Entering into this assignment immediately brought to mind a project I'd seen from my old friend and transdisciplinary artist Etherhill. For several years he has been working on a project called: 'Biophillia Matters'; described as a "transdisciplinary design collective discussing, creating and sharing inspirational ways to grow and interact with nature."(Etherhill Inc., 2022) Although this project focuses on biophilia, it resonates with technobiophilia by exploring how humans can engage with nature in innovative ways. Coming to technobiophilia through biophilia makes sense in relation to the readings where Sue Thomas states "It begins with biophilia" (Thomas, n.d.).
Taking this knowledge into the Wordcloud revealed a clear connection to my interpretation of the major themes in the readings and I chose to read it like a found poem:
Significant enhancing
nature future can
technology world characteristics
Immersive Urban becomes limited
Increasingly well-being
Change
facilitating Humans
Positive nature
reality
Inherent health extension may direct
reality
Focus attached people
Poetry seems like the right way to analyze and process information presented in this way. Though it's easy to focus on the larger, obvious words, the smaller connecting words help bring these ideas together. I was slightly surprised by words like reality, living, stimulate and augmented. These words reinforce solid interdependencies and reinforce the ways that none of these terms stand in opposition to each other. Nature and technology are both part of the human condition and "Technobiophilia is the harmonious integration of the natural with the virtual world through dual love of nature and technology" (Sen, 2022).
The word cloud effectively captures the essence of technobiophilia by highlighting how digital environments can foster our connection to nature rather than replacing it. As Thomas explains, our attraction to nature "is surprisingly transferable to digital environments", which is reflected in the prominence of terms related to both technology and nature in the word cloud. The presence of words like "well-being," "positive," and "health" reinforces the beneficial aspects of this relationship.
I was particularly struck by how the word cloud emphasizes the potential for technology to enhance rather than diminish our relationship with nature. This aligns with Thomas's observation that technobiophilic practices "connect our lives in nature with our lives in the digital" and "contribute to well-being via a tech-nature balance" (Thomas, n.d.). The Next Nature concept, as discussed by Sue Thomas, also explores how human ideas about nature are evolving, incorporating both natural and technological elements (Thomas, 2014).
I've talked in past assignments about the profound effect that Richard Brautigan's poem 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace' has had on me and feel like my solar punk ethos and movement is firmly based on the tenets of 'technobiophilia'. This connection makes even more sense to me now, as technobiophilia represents not a rejection of technology in favour of nature, but rather a recognition that "the concept of techno-biophilia can play a significant role in connecting the physical and virtual worlds and encouraging people to change their behaviour" (Sen, 2022).
References:
Etherhill Inc. (2022). Biophilia matters. Etherhill. https://etherhill.com/personal-projects-biophilia-matters
Sen, Supatra, The Evolution From Biophilia To Technobiophilia (December 29, 2022). Harvest 7(2):48-50; 2022 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4314663
Thomas, S. (n.d.). What is Technobiophilia? Sue Thomas. Retrieved from https://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/technobiophilia/
Thomas, S. (2014). Next nature: "Nature caused by people." Journal of Professional Communication, 3
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