“ [R][R][F]2006--->XP Festival International de Arte Digital” Rosario, Argentina “VIII Salon Y Coloquio Internacional De Arte Digital”, Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Cuba Synopsis " natural selection over the long run does not seem to improve a species' chance of survival but simply enables it to "track," or keep up with, the constantly changing environment" Richard C. Lewontin The practice and making of artificial life is a metaphor for neo Darwinist ideas about nature and the evolution of organisms. There are numerous convincing arguments for and against Darwin ’s theories. Indeed the ideas hidden within Darwin ’s narratives depend as much upon who is telling the story, when it is being told and by whom, without forgetting the organic species themselves. In fact one could easily discuss the evolution of the ‘story’ of the evolution of a species. Similarly the artwork, “Gardenus” allows the user to change one of Darwin’s evolutionary tales and as such participate in the endless reproductive possibility of the signification of an organism. "in the struggle for survival the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in addapting themselves best to their environment " Charles Darwin 1859 |
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Nature as an ideology- suggests that the idea ‘nature’ can be seen as a systematic scheme of ideas held by particular social, political, and cultural groups and that what we define as nature is partly a human intellectual construct. Attempts to restructure nature around us, such as in the case of gardens, is an historical and contemporary attempt to build a network of ideologies, defining landscape and nature and ourselves in the process the reproductive value of certain signs is dependent upon processes of symbiotic or co-evolutionary signification and communication "Sharov A. , "Cybernetics to semiotics in Biology" Semiotica 120(3), 403-419. 1998. Gardens have long been the test beds for prototyping the mutation of certain species. In broad terms, a garden- is defined by the objects that it contains in a network of contextual relationships.
The garden may be conceptualised as a melding of ‘idea, place and action '. As ‘idea' the garden signifies the illustration of an underlying function, philosophy, and aesthetic expressed through its design. As ‘place' the garden exists as a space within which materials and objects may be arranged, all seen within the context of the surrounding environment and user. As ‘action', the garden grows in connection with human involvement both through its construction and preservation and through the experience of it. The contested ground of the garden provides a fertile space in which relationships mutate, signs get bent and emerge out of shape. Therefore what signifies as nature and by relation gardens has been subject to mutation and change over time; leaving nature and ourselves subject to the endless reproductive possibility of signification.
Adapted and changed from “New Space: The Design and Form of The ExtraterrestrialGarden” C.S.Welch and D.I.Wade, KingstonUniversity, Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom (Richard C. Lewontin (Prof of Zoology, University of Chicago , and co-editor of the American Naturalist), "Adaptation". Scientific American, vol 239(3), Septemeber 1978, pg. 159) Techical RequirementsInternet Explorer Adobe Shockwave Plugin
CV - Mark Cypher
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Mark Cypher received a Master of Visual Arts in Sculpture, in 1995, from Sydney University, Australia, and is currently a Senior Lecturer and Program Chair for Multimedia at Murdoch University - Western Australia. Mark also began his PHD in 2004 researching Actor Network Theory in relation to interactive artworks. Cypher has participated in several international exhibitions, including “404” II International Festival of Electronic Arts, Rosario, Argentina, and “Biophilia” at the Perth International Arts Festival, Curtin University, Western Australia. Cypher has also exhibited work in various museums and galleries across Australia, including , the Western Australian Art Gallery, Sunshine Coast Gallery, Melbourne Contemporary art show and the Casula Powerhouse, Sydney. Cypher’s work is also held in several state and national collections such as the Art Gallery of Western Australia, ArtBank-Sydney, Casula Powerhouse-Sydney, Curtin University of Technology and University of Western Australia.