Event Post 1: Forces to Form: Episode 3 "Repairing Nature"

 

The “Repairing Nature” episode introduced four artists intersecting nature and the digital to demonstrate their often glanced over similarities. This episode investigated the connection between the physical laws of nature, with its processes to understand how these connections have shaped the world. These ideas were influenced D’Arcy Thomas, a biologist, and mathematician who created a theory of evolution that became important in the later field of epigenetics. In his book On Growth and Form”, Thomas argued that physical laws should be considered more, in regards to their role in supporting evolution, and not just evolution. Thomas believed that physics played a pivotal role in shaping the organism we know today.

Fig. 1: Custom HTML Plant Tages (Ursula Endlicher)

Ursula Endlicher’s “Custom HTML Plant Tags” juxtaposes nature and culture, and nature and technology. Her work illustrates the hidden structural components of the networked world (Endlicher). In this piece, she compares a network of plant life and then translates it into a digital context (Endlicher). Her work showed me information about the structures of vegetables I wouldn't have otherwise known. Her work reminded me of Mycorrhizal networks, which are a network of fungal connections by which trees communicate (Gabbatis). These similarly reveal hidden structural components not known to all about plants.

Fig. 2: Phylogenetic Tree of Maiz (Maria de Menezes and Maria Gonzalez Valerio)

Maria de Menezes and Maria Gonzalez Valerio’s “Phylogenetic Tree of Maiz” shows the evolutionary history of corn. Phylogenetic trees are diagrams showcasing evolutionary relationships among organisms (Baum). They show the evolutionary descent of organisms from one specific ancestor (Baum) The artists studied contamination of transgenic corn and tracked its evolutionary footsteps across the globs. Maiz has both cultural and material value in North and South America. Their artwork shows the manipulation of corn at a biotechnological level and contemplates the morality of these processes (Menezes and Valerio).

Proof

Works Cited

Baum, David. “Phylogenetic Trees and Monophyletic Groups.” Learn Science at Scitable, 2008, https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/reading-a-phylogenetic-tree-the-meaning-of-41956/.

de Mendez, Maria, and Maria Gonzalez Valerio. Phylogenetic Tree of Maiz. 2014. MACO, Oaxaca.

Endlicher, Ursula. Custom HTML Plant Tags. 2022. Pratt Institute, New York.

Gabbatis, Josh. “Can the Wood-Wide Web Really Help Trees Talk to Each Other?” BBC Science Focus Magazine, 15 May 2020, https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/mycorrhizal-networks-wood-wide-web/.

Thompson, D’Arcy Wentworth. On Growth and Form. Prabhat Prakashan, 2018.