Contributed by Theun
Non-humans are fitted with wearable technology, in past decades it has predominantly been GPS, but what happens when they start carrying rich mobile media like we do?
In its original set-up groWorld at FoAM set out to investigate interactions between plants and humans from multiple perspectives. This includes work on minimising borders and maximising edges between man-made and vegetal, by entangling culture & cultivation {sym}, building & growing {bio} and nature & technology {sys}. Some HPI-s (human plant interaction) prototyped at FoAM are human-plant gaming, plantbased solarcells and a foraging application for smartphone. Later Angelo Vermeulen has been working with cockroaches for his Entomograph . IforAE, a temporary research within FoAM is currently investigating epizoic media to look at trans-species social networks. (We will explore trans-species gaming and floral- / animal bomb-detectors in upcoming posts.)
4-square pigeons:
It could be argued that 4-square is to humans, what gps tracking is to migrating birds. We think this offers a great opportunity. Clearly the system set up by 4-square is a perfect platform for (urban) animals to join in with us humans. The Amsterdam city centre is dense with fast-food establishments which are frequented not just by humanoids of all kinds and shapes, but by pigeons as well. In fact probably the pigeons visit much more regularly than the human tourists and would probably be mayor of most paces in no-time.
A collection of projects looking at animals as carriers of media or technology:
Mammals:
Five Rhinos in South Africa's Mafikeng Game Reserve are equipped with GPS. The chip drilled into the horn of the animal alerts park officials like Rusty Hustler to unusual behaviour.
Narwhall helping to gather climate data on sea temperatures.
Seals working to recover lost UUVs, marine robots.
Dolphins are working on various projects with the US Navy, this one is carrying a tracking light to reveil submarine intruders. An overview here.
Twitter collars and gps tracking for your pets, including, dogs, cats, pigeons and ferrets. The Pet's Eye View camera collar even provides regular snaps from your pets point of view.
The Luka Live project takes a closer look at the possibilities of canine media.
Rather disturbing is this project in which an Orangutan controlles a robotic arm hooked-up directly to her motorcortex.
Birds:
Insects:
Angelo Vermeulen's data corrupting cockroaches. C#n#m#
Chris Woebkens moth project with 'training area'.
Cyborg beetles somewhat controllable by joystick.
An a gallery on GPS tracking of insects, simply because this provides such haunting imagery. Many of these are from projects by Martin Wikelski.
with many thanks to @justinpickard for his contributions.
Contributed by Theun
FoAM based research and prototyping project looking at: how the tagosphere connects with the biosphere.
News on augmented ecology, citizen science, eco-monitoring, biodiversity & new media via twitter: @IforAE
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