Climate Change and the Problem of Representation

" Where the non-human environment ‘acts'—for instance, in the case of a ‘natural disaster'—it is interpreted with the human at the centre of concern: what does the occurrence mean for humans? How it can be read or interpreted in order to understand ourselves better? This tradition does not preclude human and non-human entanglements, but it interprets these as reflecting human power and indicative of human culture." This quote from the reading stood out to me. brings up themes of nature's rights vs. human actions. The environment would not be so closely studied and researched if it did not directly effect the quality of our lives. And ironically, the effects of nature the media is most concerned with are the ones caused by our ecological footprint. Because we our so self centered, there seems to be a sort of ranking system of nature based on the amount of effect made on human life, almost as if some parts of the environment are deemed more important than others. Many species of animals and plants are not given enough attention or agency because their impact on human life is small. Some types of bugs are in danger of being taken out of ecosystems because they are viewed as more of an annoyance to humans than a benefit. For my final project I will be exploring the overlooked parts of nature such as rocks and bugs and representing them in a way to give them agency. However, according to the ideas in this reading, it's hard to change the fact that the main takeaway from my project, or any artwork about the environment, will be more a reflection on our society and culture than on the actual nature itself.

Suspicious Images, Latent Interfaces Response

Bratton and Jeremijenko seem to be cautious of any type of data that is simply collected to be stored, and not actively used, and are weary of the purpose behind the data being collected. Bratton has mixed feelings about data having audiences, as they may further the audience from the real environmental issues they represent. I somewhat disagree with their stance. I think any data can be valuable, regardless of why it was collected or how passive it may be. Many environmental art projects seem to simply present information without actually making an impact on the environment, but are important in the sense that they raise awareness and expose environmental issues by making the audience feel a certain way. There is difference between the projects such as The Babbling Brook and projects such as the Environmental Health Clinic is the audience's interactivity. The audience is not directly involved with the data in The Babbling Brook, only observing data from sensors, as opposed the the Environmental Health Clinic where the data is put to use in real life applications. However, both projects accomplish the goal of awareness. There is a lot of information and knowledge out there, and the amount can seem overwhelming but they do serve a great purpose.

What the cassowary does not need to know

I think the reason we have such strict borders and separation between humans and nonhumans is that our ways of communication our different. The problem may lie in the difference of power; we perceive non humans to somehow be less than us. Perhaps the animals and nature also think we are less than them. I agree when the author argues humans never consider things from the non human's point of view, Most people probably assume nonhumans don’t even have a point of view. The author says that natureculture means that humans and nonhumans are “always in it together”. The word seems to imply that nature and culture work directly together in a mutualistic relationship. However from the sentence, “ 'perfect' Nature which never existed, but was always violated by human presence, by cultures, by naturecultures.”, it becomes clear that they don’t really work together. Culture seems to have more power and control over nature. I like the idea in the article of personifying nature and technology, forming a democracy including all entities in the world. But by personifying the cassowary, I feel that the Karam people using the cassowary to shape their culture is not based on the cassowary itself; their imagination of nature rather than actual nature affects their culture.

The Ecological Thought Response

Favorite Sentence:

"It exists, for instance, as a poem on a page made of paper from trees, which you hold in your hand while sitting in a chair in a certain room of a house that rests on a hill in the suburbs of a polluted city." -page 11 (on ecological art)

I like this sentence because it shows how connected every little thing in an ecosystem is. Even parts that you wouldn't normally think of as related to the ecological thought has an impact in it. I like how Morton says ecological art isn't ecological because of the subject matter but how it is made from materials and physically exists in the ecosystem. The sentence shortly after that also helps illustrate the point of interconnectivity: "The shape of the stanzas and the length of the lines determine the way you appreciate the blank paper around them." Even a poem can be it's own ecosystem, with the text and the paper working together to create something whole. The focus of poems is not normally on the blank space around the words, so I thought this sentence was very eye-opening.

Field Trip Responses

     The Daniel P. Thomas Material Recovery Facility showed me what happens to our materials after we recycle them. My favorite part of the trip was the room with the recycled art. Most of the furniture in the room, such as the benches we were sitting on, was beautifully decorated with recycled materials. I liked hearing how the tour guide got into this field of work. I find it interesting that he is also a firefighter; I think the two fields are well intertwined.  I wonder how much overlap he finds between his two jobs. The facility was very organized in the way they sorted each item by material. I was amazed at how large the quantities of recycled items were. It was somehow quite aesthetically pleasing to see the large piles of recycled materials. 
     The second part of the field trip, the Westchester wastewater treatment plant, gave me an appreciation for all the hard work put in to making our water safe and clean to drink. One thing that stuck out to me was the large stream of wastewater outside, where I could actually see the garbage accumulated from people. I saw a bunch of  half eaten corn on the cobs floating in the water; it is interesting to see where all our waste goes. Seeing burning methane is not something I see everyday, and was also a memorable part of the trip. 

Idea for Sound Project

For my project, I am thinking of getting recordings of various sounds pertaining to trash cans- such as people throwing garbage away, using a contact mike on a trash can, the bees and the bugs inside a trash can, etc. I want to explore the question: what does garbage sound like? I would like to have the audio installed inside an empty trash can, and make the trashcan echo, so people can interact with the piece by putting things in it and seeing how it sounds.

Still Sleeping Response

Meira Asher felt constrained when she was told to stick to a specific valley for a sound art event. She wanted to make her piece a sound walk to the other side of the forest, where a 16 year old boy got killed. She worked with these creative constraints, however, and installed her sound art inside a car. I think this way of presenting her project adds more symbolism and meaning to the work than if she had done a sound walk. Cars at night are the catalyst for tragic and dangerous situations not just for this 16 year old boy, but in many incidents. I think mothers often are fearful when their children start learning to drive and start going out alone at night, so the car installation symbolizes that fear. It also gives a sense of the motherly instinct she is expressing; people may imagine someone they care about in that stuffy car and feel worried and protective as Asher expresses she feels.
The soundscape piece is so clear and crisp. It feels as if she is not only whispering into my ear, but is physically in the room with me whispering into my ear. The raspy and deep tone she is speaking in sets the mood of the piece. The recurring moments of silence add tension and are very effective. I couldn't tell if one of the sounds was of footsteps, thunder, or a heart beating, but having the somewhat constant beat throughout the piece also added tension.

The Whale and the Reactor Response

The idea that hardware and infrastructure has politics is very fascinating to me. The reasoning behind Robert Moses' low-hanging overpasses is disturbing, but opened my eyes to question the construction behind infrastructures. Every building was built in a specific way and in a specific location for a reason, although the reasoning is very rarely thought about. In that sense, it is invisible. Technology can have original purposes which are sinister, such as the machines meant to destruct worker unions. I do think it is important to note that technology is not always added for the purpose of modernization, and that inventions often have unintended consequences. Computers were originally meant for mathematical calculations, and probably were not intended to be used and often abused in ways as they are today. A website such as Kim Dotcom's Megaupload was created based on the principle of sharing, however unintentionally turned into a site to aid criminal activity and pirating content.

How to Look at a Culvert Reflection

My favorite quote from this article is "Culverts are hidden injuries; the roads may look fine, but the culverts are evidence of what has been done to the landscape". This is such a beautiful metaphor. This article is a reminder of how sometimes some of the most ignored parts of infrastructure are the most important. Culverts are like scars to remind the environment of its past, and are usually only seen if they are being specifically looked for. This reminds me of Ingrid Burrington's article on Invisible Infrastructure, as well as the project Invisible-5. I, myself, have not personally explored or even think I've seen a culvert, but the description in this article of Elkins exploring a large one as a child has inspired me to do the same next time I am near one.

Sound Work Reflection

One audio piece I find very interesting is Materials Recovery Facility by Ernst Karel. These are a collection of short clips from different parts of the materials recovery facility. There is a focus on the sounds of recyclable materials. The concept is almost like hearing what recycling sounds like; the rhythm of recycling.  I love how beautiful the plastics in particular sound, with the instrumentals in the background. It's such a clever concept of making recycling into music. It could even inspire and encourage people to recycle more. These labeled clips cover different areas of the recovery facility, giving a sonic tour to the listener. This reminds me of the project Terra Incognita mentioned in Infrastructural Tourism, a game which aims to have the players "perceive the city as an infinitely expanding assemblage of puzzles." If the separate clips weren't labeled in Karel's piece, this piece could achieve the same effect. Each recording is like a separate puzzle piece. It could turn into a game where viewers try to guess which materials or machines are making which sound to decode the infrastructure of the recovery facility.

Week 2 response

Infrastructural Tourism

Shannon Mattern

Parts of this article talk about being able to see and becoming aware of the not so obvious underlyings of an area, using the field guide Invisible-5 as an example. I find it interesting how although infrastructure means below the ground, not all of them are actually ‘below’. Unless you’re a passenger, railways are ground level. In an article by Ingrid Burrington, she states, “'Invisible' is a word that people use to describe things—cables, networks, systems, people—when they don’t want to admit they are still learning how to see”. I think people try harder to understand infrastructure when it’s in the form of art. A concept I found interesting were “antenna trees”. Using cell phone towers to look like trees is a great way to make infrastructure aesthetically pleasing. Upon realization that it's not just a tree, curiosity sparks in people to learn more. Art is a useful tool to get the general population to understand and care about infrastructure systems. Invisible-5 is almost like a game, which engages the public. Unconventional ways of presenting infrastructure can have an important impact on people.

Reference: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/how-to-see-invisible-infrastructure/401204/

Reading Responses Week 1

Should we be suspicious of the Anthropocene idea?

This article really emphasizes how everything is man-made, and that a true natural world doesn’t exist anymore. Amartya Sen’s observation that natural catastrophes aren’t in fact natural, but the product of political and economic systems. In theory it seems like a good thing that humans have control over the environment and have the ability to change things for the better by making changes to our political system. However, in reality it's not that simple and the changes for the better have not been happening. One phrase that really stood out to me in this article is, "a slow crisis feels normal. It feels, in fact, natural.". This phrase sums up the relationship between people and the changing environment. We have gotten used to the fact that human activity is damaging the earth, and just kind of accept the idea as a fact that we cannot individually change. The term 'global warming' has been thrown around so much for such a long time that it does seem normal. Some of these ideas tie into a current event that I was reading, Flooding of Coast, Caused by Global Warming Has Already begun (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/science/flooding-of-coast-caused-by-global-warming-has-already-begun.html?_r=0). Even the title implies that so many people don’t pay attention to these issues unless they are affecting them in the current moment. Many people are used to the idea of global warming as something that’s happening slowly, that they often don’t realize the effects are happening right now.

The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure

Brian Larkin's article gave me a little more information on how infrastructures work. At one point he explains how everything in one infrastructure is dependent on each other. Bigger and powerful items in an infrastructure are made up of smaller items working together which are made up of smaller items and so on. A part that interested me was, “They  become infrastructures when either one technological system comes to dominate over the others” (pg. 330). The dominance and dependence of infrastructures reminds me somewhat of a food chain.

Before reading this article, I never thought about how networked infrastructures must survive in other environments with differing conditions as well. This makes me wonder if there are any infrastructure systems that could only work in one specific place, or were designed customly for a specific place. I also found it interesting how some infrastructures, like the one described in South Africa, produced a “new sort of citizen.” This relates back to the previous article about the Anthropocene idea about how people shape the infrastructure; infrastructure shapes people as well. We effect the environment just like the environment affects us.