Ecology in the Garden of Machines
25 June 2015 20:00 - 22:00
During two evenings, on June 18 and 25 2015, perspectives from biology were used to create a better understanding of technological development. The ultimate goal was to find a fruitful (design) perspective in dealing with technological developments in the Anthropocene - the geological era in which humanity has become the main force of nature.
Angelo Vermeulen, artist and biologist, captain of the Mars simulation mission of NASA, Dr. Christian Fleck - synthetic biologist, and Karen Verschooren, curator of amongst others Alternature at Z33, presented their vision on the relationship between technology and ecology in three short lectures. The ensuing debate focused on the question whether technology can play a role in creating a richer and more robust ecology.
The ecological system does not only include plants and animals in their habitats. The entire human and technological sphere is part of it. Up until now, the technological part of the ecology has in fact parasitized on the organic part. The question is whether this could change. The principle of 'circular economy' constitutes a first step in that direction, translating the ecological principle that waste is food for other organisms to the economic and technological environment. Energy is increasingly renewable. Finite raw materials are increasingly replaced by raw materials extracted from plants, for which existing plants are adapted and sometimes redesigned at the genetic level. Many species are also able to adjust on their own to new, human-generated conditions. The city appears to function as a habitat for various species that are able to find new ways of coexisting. Which design strategies prove to be productive to increase the resilience of the ecology as a whole on the long term?
Speakers
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Angelo Vermeulen (B) is an artist and biologist. He is the only European recruited by NASA and later appointed crew commander of HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation), a four-month Mars simulation mission. His work as an artist and his PhD research at TU Delft focuses on the interaction between social, technological and ecological processes.
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Karen Verschooren is an art and design curator from Flanders. She is Head of Exhibitions at STUK Arts Centre in Leuven. At Z33, she curated the exhibition Alternature, about different ways in which people have displaced, manipulated or redesigned nature. She also curated Future Fictions, which focused on the question how artists, architects and designers relate to future scenarios.
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Dr Christian Fleck is synthetic biologist and a professor at Wageningen University, where he works on synthetic biological applications in the medical field, agriculture and the environment. He is also the coach of the Wageningen IGEM team, in which students participate in a global competition for the design of interesting and useful organisms.
Side programme
Prior to the programme you can already meet a number of robots from our exhibition Garden of Machines in the foyer of Het Nieuwe Instituut. On display will be:
A4 Robots (2010-2012) - Edwin Dertien
Prototype for a new BioMachines (2012) - Ivan Henriques
Zebro six legged robot (2010) - TU Delf Robotics Institute
After the evening we offered the opportunity to print the essay Life's Artefacts (in the Ten-Thousand-year Garden) by Sascha Pohflepp and Arjen Mulder at our in-house publisher Publication Studio and take this special edition home for a small fee. Publication Studio Rotterdam is the newest studio in an international network that designs, prints, binds, publishes and sells special books together with artists and writers all over the world.