Feature post: Next Nature – Fly like a bird, cooking apes, shoes that mend themselves and anthropomorphobia #design #nextnature #geekgirl

Fly like a bird, cooking apes, shoes that mend themselves and anthropomorphobia, public enemy number one. Welcome to another issue of the Next Nature newsletter, from the website http://www.nextnature.net/, which explores the nature caused by people.

Follow Next Nature on Twitter: and Facebook
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CONTENTS

-NANO Supermarket Call for Entries
-Next Nature Book Reviews + Discount
-Blog Highlights
-Next Nature Internships

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NANO SUPERMARKET CALL FOR ENTRIES

After two successful years touring the globe, the NANO Supermarket is now entering its second edition. Next Nature is calling upon designers, technologists and artists to submit their speculative nanotech products for the supermarket’s next round. A selection of the most innovative products will be shown in the physical exhibition space, and featured in the accompanying catalog. The best product overall will win a € 2500 prize. (some kind of money!)

Nanotechnology is an important emerging technology  – it radically intervenes with our sense of what is natural – yet most people are still relatively unaware of its consequences. The Next Nature NANO Supermarket is a physical “supermarket” that features debate-provoking visions on nanotech products that could be expected to hit the shelves between now and 2020.

For more information and examples of past products, please visit http://www.nanosupermarket.org

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BLOG HIGHLIGHTS

What is Next Nature?

In this snappy video from the 2011 Next Nature Powershow, Koert van Mensvoort answers the question: Just what is Next Nature?

11 Rules of Anthropomorphism and Design

In this 11-part series, we examine how designers can successfully integrate human-like forms and behavior into their work. Learn how to inspire with anthropomorphic design inspire, instead of confusing, irritating, or offending.

Apes Like Cooked Food and What that Means for Human Evolution

Humans are the only ape that cooks, but our ape relatives also naturally prefer cooked to raw food. Learn the surprising implications of cooked food for the evolution our super-charged brains.

Essay: Anthropomorphobia

Has fear of the uncanny valley become a major cultural affliction? This essay discusses how products are behaving more like people, and how people are quickly turning into products.

Protocell Shoe Mends Itself

If you’re tired of mending rips in your shoes, Rachel Armstrong has the (speculative) shoe for you. Using organic, semi-living cells, these shoes can sense and repair damage.

Fly Like a Bird? Get Human Birdwings

Engineer Jarno Smeets dreams of flying like a bird. Using accelerometers and a wiimote, Jarno is creating a pair of giant “wings” to propel a human into the sky.

Playing with Pigs

Ever wanted to play tag with a pig? Students at the Utrecht School of Arts have designed Pig Chase, an iPad game that allows players to remotely interact with piglets.

Fake Leaf is Twice as Efficient as the Real Thing

With a new “bionanodevice,” researchers have combined proteins from bacteria with nano-scale wire to create a “leaf” that generates electricity from solar energy and CO2.

Transitions Film Festival #Melbourne #SLF #sustainability #geekgirl

Transitions Film Festival
11th – 19th Feb, 2012

The Transitions Film Festival is a visionary film program dedicated to showcasing ground-breaking documentaries about our global culture in transition towards a sustainable future.

The festival takes place as part of the Sustainable Living Festival with the support of the United Nations Association of Australia (Victoria), the City of Melbourne, Red Energy, Hepburn Wind, Prosper Australia and Undergrowth.org.

The program features an inspirational line-up of world-changing documentaries including national and international premiers and culminates with a free state-wide synchronised screening of Yann Arthus-Betrand’s spectacular film ‘Home’. The major screening is taking place on the big screen at Federation Square at 7pm.

Screenings will include live introductions by international filmmakers and NGO’s as well as an interactive short film forum hosted by the United Nations Association of Australia.

PROGRAM

SCANZ 2013: 3rd Nature :: New Zealand #arts #residency #NZ #geekgirl

Expressions of Interest due 15 February 2012 ::
Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ) is New Zealand’s premier art, technology, culture and ecology event and involves a symposium, creative residency, and public events and exhibitions. They have announced an early call for project concepts for the fourth SCANZ residency to be held in New Plymouth, New Zealand early in 2013.  Planned are: a two week residency and Open Lab beginning with a one night stay over at historic Owae marae, an exhibition at Puke Ariki museum, four projects in a local botanic garden, a Pecha Kucha night and a three day symposium with a presentation evening on the middle night.  The call is open to tangata whenua, artists, technologists, teachers, environmentalists, scientists, philosophers, educationalists, indigenous peoples, technologists and lecturers to contact SCANZ with ideas for talks, discussions, presentations, residency projects abd exhibition ideas.

http://www.intercreate.org/scanz2013-3rdnature

 SCANZ 2013 held 19 January – 4 February 2013

Subsonic Music Festival__ :: Call for Artists_ #deepspaceelectronicmusic #subsonic #geekgirl

Exhibit & participate in the Subsonic Festival :: Applications close 31 October 2011
Subsonic Music Festival will be held 2 – 4 December 2011 in the picturesque surrounds of Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort, Barrington Tops, Northern NSW. Dedicated to deep space electronic music, Subsonic brings together a line-up of international artists in an immersive, multi-sensory environment with an unconventional edge.  The festival is  looking for creative people (18yrs+) who have amazing, large-scale artwork and crazy roaming performances that they would like to display on the green, verdant landscape of Barrington Tops. These may include sculptors, LED artists, performers, installation artists, painters, graffiti artists, video artists, carpenters and costume designers.  If you are creative but don’t want to submit your own artwork, you can sign up for volunteer art team.
http://www.subsonicmusic.com.[20]au/

Animal welfare & compassion in world farming activist Peter Stevenson guest lectures in Australia in August.

Victorian (Melbourne) date promoted here: but you can also view dates around Australia at the Voiceless website.

As a leading European expert on animal welfare, Peter describes Australia’s live export trade as “the world’s worst”. He explains that conditions in Indonesian abattoirs could not have improved in just one month and that the resumption of trade was met with shock in Europe.

In Australia for Voiceless’s Animal Law Lecture Series, Peter discusses European Union (EU) bans on some factory farming practices and how this cruelty continues in Australia. He suggests that better animal welfare can actually be more profitable for farmers and that changing consumer sentiments are driving more ethical products in Europe.

To listen to Peter’s full interview, please visit the website of ABC Radio National Breakfast.

Monday 15 August 2011
Time: 1.00pm – 2.00pm (doors open at 12.50pm)
Venue: Melbourne Law School
University of Melbourne
Ground Floor G08
185 Pelham St, Carlton, VIC 3053

Register Now! To view our flyer for this event, please download this pdf .

Details: This lecture, kindly supported by University of Melbourne Law School, will be chaired by Ruth Hatten, Legal Counsel of Voiceless and will feature guest speaker Peter Stevenson and Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan of the University of Melbourne.

AND

Monday 15 August 2011
Time: 6.00pm – 7.30pm (doors open at 5.45pm)
Venue: Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Level 36, Bourke Place
600 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Register Now! To view our flyer for this event, please download this pdf .

Details: This lecture, kindly supported by Corrs Chambers Westgarth, will be chaired by Ruth Hatten, Legal Counsel of Voiceless and will feature guest speakers Peter Stevenson and Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan of the University of Melbourne.

Environmental Film Festival #Melbourne #EFFM #geekgirl

Entries Close: July 1
More Info

The Environmental Film Festival, Melbourne (EFFM) is looking for films focusing on environmental issues to be part of the 2011 line up. If you’ve got a film to submit, they’d love to see it. EFFM aims to increase awareness of key environmental issues by bringing together film-makers, experts, policy makers, politicians and the wider community in an open conversation about the world we live in. The festival will take place in September.

Facebook world Record are you in? #renewableeneregy #greenpeace #geekgirl

You have 24 hours to set a world record on Facebook and help get the social network to start powering their website from clean and unlimited energy sources like the sun and the wind, instead of the dirty coal-fired power they’re using right now. Are you in?

Back in February, Greenpeace gave Facebook a deadline of April 22nd to announce a plan to go coal free, but as of today we still don’t have a commitment from them to switch to renewable energy. So we figured it was time to do something that would really get their attention: set a Guinness world record on Facebook by generating 50,000 comments on one post in 24 hours.

The clock started at 1:00 AM EST on Wednesday. You’ve got 24 hours to comment and invite your friends to do the same. And you don’t have to personally have a Facebook account to participate. Just click on whichever link below works best for you and follow the instructions:

Yes, I’m on Facebook and want to set a world record.

http://us.greenpeace.org/site/R?i=uhroab64eKE6D8W5q9qRRg..

No, I’m NOT on Facebook but I want to set a world record.

http://us.greenpeace.org/site/R?i=_c7sUphMidIso2FtwntoNQ..

Open call for Climate-related Art Commission

Applications close 28 January 2011

The International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETM), the Australia Council for the Arts, Tipping Point Australia and Kaaitheater Brussels have joined forces to offer a commission for a climate related artwork.

This is an open call to groups of artists and/or scientists in Australia and Europe to submit applications for the creation of a new artwork conceived in the context of climate change. The commission will be won on the quality of the idea, the experience of the team and the project’s carbon neutral status. Applicants should document how they would achieve carbon reduction compared to a “business as usual” scenario and what partnerships they think would be needed to take their carbon reduction further.

More info on the OzCo website

Lesley Dewar #geekgirl mugshot. I love @nanastories #oldgurlsrock

Lesely Dewar is one of my fav people online. She totally confronts any sterotype of an older gurl out of touch with technology. I wish I could hang out with her so she can teach me all her social media tips and tricks. She’s a campaigner for animals and the ocean and I love her @nanastories and @lesleydewar1 tweets. She sent me a message to Save More Whales in 2011;. and thart we will! xx Lesley just keeps on rockn’!!

lesley-dewar-geekgirl-mugshot

Plants phone Home – new plant monitoring sticks tell you when they’re thirsty #plants #smarttechnology #geekgirl

DoCoMo (Japan) has announced that it will start selling next year plant monitoring sticks that you insert into the plant pot or garden plot and which then communicate soil moisture and sunlight data back to a website. Experts available with the service will then email customers when they estimate, from the data received, what the watering and harvesting times should be. The sticks are expected to cost around JPY2,000 – JPY3,000 each.

Editors note: Wish they sold them in Australia

(Source: TT commentary from nikkei.com, Oct 8, 2010)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20101007D07JSN03.htm