Manufactured-animals « NextNature.net

Posts Tagged ‘Manufactured-animals’

Monitoring your computer’s activity like a frog pond

Multi-touch designer and developer Richard Monson-Haefel considers sound as an important part of our user interfaces. As an application of “Calm Technology” which revolves around giving feedback about the running state of a system in the ‘periphery’ of our consciousness – a concept introduced by ubiquitous computing pioneers Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown – he proposes to attach a sound to every process running on your computer: an unique croak, chirp or trill – the sounds of frogs, crickets, and cicadas of a small pond at dusk. Resulting in an ambient environmental murmur people should be able to interpret.

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Koert van Mensvoort
on 07/02/10 Comments »
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- Calm-technology | Manufactured-animals | Sentient Spaces | Wild-systems
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Half Life

Meet the next species. Director David Lea’s wondrous fantasy of remixed biodiversity after nuclear meltdown. Made for Greenpeace.
Koert van Mensvoort
on 31/01/10 Comments »
Tags
- Biomimicmarketing | Designed-by-Evolution | Hypernature | Made-to-debate | Manufactured-animals
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Monkeys fall into the ‘Uncanny Valley’ too

The uncanny valley, a phrase coined by Japanese robotic researcher Masahiro Mori nearly three decades ago, describes the uncanny feeling that occurs when people look at representations designed to be as human-like as possible – whether computer animations or androids – but somehow fall short. It turns out monkeys have that too.

In an attempt to answer deeper questions about the evolutionary basis of communication, Princeton University researchers have found that macaque monkeys also fall into the uncanny valley, exhibiting this reaction when looking at computer-generated images of monkeys that are close but less than perfect representations.

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Koert van Mensvoort
on 08/01/10 Comments »
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- Anthropomorphobia | Fake-nature | Manufactured-animals | Plastic-Fantastic | virtual-for-real
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Sion Chicken

How SecondLife ends up to be a virtual chicken farm? Watch Patrick Davison explain about the rise of Next Nature on the social platform.

Image by Kaie Magic | Related: Confetti Chicken | SecondLife Prostitute | SecondLife is Not Sustainable
Arnoud van den Heuvel
on 23/12/09 Comments »
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- Biomimicmarketing | Digital-Presence | Hyperreality | manipulating-growth | Manufactured-animals
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Birdfeeders spit Blackcaps in two species

Until now, most people have likely regarded bird-feeders as merely a pleasant addition to their gardens. But scientists have now discovered that bird-feeders in the UK are actually having a serious long term impact on bird life – they’ve found that the feeders have brought about the first evolutionary step in the creation of a brand new species.

Historically, European Blackcap birds migrate to Spain to spend their winters, where they feed on fruit and berries. While in the past the part of the population that accidentally flew to the UK had a hard time surviving, since the rise of bird–feeders in the UK things changed.

The food supplied by animal-loving Brits, along with the luxury of not flying over the Alps, have made Britain an increasingly popular holiday destination for wintering blackcaps. And that has set them down the path towards becoming two separate species, Gregor Rolshausen from the University of Freiborg and colleagues write in the journal Current Biology.

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Koert van Mensvoort
on 14/12/09 1 Comment »
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- Designed-by-Evolution | manipulating-growth | Manufactured-animals | utopian-suburbia
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Melting polar bear reveals a metal skeleton

Unsure how this melting polar bear ice sculpture created by artist Mark Coreth fits in Next Nature mythology. The art piece was presented last week in Copenhagen and is sponsored by WWF to create an awareness on the human impact on the climate.

Once the ice sculpture has melted – which should take a day or ten – a metal skeleton remains that remotely reminds of the metal skeleton of the Terminator. Should we read this as a symbol suggesting that biological species are being be replaced by technological species? Anyhow it does provoke one to reflect upon the question if and what species would take the polar bears place if it were to become extinct.

Related: The World without Technology, The Order Electrus, Killer Robots . Thanks Dreg.
Koert van Mensvoort
on 13/12/09 14 Comments »
Tags
- Fake-nature | Global-Image-Economy | Made-to-debate | Manufactured-animals
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Scientists ‘grow’ pork

Scientists at the Eindhoven University of Technology are creating artificial pork. Prof. Dr Mark Post and his colleagues of the department of Biomedical Engineering have extracted cells from the muscle of a living pig and then put them in a sticky broth of blood from other animal fetuses. The cells then multiplied and created muscle tissue. They believe that it can be turned into something like steak if they can find a way to artificially “exercise” the muscle.

According to this cultured meat is not only animal friendly, it could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals. However The Vegetarian Society said: “The big question is how could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered. It would be very difficult to label and identify in a way that people would trust.”

The project is funded by the Dutch government and the sausage maker Stegeman.

Via Telegraph.co.uk, BBC and Food&Drink Digital. Related: Designing the meat of the future, Get vegetarian teeth and eat less meat, Meat Pork, Million Dollar Burger.
Selby
on 01/12/09 4 Comments »
Tags
- Food-Technology | Manufactured-animals | supermarket
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Dolphin fitted with prosthetic fin

Tyre manufacturing company has come to the rescue of Fuji the dolphin who was stricken by a mysterious life threatening illness and lost her fin. She caught a disease that begun gradually rotting her tail and her tail had to be amputated to save her life.

For awhile the now 37-year old Fuji survived without a fin, but her lack of exercise and weight gain proved problematic. A friend of the handler’s working at one of Japan’s leading tyre makers, Bridgestone Corp, offered to make them an artificial tail fin for Fuji, the first of its kind in the world. The result was a tail fin 30 centimetres in length and 70 centimetres wide, a bit smaller than the tail of a healthy dolphin of Fuji’s size.
Selby
on 25/11/09 1 Comment »
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- Biopolitics | Fake-nature | Manufactured-animals
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How to grow a Sneaker

No silly. Of course sneakers can’t be grown from transforming Koi Karpers. This is merely an fictional piece by Yoske Nishiumi. But then again, do you have any idea where your sneakers where born?

Think about it for a second: How many of the clothes, jewellery or gadgets you are wearing at this very moment, of which you have no idea where and by whom they were made? Contrary to what some shopping malls want you to believe, they certainly didn’t grow on trees. More like this.

Via Hypebeast, via Virtualshoe Museum. Related: Where shoes come from, Flesh Nike, How to grow your own toaster, Shopping Tree, Modern Fossils, Some kids don’t like chicken, but they love dinosaur. Thanks Ehsan.
Koert van Mensvoort
on 24/11/09 Comments »
Tags
- Back-to-the-Tribe | Biomimicmarketing | Design-for-debate | Designed-by-Evolution | Fake-nature | Manufactured-animals | supermarket
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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.
Matthijs.Kwak
on 09/11/09 Comments »
Tags
- Hypernature | Manufactured-animals | utopian-suburbia
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The Hermaphrodite Effect

According to research carried out by scientists from the Columbia Environmental Research Centre, sewage water containing hormones and pesticides caused by human consumption is leading fish all over America to change gender. Within this phenomenon, male fish are turning partly-female, and are starting to produce female eggs. What it is exactly that is causing the gender-ambiguity in specific fish, and at what rate, is still to be proven. However, the scientists argue that part of the reason comes from hormones, such as birth control pills.

One might wonder how exactly this phenomenon can be understood in terms of being ‘Next Nature’, but it seems to reflect ‘nature caused by human culture’ in the sense that it perhaps lies exactly in between our ability to control ‘old nature’ and turn it into products (birth control pills) and the phenomenon of culture (the common use of extra hormones) getting so out of control that it leads to unexpected consequences.

Via: www.sueddeutsche.de
Florian Conradi & Michelle Christensen
on 31/10/09 5 Comments »
Tags
- Hypernature | manipulating-growth | Manufactured-animals
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Flyvertising

To draw attention to a stand at the publishing house of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, a publisher hired some flies. The paper mini-banners — attached with self-dissolving wax — were designed so that a fly could fly with it, but low and for short distances, constantly landing on the visitors.

Via: Scaryideas.com Related: Branded Butterfly Wings, Robo-fly, Cyborg Insects .
Arnoud van den Heuvel
on 31/10/09 3 Comments »
Tags
- Bionics | Information-decoration | Manufactured-animals | Officegarden
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Posts Tagged ‘Manufactured-animals’

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