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Teleterrestrial

This video amounts to three scenes- the Desert,
the Countryside, and the Ocean. These scenes are
not only specific, geographical locations; they are
also metaphorical environments formed by webs of
biological, philosophical, and technological interactions.



The Desert

inspired by Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulations

Baudrillard begins to explore the nature of our digital present
by questioning the relationship between reality and simulations.
Baudrillard presents the transformative nature of digital technology
as something imitating reality by becoming more definitive and
convincing of the real than reality itself. If our digital
devices are creating a "desert of the real", then maybe visions
versions of ourselves and of nature are like technological mirages.



The Countryside

insprired by a scene in Plato's Phaedrus
and Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine

The word cyber in relationship to humans, nature, and technology first appears
in Plato’s text Pheadrus. While Plato’s philosophical and idyllic text portrays
this assemblage as a system for the soul, the technological advances leading up to
World War II significantly transform human culture and consequently alter our
relationship to nature and technology. Shortly after World War II, the word cyber
appears again in relationship to technology and nature as Norbert Weiner coins the
term cybernetics to define “the scientific study of control and communication in
the animal and machine”. The term "cyborg" itself, a portmanteau of the
words "cybernetic" and "organism" signifies a body that is constituted
by technological and organic components.


The Ocean

insprired by Vilém Flusser's Vampyroteuthis Infernalis

Flusser begins questioning systems of feedback and control
between human, animals, and machines in a Fable written with
the view point of the Vampire Squid at the center, precisely
because, "It is not easy for us to approach it... Humans and
Vampyroteuthes live so far apart from eachother." For Flusser,
to question these systems from a human perspective, "would be
to renew the vain search for the seat of the soul." The majority
of Flusser's philosophies on digital technology come from nature,
rather than culture of history."

The combination of nature and digital technology, art and science, and cells
and pixels leads me to a creative restructuring of digital media. I view
digital media in terms of the most primordial building blocks of life on
earth, which suggests that the digital present is not just a completely new
revolution in thought and action, but also a memory of something that was
always present in nature just as much as computers.



tele- /ˈtelē/
1. to or at a distance

ter·restrial /təˈrestrēəl/
1. of, on, or relating to the earth.
1. an inhabitant of the earth.

Into the Universe of Techincal and Images
Animal, Vegetable, Digital: Experiments in New Media Aesthetics and Environmental Poetics


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