Hypernatural

Testing #becomingbiodiversity my augmented reality project at #willowlake #flushingmeadowscoronapark @harvestworks @nycparks (at Queens, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpsbN7zFNhb/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=17cidhcsv1wn6

#blueflowers #nofilter #dyedorchid with light by @danalynnharper #discoathome #funwithplants #hypernature #droctagon #danceflowers

Happiness is getting my #roboticart published in a #cactus book

Waiting on Breath of Leaves #stomata #plantskin #artscience #artinstallation @svabioart #FACTT

Special thanks to Cultivamos Cultura, the Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Lisbon and the Meier Lab at the Ohio State University.

#stomata #jacaranda fabric #plantbody #artinprocess #wip

Between 2013 - 2014 we were hosted by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. Three exhibitions were produced and archived. Trans-Species, a solo show by Ken Rinldo, Telepresent Animal Hall of Fame, curated by Doo-Sung Yoo, and Interspecies Housing, which was co-created by landscape architecture students at the Ohio State University in a course taught by Katherine Bennett, David Shimmel and Ian Mackay.

This time lapse video was produced to show an amplified perspective of the transformation of waste into fertilizer. A live feed webcam located in my office at the Ohio State University has been broadcasting the activities of composting worms over the last two years. The meals are made of waste foods that worms like – carrot pulp, asparagus ends, coffee grounds, tea bags and banana peels – on a bedding of shredded newspaper and coconut hulls. The worm bin is illuminated with infrared light to protect the worms from visible light, which can harm them. This video reveals the awesome efficiency of these soil organisms and reminds me that human life depends upon them.

This project premiered in Lüedenscheid, Germany at LichtRouten 2013, an International Forum of Light in Art and Design. September 27 – 6 October 2013. Artistic directors: Bettina Pelz and Tom Groll.

Museum for insects screen capture from Amy Youngs on Vimeo.

Building a Rainbow from Amy Youngs on Vimeo.

If they could choose, where would domesticated crickets choose to be? Living outdoors in the midwest winters is not a a survivable option for Acheta domesticus (house crickets), but perhaps they still yearn for the pastoral grasslands and woodlands experienced by their wild relatives. Actual nature would be a bit harsh for these crickets, who are raised in climate-controlled tanks as food for reptiles, so I have constructed a safe bubble for them. This enclosure provides an artificial landscape and provides a simulation of motion through it. Through the use of a computer interface, the crickets are able to "interact" with their projected environment by chirping. Each chirp advances the panoramic, cricket-eye-view video footage of outdoor scenery.

Quite a nice show, which can be entirely viewed online. My video "HandShake" is a collaboration with worms, webcam, and musician Matt Ogborn.

Dimensions: 7' x 3' x 1'

This technologically-enhanced nature experience attempts to facilitate communication between crickets and humans. The cricket participants live in a glass-walled, human-like environment which, when a human participant is present, includes a televised human on their own scale. For the human, there is a telephone interface which receives the amplified chirping sounds of the actual crickets and sends voice-activated electronic chirping sounds to the crickets.

This interactive sound sculpture is a commemorative nature souvenir. Like a trophy deer head, it functions as both a remembrance of a nature experience and a displayed prize. Just as the deer head is full of plaster and glass eyes, this waterfall contains no water. Instead, the sounds of waterfalls refer to the experience of being there. The viewers of this trophy create their own version of a waterfall experience by playing the five separate touch-activated water sounds. Giving a participant "control" of their own idealized waterfall experience does not change the fact that the experience is trivial compared to that of being at an actual waterfall - though I do wonder how stand-in nature experiences change our subsequent perceptions of the thing represented.

A collaborative project with Matt Derksen. Hermit Crabs cannot grow their own shells, so they rely upon marine snails to produce the shells they use to protect themselves. When they grow out of the old shell, or find another that just suits their fancy, they will move into a new one. It is our hope that they will want to move into these shells that have been designed and rapid-prototyped especially for them. We realize that it is entirely possible (maybe even likely) that our designs will fail to meet their expectations, given the longstanding evolutionary relationship they have with the snail shells they currently use. We consider this to be a work in progress, as with this medium of rapid prototyping, many trial and error designs can be realized in a rapid, hyper-evolutive process; allowing the hermit crabs themselves to be the ultimate judges of what works.