Projects

Tadpole Bureaucracy…

UrbanSpaceStation

The 1/2 life Ratio compares the value human reproductive tissue, specifically the market value of sperm to the market value of Ova. While the market demand for each type of tissue remains largely equivalent–approximately 30% of infertility is attributable to men, 30% to women, and the rest is unknown–the current divergence is just under $40000 per viable reproductive cell. That is, it ‘costs’ ova donors about that much per viable ova, while sperm donors come out in front(by about 0.006 cents per viable cell). The ratio uses quantitative risk analysis to compare the short term, longterm and unknown health risks, in addition to the risk of future ligtigation.Cost benefit and fixed effects analysis are also applied to account for the differences in the tissue perishability; the mass in grams; the labor costs (time spent); the window of opportunity and opportunity costs; the presence, or absence, and results of psychological tests and interviews (used primarily with ova donors), in addition to other variables. This indicator shows that new ART (Assistive Reproductive Technology) technologies, can reproduce very familiar gender inequities. …

Natalie Jeremijenko MUD roof from xDesign Project on Vimeo.
Model Urban Development(MUD),  a  permanent installation on the roof of Postmasters Gallery in Chelsea provides infrastructure and facilities for high-density bird cohabitation in an environmental experiment in interaction with the New York City bird population.

OOZ, Inc. (…for the birds) Infrastructure and facilities for high-density bird cohabitation on the roof of Postmasters Gallery. a unique garden on the roof of Postmasters Gallery - an environmental experiment in interaction with New York City bird population. The complex 1,000 square-foot garden includes architect-designed bird housing projects (multi-family dwellings), water systems, as well as other amenities to improve the quality of life for urban birds. The installation creates conditions to observe birds’ adaptation to human-engineered technologies, testing formal and ecological theorems for high-density lifestyles, sustainable resource sharing among urban organisms, and the play of public/private division in cross-species interaction.

date: September 2006-present
medium: installation, experiment
dimensions: 10,000 square feet
location: Postmasters Gallery roof 459 West 19th Street (at 10th Avenue) New York, NY 10011
description:

Tree Balance compares two tree(s) clones, micro-propagated in culture. Because the trees are genetically identical, in the subsequent years the tree(s) slow and consistent growth will make visible individual variation within clones.

TreeLogic is an inverted avenue of 6 sugar maple trees growing upsidedown, suspended 30 ft in the air. This projects frames the trees as a dynamic adaptive system and as visual forms that display their histories. It emulates the neat regular spacings of urban street trees, often used to ‘beautify’ urban environments. However, the slow gymnastics of these trees invites interpretation and speculation on what they will do, could do, how much they have grown or changed, and what birds think of them. Trees are icons of the natural, however, uprooted, they display a logic that redefines our own.

see it at Mass MoCA

An information envionrment that involves electronic and biological instrumentation using a distributed instrument of genetically identical(cloned) trees planted throughout the SF bay area; electronic clones; CO2 meters.
OneTree(s) is a public experiment that generates (material, scientific and cultural) evidence and public spectacles on issues of environmental and political concern. In the case of OneTrees, global warming, air quality, and genetically modified organisms (gmos) are currently being addressed. Other issues and parameters are in development.
Additionally the OneTrees project can be …

Robotic Geese are remote controlled goose robots that enable participants or robotic goose drivers (aka goosers) to interact with actual geese in urban contexts. The robotic goose interface allows people to approach the birds, follow them closely and interact in a variety of ways that would not otherwise be possible without this interface. The goose drivers can ‘talk to’ the geese, issuing utterances through the robotic interface, delivering prerecorded goose ‘words,’ their own vocal impersonations, or other sounds (such as goose flute hunting calls). Each utterance via the robotic goose triggers the camera in the robot’s head to capture 2-4 seconds of video recording the responses of the actual biological geese. These video samples upload to the public web-based goosespeak database that the participants can annotate, i.e. “the goose was telling me to go away,” “he was saying Hi.” As this database of goose responses accretes, redundancy and correlations in the annotations may provide robust semantic descriptors of the library of video clips….

Unlike the traditional zoo this is place where the animals remain by choice, a zoo without cages. Like a traditional zoo, it is a series of sites where animals and humans interact. However, the interactions at an OOZ site differ from that of a Zoo. Ooz is interactive in that it provides human a set of actions, the animals provide reactions and these couplets add to a collective pool of observations.

In recognition of the remarkable and complex behavioral strategies of underrepresented and poorly understood animal populations that thrive in urban environments, OOZ proposes a spectrum of human-animal interfaces. This proposal focuses on the continued development, completion and public installation of three OOZ interfaces in New York City addressing NYC (non-human) inhabitants: Canada Geese, Shortnosed Sturgeon & Striped Bass of the Hudson River and Brown & Red Bats. What follows is a brief introduction to each of these elements, with specific attention to geese as a case study for understanding the OOZ project framework.

go to the project website

Communication Technology …For the Birds

Communicative Technology for the birds (and humans) i.e. the perches; The …