Half Life
Meet the next species. Director David Lea’s wondrous fantasy of remixed biodiversity after nuclear meltdown. Made for Greenpeace.
What is Next Nature?
With our attempts to cultivate nature, humankind causes the rising of a next nature, which is wild and unpredictable as ever. Wild systems, genetic surprises, autonomous machinery and splendidly beautiful black flowers. Nature changes along with us.
Posts Tagged ‘Hypernature’
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How to grow an Organ
Buckle up for the state of the art in the fusion of the made & the born. Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine presented footage of his bio-engineers growing human organs at TEDMED – from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. Thanks Michèle.
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真正的自然不是綠色的
This translation of the essay ‘Real Nature is not Green‘ is a special treat from and for our fellow Next Nature explorers in China. We thank the people of the Microwave International New Media Festival, Hong Kong for their translation. Yes, we welcome translations in other languages as well.
沿著高速公路近荷蘭保魯文度城 (Bloemendaal)的森林旁邊，樹立著偽裝成松樹的無線電話塔狀天線杆。
它不是自然景物，極其量只是自然景物的圖象。是一種圖解，就像掛在沙發上方的風景畫一樣；我們還能夠真實地體驗自然嗎？抑或我們是活在自然的圖象當中？在荷蘭，每平方米也是人造土地：自然的本質巳無處可尋。 Oostvaardersplassen自然保護區作為荷蘭自然保育區其中一個最重要的部分，曾被開墾作工業用地，後來才成為自然保育區。在荷蘭人口密度最高的地方，就連綠色核心（GreenHeart）區域事實上也是中世紀的工業用地，起初是被開墾用來剪草皮。「自然保育」其實是由人類活動塑造的「文化保育」。伏爾泰在十八世紀時說過：「神創造世界，但不包括荷蘭。荷蘭人自行創造他們的國土。」由那時開始，我們身體力行地支持他的看法。今時今日，我們甚至不斷在荷蘭設計及建構自然。政府官員選址構造史前森林：自然的形象由我們在休憩性擬態中細心構造（自然構建者稱之為「錯失遺產的重生」[1]）。傳統牛隻更被安排在這所謂的「新自然」中飼養[2]。原來的野牛不幸在1627年絕種，但蘇格蘭高地（ScottishHighlander）牛隻就成為廣為接受的代替品。牠們知道應該做什麼：在山林管理隊安排下吃草。多得他們，景色得以保持明淨而非雜草叢生（我們喜歡這樣子，因為這令我們聯想到著名的十七世紀風景畫）。理論上，動物應該照顧自己，但山林管理隊卻樂意在冬天給予牠們一點額外的食物。這樣更可減少動物死屍，免得遊人看見路上有腐爛的牛隻而生厭。在我們的文化中，自然不斷被展示為一個錯失的國度。它令人聯想到原始性，卻只會在消失後才出現。我們體驗的自然是一種復古效應[3]。
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Favorite explorations of 2009
As we bid farewell to 2009, it’s a good time to look back at our explorations of the year. Here are some of our most popular and peculiar posts, in case you missed them the first time around.
The Comeback of the ‘ugly’ fruits
As of July 2009, the European Commission abolished more than two dozen laws that have stipulated the look of Europe’s fruit and vegetables for the past 20 years. The rules stipulated that only the most perfect-looking produce adorns supermarket shelves and caused international ridicule by stating that all bananas must be “free of abnormal curvature” and at least 14 cm in length. Perhaps in the long run, historians will consider this as the official end of modernity.Children’s dictionary dumps ‘nature’ words
To make way for modern tech terms such as BlackBerry, blog, voicemail and broadband, the latest edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary has opted to drop terms pertaining to old nature. No longer can a child check this dictionary and learn more about the blackberry, dandelion, acorn, heron, otter or willow. While words like voicemail, MP3 player, attachment, database, and chatroom are added. Nature changes along with us.Boomeranged Metaphors
At the start of the digital era, metaphors from everyday life were used in order to make otherwise incomprehensible technology acceptable – think of the digital highway, windows, folders, buttons and trashcan. Nowadays, the digital environment is accepted almost everywhere and we see how proven concepts from the digital realm are gradually seeping into our physical environment. We call this phenomenon a ‘boomeranged metaphor’.Virtual Money – cows, coins, credit, airtime
Heard the buzz on virtual money in online games? Some years ago the first virtual millionaire was announced, yet there have also been reports on people being practically enslaved to farm virtual gold. The Chinese government recently announced to limit the use of ‘virtual’ currencies. An essay on the virtuality of money.Michael Jacksons appearance in heaven
Our beloved King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who died tragically this year, throughout his career, he underwent countless groundbreaking cosmetic operations. Using childhood photo’s of Michael and knowledge on basic aging trends, forensic artists constructed a portrait of how Michael would have looked at age 50, had he never undergone plastic surgery. The difference between the portraits is striking. But which is the real Michael? The man of flesh and blood, sculpted by plastic surgeons or the highly speculative forensic image? Both Michaels are virtual in their own right.Why are carrots orange? It is political
For ages carrots used be white, yellow, red and purple – and in some regions of the world they still are. Yet, orange has become the dominant color in most countries. Why is that? Its political: in the 17th century, Dutch growers cultivated orange carrots as a tribute to William of Orange – who lead the the struggle for Dutch independence – and the color stuck. Hypervegetables avant la lettre.Plastic Birds
Bird spotting is not a typical activity for us next nature explorers, yet these ‘plastic’ birds spotted by photographer Chris Jordan are the most macabre thus far. One wonders what Darwin would have thought of these Albatross babies fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents. Are we ready for a plastic planet?Designing Bugs that Eat Plastic
With the great pacific garbage patch now twice the size of Texas and over 500 billion plastic bags produced a year – which take about a 1000 years to decompose – plastic is well on its way of becoming a basic material in the Earths ecosystem. Perhaps in the long run microbes would evolve to digest plastics. But why wait for evolution? 16-year old high school student Daniel Burd already developed a microorganism that can rapidly biodegrade plastic.Cavemen impacted environment already
The human environmental impact on our planet is hardly underestimated nowadays. Untouched old nature is almost nowhere to be found anymore besides perhaps some small areas on the South pole, in the deep sea or if one looks up at the stars – although the brighter ones may well be satellites. “We were here”, is written all over. So when did the writing begin? Much earlier than thought.Doggerland – a lost world
So you think climate change is new? So you think the flooding of landmass by the oceans is a new? So you must have not heard of the times when people walked from London to Amsterdam.Modern Fossils
So what happened to that old floppy drive, ipod or tape recorder? Time to dig up some of those modern fossils. -
http://www.vimeo.com/5837597 Pimp My Planet
“We live in a time where everything or everyone can be upgraded or ‘pimped’. After the worldwide acceptance of plastic surgery, it was time to subject our worldly possessions (Pimp my Ride) and digital identities (Facebook) to an esthetical and/or functional upgrade. So it’s likely that eventually everything will be pimp-able. Even our own planet.”
The PIMP MY PLANET video, created the good people of Studio Smack, explores the possibilities of redesigning our planet according to ideals or aesthetic values. It is the wet dream of every modernist – I bet Mondriaan would have liked this – and then you wake up and realize that maakbaarheid is never finished and with every attempt to cultivate nature, a next nature arises that is wild and unpredictable as ever.
Related: If the implications of Global Warming were fair, Fight climate change, hack the planet, Ancient Man impacted environment already, Doggerland – mapping a lost world, Unfolding the Earth.
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The Modernist agenda uncovered
Peculiar image of the week. Created by Merijn Bolink.
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Designing Bugs that eat Plastic
It is a well known secret that plastic hardly breaks down and almost all of the plastic ever made still floats around somewhere. With the great pacific garbage patch now twice the size of Texas and over 500 billion plastic bags produced a year – which take about a 1000 years to decompose – plastic is well on its way of becoming a basic material in the Earths ecosystem.
Earlier, we’ve discussed some of the dramatic effects of this nextnature material and suggested how a future-evolving microbe able to digest plastic, could thrive on the vast amount of plastic ‘food’ available in the biosphere. It might take a million years, however, for such a plastic eating microbe to evolve.
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Blood Cells 2.0
Unlike many people fear that computers will overtake humans, Ray Kurzweil states that robots will merge with humans, robots the size of cells which can do the job way more efficient than our actual cells. An example on this are respirocytes; robots the size and functions of a red blood cell, but way more efficient (movie).
Respirocytes are able to store 1.51 billion oxygen molecules, 100% of which are accessible to the tissues. In contrast, our blood cells store about 1 billion of red blood cells and only 25% is accessible to the tissue. Replacing 10% of your actual red blood cells will enable you to do an Olympic sprint for 15 minutes without taking a breath or allows you to stay underwater for four hours.
In his TED-talk Kurzweil calls this 2020 technology. Many major steps have been made within the field of nanotechnology and Respirocytes are quite likely to be actually manufactured someday. Hence, we may anticipate some new
doping scandalsworld records at the Olympics of 2020.Related: Voyage of the bacteria bots, How biotech will drive our evolution, Craig Venter: catalyst of evolution, Build a better being.
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Nocturnal Life of Diurnal Birds
English Robins are forced to sing their song during the night. Not because they have figured out that music just sounds better in the dark, but because they can’t compete with the noise we make during the day.
Research by Richard A. Fuller et al. has revealed that English Robins are active during the night in 18 out of 67 observed areas across Sheffield, England. In one area, an English Robin was only active during the night. As it turns out, there was significantly more (human caused) noise in those areas than in the 49 areas where the English Robin only sang during the day.
Where will this lead to? Maybe our 24/7 society will silence all English Robins and other birds during the day, forcing them to develop their nocturnal lives, which in turn will lead to sleepless nights for us, because we will be treated to midnight concerts every night.
Related post: Copypaste bird, Wild birds illegaly imigrating to city zoo, Flying penguins.
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The Uncanny Valley of the Pussycat Dolls
Make no mistake, you’re not looking at the latest Barbie line: These are the The Pussycat Dolls. Formerly an LA
stripper showburlesque show, now upgraded to be pop music sensation and the new face of female empowerment. With virtually every race and hair color represented, the collection of women seemed to have stepped straight out of an adolescent boy’s fantasy.Yet, their polished perfection also has a certain unheimlich quality: The lips, the breasts, the heavily done faces, the oh-so-perfect noses, the shiny skins, the ’sculpted’ bodies. Too perfect to be human: this cannot be trusted.
Screenshot from the movie Lars and the Real Girl (2007)Could the female pop group perhaps be the latest manufacture of Abyss creations, the Californian company known from Real Doll life-size silicone
sex dollmannequin advertised as “the state-of-the-art for life-like human body simulation”?The name ‘Pussycat Dolls’ certainly adds to the suspect, but then again their hit singles with titles like ‘BUTTONS‘ and ‘BEEP‘ point more in the direction of a robotics project. Perhaps professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, after his so-so attempts to create a robotic schoolteacher and doppelganger of himself, now exceeded himself with this sexy machinery? Not sure, as the comparisons go on…
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Natural Fountain
Fountains are peculiar objects: We associate them with nature even though they are typically entirely artificial and man-made (unless you are living in Iceland of course).
Recently however, a fountain that wasn’t planned for emerged in California’s San Fernando Valley. An urban water pipe carrying purified recycled water, used for irrigation and industrial purpose, began leaking. The rupture sent water gushing in an immense column that towered over the roof of a nearby business.
Thousands of gallons went down the sewer before the next natural fountain was closed down more than three hours later.
Via BBC NEWS. Related: Datafountain – Money translated to water, Water shows when the heat is on. Thanks Tara.
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Moscow won’t let it snow
Already in the early days of modern civilization, people claimed that they could control the weather. A known example from recent history are the rituals that American Indians used to induce rain.
Nowadays, many people still tend to regard these stories as fairy-tales and consider controlling the weather impossible. In Moscow though, the mayor recently proposed a snow-free city. It proves that several countries, including the People’s Republic of China, USA and Russia, are modifying precipitation for several decades. In Russia, it is common practice to engineer dry days on public holidays and special events in Moscow.
Moscow’s plan is to disperse a mixture of silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder into clouds to trigger precipitation. This ensures that snow is banned from Moscow’s city centre, but results in a regional climate change in the areas just outside Moscow where the clouds empty their load. You can imagine the consequences…
Related: Hurricane control causes storm of lawsuits, Fight climate change: Hack the planet, China controls weather for olympics.
