what is nature?
Project: What happened to nature?

technology has domesticated us. as fast as we remake our tools, we remake ourselves. we are co-evolving with our technology, so that we have become deeply co-dependent on it.

– the next nature book

containing short essays, photographic investigations, and 'infotizement' ads, next nature offers specific advice towards designers in navigating the new world that technology opens, and reflects on the past, present, and future of humans as a creative species. along the way, readers will discover some already existing technology that might surprise them: sliceable rolls of egg in chinese supermarkets, 3D printers that generate human blood vessels, houses created from the careful growing of tree roots.

the authors are both directors of next nature, a netherlands-based concept lab associated with the eindhoven university of technology.

the book's bold and highly visual format makes browsing easy, with images scattered throughout the book suggesting questions for further departure. short photo essays document biomimicry marketing strategies, suggest guidelines for contemporary product designers, and showcase the evolution of online gaming. hitting upon a subject of particular interest, readers can delve further into insightful, cohesive essays, some of which survey the historical foundation behind psychological or social phenomenon, and others of which critically investigate the concepts we use to define and understand our modern-day world.

today the human impact on our planet can hardly be underestimated. climate change, population explosion, genetic manipulation, digital networks, plastics islands floating in the oceans: 'we were here' echoes all over. although many people have tried to improve our relationship with nature, only few have asked the elementary question, 'what is nature?'

this book will radically shift your notion of nature. it shows how our image of nature as static, balanced, and harmonic, is itself one of the most successful products of our time, and needs to be reconsidered. where technology and nature are traditionally seen as opposed, they now appear to merge or even trade places.

we must no longer see ourselves as the anti-natural species that merely threatens and eliminates nature, but rather as catalysts of evolution. with our urge to design our environment, we cause the rising of a next nature which is unpredictable as ever. nature changes along with us!

– the next nature book

six "magazines" bound together into a single book comprise the chapters of the book

next nature is organized as a pile of six fictional magazine specials:
recreation examining how our conception of 'nature' was created;
wild systems, investigating complexity and systems theory;
office garden demonstrating how technology domesticates people and what strategies designers can employ to create 'humane tech';
supermarket, offering readers a safari through the modern savanna, with its genetic modifications and heavy advertising;
anthropomorphobia, exploring the mutual imitations of people and products;
and back to the tribe, studying the place of social instincts and genetic heritage in our modern technologically-mediated world.

read more about the book on the next nature website.

– via designboom

Fri, Nov 9, 2012  Permanent link
Categories: nature, future, book, technology, design, art, concept, netherlands
Sent to project: What happened to nature?

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