At Solo Mornington’s (from “Dissolve the Wall”) request I am writing about Paddy Demina’s flying insect–and, after some inspection, I’m glad that I am.
In a small, humble patch of of the BIW sim hovers a large, hybrid robot/helicopter insect. It moves in short jerks and alternates between sprinkling water out it’s backside and (and this part I love) planting flowers with its two front robo-anthropod legs. The whole production stays within close proximity to Paddy Demina’s “Robot Pool,” which seems to be the start/end point for the whole script. (Side note: look at me catching on to this script stuff. First the feather, now THIS? Somebody give me a cookie prim.)
This piece spoke to me in no small part because my former seminar professor was Cary Peppermint, one half of ecoarttech.net. Ecoarttech “works with digital, networked, and sustainable technologies and contemporary environments to create art that explores the environmentality of modern life.” Paddy Demina’s robot insect seems to have a mirror relationship to EcoArtTech–as they seek to explore new ways of integrating the natural and technologically synthetic, Paddy’s work infuses our technologically synthetic universe with it’s own dose of naturality. In the not-s0-distant future, will this be the challenge we face??
It’s interesting to note that with all the ways in which SL simulates RL, with its wind and water and day/night settings, that there aren’t more insects present, or any other natural pests for that matter. In our Utopian cyber-enclave, we envision a world free from insects, plague, and other things that ruin a good summer picnic.
In reality, however, these insects should be included in our vision of Utopia. Insects largely help to pollinate flowers and keep them in existence; they also serve as a valuable food source for many animals (including us, down the road a bit) and process a large percent of the world’s waste (helloooo, maggots!) Paddy Demina’s robot insect suggests that our utopian cyber realities should not be free from the pests we fallaciously abhor in real life but rather that there is a place for these creatures in SL, and that perhaps it is not the creatures themselves that we detest but instead our lack of control over them. Paddy Demina’s robot insect provides SL with the best of what insects have to offer–a quiet, solitary creature that plants and maintains flowers, and never invites itself into our showers or soups.
It’s cool that this insect is tending flowers and is seemingly autonomous. But SL is already full of pests and parasites of the human variety!
Left by Arahan Claveau on June 23rd, 2009