transitlab

02 Aug, 2008

Something smells fishy, everything is shit (an antirant)

Posted by: brian In: ecology

Anatomy of a coral polyp.Image via Wikipedia

Why do the terms fishy and shit so negative?

I think it is a disengagement or disenfranchisement event. It is a word that connects with the intense olfactory reaction…..bus can we get past its olfactory unplesantness and explore what we could activate these terms for the betterment of ourselves.

I am still thinking….but my initial thoughts (influenced by people at the urban climate camp and luminous green as part of ISEA2008, Singapore) is that there is something strange going on. These terms describe an ecological approach to food/energy production and an awareness  of diversity. So when we talk about food/energy production…. through the reintroduction of biomass to the land, or burning biomass for generation of  energy… we are talking about shit, a totally natural part of life.

Fishyness is a connection with the underwater world, and through this ourselves. Fish in their water world are a metaphor for our own. We want to use the power of uniqueness against the tide of monoculture. In some ways something that unique/endangered is now valuable…..so why are we replacing what is unique (through draining swamps, growing monocultures for biomass production etc) with what is a unsustainable monoculture?

Diversity is both shit and fishy….It is frugal, but generates wonder, through careful hand to hand passing of a small packet of energy/information through a number of membrane systems.  Rainforests and  Coral reefs, frugal mass producers of diversity. One link (energy return system) is shit…. how wonderful is that?

Monoculture on the other hand, asorbs energy at a incredible rate, for a small output,requires constant maintenance. High energy use translates into economic transactions, which become a losing battle as non-renewable resources are consumed….

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About

Brian Degger is a technologist/artist, he writes, thinks and makes around themes of interactivity, biomimicracy, and collaboration

RSS 25sg residency

Asides

PDF import and editing in openoffice
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miniFM

miniFM
In the foreground is a Tetsuo Kogawa version (built during RadioCraftLab, during AVFest08) and in the back the remix by sonodrome (built last week at Sonodrome Central). Both assembled by me.
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Bioplastic
Jay Cousins and friends had a hackday around bioplastics and laser cutting. Making the bioplastic from starch and glycerin (see this link for more details) and then laser cutting them. Cool stuff, they were even making different color ones. This is important as people move from using commercially sourced plastic in their makerbots to something else. Plastic is expensive to buy for these machines, but it is all around. SO be it bio-plastic or post waste plastic, ways of reusing these provide a compelling reason to throw away less waste. It is amazing that these materials are coming out of the factories, to be used in domestic situations. Together with polymorph and sugru, there are a variety of materials to play around for wearables, for prototypes and one offs. Bring on the future, with peer production.

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augmented foraging - cool use of layar -

augmented foraging Originally uploaded by _foam A mobile phone guide to edible urban wild-food sources.
Amsterdam urban_ edibles is developing Augmented_Foraging, a  mobile phone guide to wild-food sources using Layar. Much better use of this program than finding property in Amsterdam (unless you live there of course)!
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