Artificial Ecologies Venice

Alice Smith presented an overview of Machine Wilderness and other projects she hosts at Zone2Source in the Amstelpark in Amsterdam. Theun Karelse presented his Machine Wilderness research in the context of his longer running research into augmented ecologies. Ivan Henriques who was a workshop leader in the Machine Wilderness program presented his work in combinations of robotics and living organisms.

Paolo took us into the Venice Lagoon to explore its potential for Machine Wilderness fieldwork. We visited various islands and discovered more of its complex history and human impact on the ecosystem of the Lagoon. It is certainly a vast expanse with a great variety of islands. Some inhabited, some abandoned, some are barely accessible for humans, some with a remarkable history like the quarantaine area that was used during the plague. In many ways this feels like a place with an amazing potential for Machine Wilderness fieldwork. All these differing biomes are like different stages of human presence in the landscape and different balances of influence. In some areas humans are now completely dominant, in others this dominance is waning, and only relics remain that are slowly eroded by natural processes. These time scales are particularly interesting in terms of our topic. The Lagoon draws you powerfully to see human technology from a longer perspective.