One of the most common subjects in contemporary art has to do with ecology and the environmental disorders, addressing in this way this problem and raise awareness to the audience.
Well ... who is the best to talk for his own problem but the environment itself. Like in soundscape composition were composers process recordings of environmental sounds, the same can be done in the visual art. The use of sensors is the way that artists –scientists have fund in order to listen nature’s voice. Here sensors are factors that influence the outcome of an installation.
Speaking in a more poetic way, sensing practices makes the art pieces alive. They communicate the liveliness of the nature by letting environment’s behaviours alter the aesthetic outcome of the piece.
Being a dedicated supporter of the romantic , traditional practices of art aesthetics, in the past, I have fund my self opposing such practices that are in a way aleatoric...
During my recent studies I realised how important is for our society the use of other elements, such as interaction not only from humans but also from nature, in art. Sensing Practise can contain both interaction with the exploratory subject but also with the audience creating in this way an opportunity of conversation between nature and humans.
The imaginative installation of the Living Architecture Lab at Columbia University and Natalie Jeremijenko, Amphibious Architecture, impress me and made me reconsider my opinion about the bio-sensing techniques in art. I believe that the way that this installation interacted with the audience and the feedback from the lights and the texts really made the audience questioning and become interested about the river ecosystem. Therefore this art piece had achieve a great goal by addressing a problem to the community through an interaction that endorse a conversation with the river itself.(1)
Such installation’s inspired me and made me want to use bio-sensing technologies in the future. I believe it is the best way to address a problem or a question through art, especially as far as it concern the nature. One idea would be to use such technologies and address the consequences of conflagrations in the suburbs or Attika, near Athens the Greek capital, such incidents are happening almost every summer by negligence of the dangers of the hot sun in combination with flammable objects. This can be made by creating an artefact that will use measurements from burned ground, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the area and how this effect the capital. The process of utilisation of these data can give birth to a big variety of creative applications, interactive or not, that would be the final artefact.
But the most important aspect is that we will create a way to "let the nature speak".
(1). Sentientcity.net. (2019). Toward the Sentient City » Amphibious Architecture. [online] Available at: http://www.sentientcity.net/exhibit/?p=5 [Accessed 23 Mar. 2019].