Made-to-debate « NextNature.net

Posts Tagged ‘Made-to-debate’

Incredibly Shrinking Humanity

Arne Hendricks will be presenting The Incredible Shrinking Man at the Next Nature Power Show on November 5th.

Social erosion, fisheries depletion, deforestation- for the 7 billion people on earth, we’re not just approaching an era of resource scarcity, we’re already there. Except for the lucky few, food, shelter, and even water can be expensive and in short supply. We have tried to address global problems with bigger technologies and bigger laws, but what if we decided to go small? Really small. How would the world change if every human was only 50 centimeters tall?

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Allison Guy
on 25/10/11 Comments »
Tags
- Biopolitics | Hyperreality | Made-to-debate | Manufactured-Bodies | Nextnature Event | Power Show | Technorhetoric
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Unboxing Artificial Intelligence

Did you know that phones were once used for calling up our (human) friends? Researching the beginning of it all, we came accross demo video’s on the cloud called “internet” where people showed off how they tricked the first Siri-AI-devices into saying epic things like: “I don’t do knock knock jokes”. But the reason why this technology took such a leap, has everything to do with human “features” like personality, compassion and trust. From that moment in time, objects made from steel and glass have become our soulmates… our friends… our personal assistents… our pets… our slaves… Or were we theirs? Were we the ones being tricked?

Yes. We came to trust them because they were made to our image. They talked like our mothers and shared our brains and limbs. They could sense it if we were lonely and then played us music or said nice words. They tucked us in at night and woke us up the next morning.
Knock, knock! Species of the world, you are not alone. Matter is alive and there is plenty out there.
Arnoud van den Heuvel
on 12/10/11 Comments »
Tags
- Anthropomorphobia | Artificial Intelligence | Feed-Back | Humane-Technology | Made-to-debate
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Ghosts with Shit Jobs

This trailer for the mockumentary Ghost With Shit Jobs shows a could-be-future in which the role of the West and the East is reversed. Very good timing I would say.

More on: ghostswithshitjobs.com. Via NRC Next
Rolf Coppens
on 29/08/11 2 Comments »
Tags
- Back to the Tribe | Design-for-debate | Made-to-debate | Suburban Utopia | The-map-is-the-territory
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Get Vegetarian Teeth and Eat Less Meat

Want to live a greener life? Eat less meat. Recently the UN appealed for a radical shift in diet, to improve individual health and ease conditions affecting the global environment. Reducing meat consumption by 10% reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Unfortunately, humans are omnivores. Our teeth are designed to eat both meat and plants. Susana Soares and her colleagues designers and engineers of the Material Beliefs program propose to alter human teeth structures into those of herbivores, in order to become a better vegetarian.

Teeth are an essential tool for nutrition and their shape is related to diet. Herbivore animals have developed teeth structures suited to the consumption of plant material. Can our teeth structure be replaced to encourage dietary shifts that reflect social concerns?

Soon at a local dentist near you? Perhaps your government will even give you a tax cut for adopting a more sustainable veggy lifestyle? No seriously, this is bio play.

See also: Phone Tooth, Orthorexia Nervosa: the healty eating disorder.
Koert van Mensvoort
on 28/06/11 5 Comments »
Tags
- Anthropomorphobia | Biopolitics | Design-for-debate | Designed-by-Evolution | Food Technology | Hypernature | Made-to-debate | Manufactured-Bodies | Supermarket
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Blue, Belgian and Beefy

The Belgian Blue is a unique cattle breed that was developed quite accidentally in the late 1800s. An chance mutation lead the cattle to develop ‘double muscling,’ which occurs when the body does not produce sufficient myostatin to regulate the growth of muscles. These body-builder animals typically have 40% more muscle mass than the typical cow or bull. Double muscling is an extremely rare occurrence. Outside of carefully selected breeds like the Belgian Blue or the Texel sheep, it has occurred only a handful of other times in animals like dogs and humans.

Animal rights activists contend that the breed is inherently cruel. Calves are usually delivered by cesarean section, as they are too large to be born naturally. Due to its massive size, the breed suffers from heart and joint problems, and can have difficulty even moving around. Both Denmark and Sweden have both attempted to ban Belgian Blues on grounds of cruelty. From turkeys that can only reproduce via artificial insemination and bulldogs that must be born by c-section, we’ve created a catalogue of organisms that could never survive outside of the human environment. Think of it as triumph of co-dependence.
Allison Guy
on 23/06/11 Comments »
Tags
- Food Technology | Genetic-surprises | Hypernature | Made-to-debate | Manufactured Animals
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Vroem

A flock of planes taking off, by Ho-Yeol Ryu. Peculiar image of the week.
Rolf Coppens
on 24/02/11 1 Comment »
Tags
- Made-to-debate | On-the-Road | Suburban Utopia
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<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/11323803">http://www.vimeo.com/11323803</a>
Policing Genes

The genetics of the plants in your garden could become a police matter. Pharmaceutical companies are experimenting with genetically engineering plants to produce useful and valuable drugs. However, the techniques employed to insert genes into plants are within reach of the amateur… and the criminal. Policing Genes speculates that, like other technologies, genetic engineering will also find a use outside the law, with innocent-looking garden plants being modified to produce narcotics and unlicensed pharmaceuticals.

A project by Thomas Thwaites – On show at Wellcome Trust in London until March 29th
Rolf Coppens
on 20/01/11 Comments »
Tags
- Bionics | Biopolitics | Genetic-surprises | Made-to-debate
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Not So Horseless Carriage

Sometimes next nature breaks down and things fall back on an older nature. Luckily, this guy still had a horse around. Peculiar image of the week.

Via Kottke.
Koert van Mensvoort
on 05/01/11 1 Comment »
Tags
- Feed-Back | Made-to-debate | On-the-Road | Remediation
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Becoming female

A shot of a male body after a sex change by dutch artist and photographer Martin C. de Waal. De Waal tries to make people rethink their opinions by pushing the boundaries of self-alteration. With a fascination for plastic surgery and a strong drive to reinvent himself he underwent an eight and a half hour surgery to alter his face a few years ago. – mcdewaal.com
Rolf Coppens
on 17/12/10 4 Comments »
Tags
- Fake-nature | Made-to-debate | Manufactured-Bodies | Plastic Planet
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Drive in Wheel

The Drive in Wheel is an unique and spectacular giant wheel made especially for cars. The wheel is 100 feet high and takes four cars on one trip. City sightseeing has never been easier: you drive into the city center, into the wheel, view the city from above and drive out again – without ever leaving your car.

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Koert van Mensvoort
on 09/12/10 1 Comment »
Tags
- Made-to-debate | On-the-Road | sexy-machinery | Suburban Utopia | Toys-are-Us
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<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/17131671">http://www.vimeo.com/17131671</a>
Polar ice gone in two days

You have only two days left to purchase your own piece of history at the MyPolarIce store in Amsterdam and express the value the polar caps have for you – in real money. €24,95 to be exactly (approx. $33 for our american readers). Bring the heated debate back home and let your unique chunk of polar ice hybernate in your freezer, to pass it on to future generations.
Hendrik-Jan Grievink
on 04/12/10 1 Comment »
Tags
- Biomimicmarketing | Biopolitics | Global-Image-Economy | Image-Consumption | Made-to-debate
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Self Catching Fish

Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s Hole, Massachusetts, are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by using a sound broadcast to attract them into a net. If it works, the system could eventually allow black sea bass to be released into the open ocean, where they would grow to market size, then swim into an underwater cage to be harvested when they hear the signal.

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Koert van Mensvoort
on 03/11/10 1 Comment »
Tags
- Food Technology | Hypernature | Made-to-debate | Manufactured Animals | Sentient Spaces | Supermarket | Wild-systems
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Constellation

No this is not some stellar system far away. What is it then? Lets make another picture, this time with the flashlight on…

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Koert van Mensvoort
on 12/10/10 Comments »
Tags
- Made-to-debate | manufactured-landscapes | Officegarden | Sentient Spaces | Wild-systems
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Artificial Shrub Observatories

Justin Shull investigates the born and the made by mixing them up in mobile installations like the “Terrestrial Shrub Rover” and the “Porta Hedge”. His designs consist of several eco-conscious design features including recycled Christmas trees on the exterior, wood finishing on the interior, and the relaxing sound of birdsong audio on the interior and exterior. These vehicles are made to observe and explore both terrestrial and social environments.

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Arnoud van den Heuvel
on 23/06/10 Comments »
Tags
- Fake-nature | Made-to-debate | manufactured-landscapes | Officegarden | On-the-Road | Plastic Planet
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Urban Dolls

The idea of altering your body for aesthetic purposes is still somewhat frowned upon today. But more than because the very idea of improving yourself, this is about its irreversible nature.

When a women has some silicons inserted in her mammary glands, she’s very unlikely to go to back to a petite 75B one month later, but that very same woman can simply throw her high heels in the corner and wipe of the lipstick after an important vernissage. Compared to plastic surgery, clothing and make-up are much more accepted ways of presenting yourself to the opposite sex as that hyper-attractive step up the evolutionary ladder.

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Hendrik-Jan Grievink
on 18/06/10 1 Comment »
Tags
- Anthropomorphobia | Made-to-debate | Manufactured-Bodies | Plastic Planet
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One day at the Dentist

Do you also have that feeling sometimes that your dentist is undertaking all kinds of activities in your mouth that aren’t really necessary? Yet, you usually just trust the dentist on its expertise as you realize the prospect of an all organic natural mouth just isn’t an viable alternative – at least, not one your environment will appreciate.

Dentistry is technological by definition, but when to say enough? Perhaps one day when your dentist proposes to implant a Tooth Phone? Although it might be handy to silently listen to your voicemail, chew SMS with your friends and have your insurance company continuously monitor your health levels and food intake – feeling paranoid already? Don’t worry, the Tooth implant from Motorola is science fiction (still).

Rendering created by Sean Hamilton Alexander. Same guy who photoshopped the Google lens.
Koert van Mensvoort
on 28/05/10 1 Comment »
Tags
- Intimate Technology | Made-to-debate | Manufactured-Bodies | Nanotechnology | Physical-computing | Technorhetoric
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First man infected with computer virus

Doctor gets chip. Chip gets virus. Virus infects other devices… Dalek shoots doctor?

Dr. Mark Gasson of Reading University implanted a RFID chip under his skin last year. It is used to allow him secure access to University labs without a security card, and to use his mobile phone without fear of others gaining access to it. But recently he decided to infect it with a computer virus. The result was the virus being passed to other devices that scanned the chip, showing how a person in future could be a virus carrier for technology.
(…)
via news.bbc.co.uk
Arnoud van den Heuvel
on 26/05/10 2 Comments »
Tags
- Digital-Presence | Humane-Technology | Intimate Technology | Made-to-debate | Physical-computing
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Rocky Messages

These SMS-style messages scribbled into the mountains by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye, make us so humbly aware of the discrepancy between our everyday human experience and some of the larger forces of nature.

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Koert van Mensvoort
on 08/03/10 3 Comments »
Tags
- Made-to-debate | manufactured-landscapes
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