Today, we live in a time unlike any experienced by humanity. We are still paying the price for our colonial exploits as the human population grows exponentially and our dependency on fossil fuels grows like as insatiable junky. Indeed, the earth, home not to just humans but also to a myriad of other species too numerous to comprehend is now at risk due to our ignorance and arrogance. These facts lead us to posit the question: How do we live sustainably on the earth with other ecologies? And, how do we live with each other in times of cultural, economic and racial diversity?
In a Keynote lecture: Queering ecology in TransColombia at the SLSA eu last year, Brigitte Luis Guillermo Baptiste, director of the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, Columbia spoke in detail about bringing awareness to ideas of both biological and cultural diversity to art and science. As such, she has been developing environmental policies for Colombia’s post-conflict areas, raising awareness that cultural diversity is part of nature’s diversity. One of the more profound insights of this lecture was the idea of the “prosthetic landscape.” Baptiste argued that we must enable “disabled bodies” environmentally and corporally by creating new types of anatomy and prosthetics. In other words, it is now impossible to “re-wild” the planet, to make new tropical forests decimated by deforestation, bring back extinct species. We must now think in terms of augmenting ecologies, supplementing the environment and enhancing ourselves.
Assignment: Make a 3D printed work that responds to “Environmental Prosthesis”. Essentially, you will model a form that connects to an object in the Physical world. Projects must be able to interface with an existing structure and either correct a problem, create an enhancement or bring awareness to a social, biological or ecological problem.
Output:
1 or more technical drawing (also dimensioned) of your “habitat” output as a .pdf on 11 x 17 sheet(s). This drawing must include 3 orthographic drawings (top, front, side) and one isometric drawing.