bjornerud of Lawrence University and biologist David Haskell of the University of the South embark on an unusual experiment. Haskell takes out a backpack-size red square made of wood and places it on the bank of a stream that runs through a canyon near the ruins. The square suddenly becomes a frame for a tiny ecosystem: a frog, a snail, and some green algae growing on rocks.
When it’s Bjornerud’s turn, she places the red square vertically, on top of a large rock. Now, the object frames a wide landscape, where fallen boulders show the aftermath of a long-ago earthquake.
Same region, different perspectives. That’s the point of a new movie premiering Saturday at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, which invites viewers to witness how scientists and artists make sense of the world in their own ways.
Observer is, in part, an experiment. Filmmaker Ian Cheney takes a group of “keen-eyed observers” to a variety of locations around the globe, from the Atacama Desert in Chile to icy Greenland waters. He keeps the destinations a secret from the volunteers, allowing viewers to simply watch as these observers explore and discover their surroundings.
Science sat down with Cheney and Bjornerud to chat about the film—and how it could open a new world to scientists and nonscientists alike.