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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.

Next Nature Newsletter #9

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CONTENTS

-Next Nature DVD
-Blog Highlights
-Join the Next Nature Tribe on Facebook

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NEXT NATURE DVD

Out now: Real Nature is not Green. A DVD with over twenty visions of artists, scientists, designers, directors and thinkers who present their powerful imagery, radical ideas and visionary statements on how we can design, build and live in the nature caused by people.

Filmed during the Biggest Visual Power Shows in Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL), Zeche Zolverein (DE) and the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles (USA).

Among the presenters are Kevin Kelly, Tobie Kerridge, Jack van Wijk, Sunny Bergman, Floris Kaayk, Hendrik-Jan Grievink, Karl Grandin, Fiona Raby, Casey Alt, Amir Admoni, Jos de Mul, Tracy Metz, Henk Oosterling and many more.

Watch the trailer:
http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3757

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BLOG HIGHLIGHTS

Five strategies of Biomimicmarketing

Green electricity, Organic Shampoo, Jaguar convertibles, Red Bull, Camel cigarettes and Puma sneakers. Once you develop an eye for it, it is quite astonishing to see how many products and brands – through their name or logo – refer to ‘Nature’. We call this phenomenon Bio-mimic-marketing: using images of nature to market a product. An overview of the five most used strategies.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3720

Virtual Money – cows, coins, credit, airtime

Have you heard the buzz on virtual money in online games? The first virtual millionaire was announced already some years ago, yet there have also been reports on people being enslaved to farm virtual gold. The Chinese government recently announced to limit the use of ‘virtual’ currencies. An essay on the virtuality of money.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3989

Mapping the DNA world

DNA related tools, once expensive and restricted to research and crime labs, are rapidly becoming affordable. Like GPS – once a high-tech wonder, now turned into an everyday gadget – simple DNA sequencing may soon be available to almost everyone. Designer Niko Vegt has been working on an imaginary map of the DNA world. Unlike a regular map, which represents a physical territory, the DNA World map represents a conceptual territory of DNA related applications and developments.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3929

The comeback of the ‘ugly’ fruits

As of July 2009, the European Commission abolished more than two dozen laws that have restricted 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.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3683

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.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3829

Bacteria that turn CO2 into energy

It sounds to good to be true, almost like dream, but if you can engineer it, who cares? Scientists are working on genetically modified bacteria that can eat CO2 and excrete methane that could power our cars and homes. If they succeed, abundant carbon dioxide, which is considered the main cause of global warming, could be a nearly unlimited source of fuel.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3473

French Hyperbodies

“Paris, printemps 2019: Oh Darling, you look gorgeous.” Nowadays we are so used to Hollywood hyperbodies it is good to see a different take on them for a change.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3158

Placebo Buttons

As technology advances, buttons are replaced by sensors, gesture technology and autonomous systems. It may well be that our grand-grand-children won’t be pushing buttons like we do. Buttons are increasingly applied as ‘skeuomorphs’, without effect or function, merely providing the user with an illusion of control.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3968

Self-healing surfaces

What if a scratch on your car door could heal itself, just like the human skin does? Engineers are working on a way to transfer the self-healing ability of the skin to surfaces and materials.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3783

How to grow your own toaster

Look around in your house and try to find a product of which you know where it was made and by whom. Got any? Indeed, this can be quite a difficult task nowadays. Thomas Thwaites decided to take things in his own hand and see if he could build a toaster, from scratch.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3769

Boomeranged Metaphors

At the start of the digital era, metaphors from everyday life were used in order to make the new technology understandable – think of the digital highway, windows, folders, buttons and trash cans. Nowadays the digital environment is so accepted, we see how proven concepts from the digital realm are seeping back into our physical environment. We call this phenomenon a ‘boomeranged metaphor’.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3473

Brand dating

Brand dating relies on the identification people have with brands to connect them. It replaces characteristics like “sporty”, “spontaneous” and “funny” with brands like “Apple©”, “Starbucks©” and “Camel©”.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3708

Will bioluminescent trees replace street lights?

Most people know about light emitting organisms such as jellyfishes, fireflies and mushrooms. Genetic engineers already transferred genes responsible for the bioluminescence into a tobacco plant. What if this technology could be extended further to say, a maple tree or a juniper bush? In urban areas, one usually sees a row of trees parallel to streetlights. Why not hybridize them?

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3663

Ancient man impacted environment already

The human environmental impact on our planet is hardly underestimated nowadays. Untouched old nature is almost nowhere to be found anymore and “We were here”, is written all over. So when did the writing begin? Much earlier than thought.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3841

Carhenge

Artist Jim Reinders became so enthralled by the beauty of the famous Stonehenge in England that he had to recreate it. However, Reinders, instead of using stone, decided to embrace a more modern, Americanized approach, which resulted in Carhenge.

http://www.nextnature.net/?p=3691

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JOIN THE NEXT NATURE TRIBE ON FACEBOOK

If you have an account, you might want to reconnect with Next Nature on Facebook. There are some good people over there.

http://www.facebook.com/nextnature

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Forward to Nature! The good people of NextNature.net hope you will become a true connoisseur of the nature caused by people.