Throughout their history, Americans have utilized technology to convert wilderness to civilization. Much of this development has been historically described as “progressive.” The author examines one example of this—the reduction of the Michigan pineries in the nineteenth century—in detail in an effort to reconcile design advances with our changing perceptions of wilderness. The author also discusses the development of tools and design techniques together with the evolution of the environmental movement.

This paper documents an interactive graphics installation entitled Lucid Mapping and Codex Transformissions in the Z-Buffer. Lucid Mapping uses the Virtual Reality Modeling Language to explore textual and narrative possibilities within three-dimensional (3D) electronic environments. The author describes the creative rationale and technical design of the work and places it within the context of other applications of 3D text and typography in the digital arts and the scientific visualization communities.