1) Complete your ecologies of practice diagram (given in class) and upload it to your blog.
2) Upload one key text and one key artwork to your blog that your prototype will be inspired by and write a paragraph on why/how these are relevant.
David Tudor – Rainforest (1965)
Rainforest is a key work in sound arts and in the interactive installation field that has been largely acclaimed and copied during many years until present time. It will be one my main references for my research during this last year and more in particular for this portfolio unit for a variety of reasons; first, the artwork is interactive, the spectator can touch the different objects in the gallery and the installation itself will react with sonic changes emitted through loudspeakers. Interactivity is one of the main topics that I want to explore this year and this work fits perfectly as a reference. Secondly, I found interesting the relation between the name ‘Rainforest’ and the technology involved in the installation, not looking or sounding as a rainforest, but bringing this metaphor of technology as nature which I would also like to explore as the background meaning of my first portfolio project.
I found interesting this text from Peter H. Kahn about the subject:
“Two world trends are powerfully reshaping human existence: the degradation, if not destruction, of large parts of the natural world, and unprecedented technological development. At the nexus of these two trends lies technological nature, technologies that in various ways mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world. Current examples of technological nature include videos and live webcams of nature, robot animals, and immersive virtual environments. Does it matter for the physical and psychological well-being of the human species that actual nature is being replaced with technological nature? As the basis for our provisional answer (it is “yes”), we draw on evolutionary and cross-cultural developmental accounts of the human relation with nature and some recent psychological research on the effects of technological nature. Finally, we discuss the issue and area for future research of ‘environmental generational amnesia.’ The concern is that, by adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing.”
Full article here: