The Anthropocene is largely about how we as humans interact with and change the environment around us, responding in different ways to different stimuli. Similar to the humans we have developed through our scenario, who have had a great effect on the environment around them. Expanding and changing the environment through various types of electrical technologies. Many of these, both in our current society and our scenario, however lead to detrimental effects on the natural environment and climate, creating a need for a development in new technologies to change the ways in which humans react and respond to the environment around them.
The Sydney based designers, Martin Tomitsch and Luke Hespanhol research and create projects around the various ways humans interact with their environment. Martin Tomitsch who works in the design lab at the University of Sydney, has worked on the project ‘Share Your Power’. This project creates a piece of technology which gives a real time display of a person’s energy usage, displayed outside side a person’s house through an electro-mechanical, flip-dot system.
(Tomitsch 2014)
(Tomitsch 2014)
This particular piece of technology is quite similar to the technology developed within our scenario, as each family household contains an electrical device which displays how much energy they have used in their quota of energy allotted, as well as how much energy the city has left in its reserve. Consequently through the implementation of these display pieces of technology into domestic environments, it causes a change within the response of the humans around them and within the households. Where people have a greater awareness and closer involvement with just how much energy they are using, causing them to give more conscientious thought to how they use energy in their daily lives. Also aiding in creating behaviours in people where they can become competitive in saving as much energy as possible when compared to others who also have their energy usage displayed to the public.
The designer Luke Hespanhol, has contributed to the project Chromapollination, which was in installation at Vivid Sydney in 2012. Hespanhol helped to create this light sculpture that subtlety interacts with the public as they move through it, where large dandelion lights track a person’s movement as they walk from one dandelion to the next, the person bringing ‘seeds’ along with them from the dandelion they passed and pollinating the next dandelion they walk pass.
(Hespanhol, L. 2012)
http://https://vimeo.com/42974245 (Hespanhol, L. 2012)
These creations of technology cause interaction with the environment on a greater level, allowing for a reconnection with the natural environment. With the need for the reconnection present in our scenario as the city is built up due to over population leaving little room for natural aspects. The text Wearable Forest Clothing System: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction (Kobayashi, Ueoka & Hirose 2009) explores the concept of HCBI (Human Computer Biosphere Interaction), where in the same way that humans are able to interact on a deeper level with each other through implicit, non-verbal communication picking up on the mood and emotions of others. Computer technologies would also allow for this implicit connection to the environment in channelling certain information and data from the environment through more unconventional senses like hearing.
(Kobayashi, H., Ueoka, R. & Hirose, M. 2009)
Hence new technologies (similar to our speculative object) enable humans to become re-linked and closer to the natural environment around them, causing a positive and greater response in revitalising the natural environment.
Reference List
Hespanhol, L. & Tomitsch, M. 2015, ‘Strategies for intuitive interaction in public urban spaces’, Interacting with computers, Special Issue: Intuitive Interaction, pp. 1-17.
Kobayashi, H., Ueoka, R. & Hirose, M. 2009, ‘Wearable forest clothing system: beyond human-computer interaction’, Leonardo, Vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 300-06.
Hespanhol, L. 2012, Chromapollination, Sydney Australia, viewed 29 October 2015, <http://www.nanoluke.com/Chromapollination >.
Hespanhol, L. 2015, Luke hespanhol, Sydney Australia, viewed 29 October 2015, <http://www.nanoluke.com/ >.
Hespanhol, L. 2013, Luke hespanhol, Vimeo, Sydney Australia, viewed 29 October 2015, <https://vimeo.com/user2475338 >.
Tomitsch, M. 2014, Share your power, Squarespace 6, Sydney Australia, viewed 29 October 2015, <http://www.martintomitsch.com/share-your-power/ >.
Humans of the future 