Questions for “There Is No Such Thing as Nature”

1. If we “abolish the idea of the environment as something completely separate from our life and culture,” how would that affect the conservation movement which aims to protect specific areas of land from human interference? Is the answer to merge modern society with nature or attempt to isolate ecosystems from human contact so that their processes may be protected?

2. Are utopian visions of man living symbiotically with nature useful, or should we focus on pressing environmental issues as they come up?

3. “What can artists and architects do to promote a new, more radical, but still sympathetic, understanding of nature?”

The Burning Man experience

The Burning Man experience is clearly something that is ephemeral and that could be only best be described by experiencing it. The following link is an essay by Molly Steenson a participant event:

http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/experience.html

This experience is a creative event assembling a variety of people like artists(in the bigger sense of Art) to the average not so-awkward ‘joe’ who has a desire for some spontaneity. It unites over 48,000 participants/visitors for one week @ Black Rock City. The event happens on an ancient lakebed called ‘playa’. There are no rules at this event and each visitor participates in whatever way they wish. Every work that is created during this event will be taken down and no traces of this event will be noticeable after clean-up. This reminded me of the model of the four-dimensional ecosophic object. Every individual has impact upon the outcome of this event.

The following is a video of one of the project that attracted my attention:

Questions for ‘A plea for earthly sciences’ reading

DUY: how much should we think/feel/act as a collective and as an individual concerning the discrepancy between human and nature?

SCOTT: A Plea for Earthly sciences suggests that we need to go beyond observing the earth in a superficial way and begin to look at the system in an accurate, holistic manner. With little time to act, what steps could be taken to describe the radical shift in the way we must perceive the earth as a system, and how could we easily explain this point of view to a layperson?

Ecological Children Activity and Education Center

Maybe this will inspire some.
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Me, Henk

I’m Henk and my main interest is in video game design and development, but I’m also interested in other digital interactive media. I’m a pretty good programmer, with experience in many different programming languages (c, c++, java, lua, scheme, php, etc.) and have experience doing video game and graphics-related programming. I can also find my way around GIMP for graphic design, though that’s not my strength.

I’m really interested in how video games can be used to explore the topic of sustainability. There are quite a few games out there which try to deal with environmentalist ideas, but most are no more than superficial explorations (pick up all the trash! stop the factories from polluting!). I’d like to explore more interesting or abstract ecosophical concepts, though it’s too early to have a concrete idea.

Turning Ecosophic

Hello.

Leon here, an animation student on exchange from the other side of the world, and very new to semiotic fluxes, machinic phylas and other crazy made-up words.

I must confess that I almost had a panic attack during the first class, but decided fuck it, I’ll do it. It’s an important subject, and like Fox Mulder, I want to believe.

I’m pretty much a jack-of-all-trades, knowing a little bit of animation, 3D, video and web development. I have experience in project management, and I’d say programming is my strongest suit – but I’m sick of it, and trying my hardest to move away from it.

The theme I have for the project is re-usability. I’d like to create a workshop that gets people actively participating in it, as opposed to just viewing something. I want to interest the average person on their level instead of marginalizing them with abstract theories and seemingly far-off scientific facts.

This workshop would be about getting people to join and build/create/construct items out of used or recycled materials that we’d provide. We’d provide the tools, plans and instructions. For example, people could come and build household items for their homes. We could get the kids involved making toys or little things and make it a family outing out of it.

Basically, what I want is to get people to get creative about what they can do with what they already have instead of just going out and buying new stuff. I want to show them that it can be cheaper, more rewarding, better for the world, and above all, easy. After all, that’s what most people want – things to be easy. Not everyone wants to change their lives around to save the world, but we need at least the majority to be doing something.

So that’s the gist of it, with plenty of other details to be worked out. Of course, this is just a rough idea I’m playing around with, and I’m pretty open to any other ideas or projects that anyone else wants to do.

Contact me if you’re vaguely interested in anything I’ve mentioned and we can talk! Thanks for listening.

Email at leon (dot) wee (at) gmail (dot) com

Hello World

My name is Scott.

I’m good at photography, video/motion graphics, sound and music and can handle some light technical stuff. Other assets that I have include many interesting contacts (both media and political), which could be very useful for the project.

I am a motivated worker and have worked on some rather large projects before for other classes.

I would be interested in doing one of the following (or a combination): Documentary style, interviews, animation, web based. I would definitely be interested in a screen based project. I would like video and sound to be an important component. Something shocking or jarring would be acceptable. Most of all I want to have fun and be proud of the work.

you can contact me at montrealmusic at gmail dot com.

Yar.

Hey.

I’m Luc. Typically laid back, and generally approachable a majority of the time. Skill-wise, there’s plenty I can do.  Some of the stuff covered in CART classes I can accomplish with reasonable success, being a generalist with no real speciality. There are exceptions, however; I’d rather not program given a chance. I also cannot use arduinos at all, and can’t use MaxMSP (because I hate it with a burning passion.) But enough about what I can’t do.

I’ll say I’m comfortable with sound, graphic design, drawing, sculpting/crafting (metal or wood, especially) and *some* web design. I can definitely write. I am quite fond of building entire fictional and parallel worlds, with their culture, customs, and other minute details. Plot and storyline are important, but less so than this sort of world-building I seem to revel in. It is the main way I dispense of my creative impulses. I am completely bilingual (French/English, in this case) both in spoken and written form, for what it’s worth.

Given a choice, I think I’d prefer building something physical, monolithic, something that can be approached in the flesh, rather than focusing on computer-borne projects. We do plenty of computer stuff as it is…

Contact me at Lucbibeault@gmail.com

Peter

Hi there!

My name is Peter (duh!) and the one thing people remember me by is that I’m LOUD. But don’t be scared! I’m a pretty sociable guy (when I’m not making a fool out of myself in front of classrooms anyways!) I’m in the CART major and I’m also minoring in film animation. So, I can do anything that involves programming, design, video, animation and photography. I’m picky about presentation, so I like to polish my work till it’s at its absolute best.

For the project, I don’t have any particular ideas, but I would like to do one of these: building a physical (public/outdoors) installation, a performance piece or video (more in terms of a short / documentary than anything interactive).

I’m comfortable with anything related to design, video and animation. Lately, I’ve been really into photography. I also love to do manual work, like working with metal and other arts&craft stuff.

I can also do programming, but I would rather not spend that much time in front of the computer, because that’s what most CART students (or in fact, what most people) do all day and it eats up precious electricity (which pretty much defeats the purpose, unless it uses TONS of energy like that giant laser used for the green clouds).

Feel free to email me at: ng.peter@gmail.com

Come on. Let’s get the show on the road.

I’ve got my project already all set up in my mind. If you want in, just say so. What i want to do is a sort of late news cast, using humour and facts, that is reporting news in the most desensitized manner. Reporting on the weather, while a hurricane the size of Katrina is in full effect in the background, followed by sports being played in ungodly conditions (that are normal) along with a news report that the carribeans have been swallowed by the sea due to rising waters.

The idea is to put the viewer in a space where they would actually be looking in, instead of looking out (global warming and it’s affiliates). There would probably be some infomercials in between the news that would entice the consumer to convert their gold into drinkable water. That sort of thing. There’s a bit of satire involved but the idea is to approach the subject, not in an artistic manner, but one that the general population can identify to. I want to express complex ideas through simple every day terms (who wants to hear chaosmosis on tv?) as well.

Anyways, if you want in, i need people who can do the following:

Video
Sound
Acting/Filming/Directing

I would contribute the creative development of the script, the research, talking/acting/directing whatever.

Lmk.

Jos