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Smart forests: Community networks at the center of environmental technologies
Chile is part of the Smart Forests research projects of the University of Cambridge, which studies the impact of digital technology on the monitoring and handling of forests with a transdisciplinary perspective. We spoke with the project’s lead researcher, Jennifer Gabrys, who will mainly study the context of forest fires in La Araucanía.
Hypereikon: Digital creation as an extension of nature allows us to reimagine what we observe
Images and sounds of nature, 3D sculptures as well as microscopic designs coexist in the work of Hypereikon (collective formed by the duo of artists Constanza Lobos and Sebastián Rojas) to deconstruct visual elements present in nature throught he use of AI tools. In this interview we reflect on how to expand hybridization between humans and ecosystems as well as conceptualizing “artificial imagination”.
Interpreting time in non-linear ways through art
Ela Spalding, panamanian artist and facilitator, reflects on the ways in which art can help us accept the changing nature of environments, as well as find ways to adapt to the socio ecological crisis.
Metaphors and learnings inspired on the behavior of Andean plants
What can we learn about caring for life from the plants of the Andean landscapes? The mountains of Chile are frequently perceived as the background landscape that accompanies us, where sports activities take place, or where people can enjoy panoramic views. But the high mountains, which might seem lifeless from afar, are inhabited by a diversity of species that can only be appreciated if we get closer to the ground or, sometimes, if we use a magnifying glass.
Post-memory and phytopoetics: When the past becomes physical movement and record
As we approach the 50-year anniversary of the coup d’état, we speak with the philosopher Ángel Álvarez-Solís, who reflects on the relationship between memory studies, phytopoetics and plant critique. The need to articulate narrations from a sensory perspective as a mourning process, as well as the memories of extracted nature from the dictatorship are some of the topics addressed.
Collaborative art as a form of socio-ecological resistance
Collaborative art, which emerged in the 1960s and 70s, continues to challenge both our way of being and how we relate with other humans and non-humans. Some of the key approaches around this concept include the creative irruption into public space and the staging of art outside museums, as well as actions taken to care for nature and for popular education. It is therefore relevant to bring to the forefront various notions of collaborative art that can help us think how this methodology can support a socio-ecological transition and, at the same time, open a space for reflections that might lead us to rethink social values —centered on productivity— that govern us.
New routes to expand the limits of artistic creation
Claudia González and Sebastián Mejia reflect on the experiences they lived in the virtual co-creation residency (RE)Shape , which brought together cross-cultural views of creators from different countries. In this interview we address new creative possibilities, methodological links and perspectives for collaboration in contemporary art.
Ferns: Plants do not move, they transform
Chilean film director Paz Ramírez recently premiered the short film Helechos (Ferns, in English), set to music made with plant vibrations. It was filmed during the Chilean social and health crises, and was shot in two locations: Santiago and Bosque Pehuén. The work tells the story of a woman who, in the midst of a period of confinement with her son, discovers a way to live her own intimacy with plants.
Approval of the law that creates the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (BPAS): “For the first time, biodiversity is placed at the center of the country’s environmental policy”
Pending the promulgation of the law that creates the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (BPAS), our director of the Conservation area, Amerindia Jaramillo, reflects on the progress and challenges involved in implementing this legislation.
“In this century we have managed to recover the connection between art and nature”
Nearly a decade ago, a book on ecology sought to vindicate natural history and the value of observation as the basis of the discipline. With their approaches, the ecologist Aníbal Pauchard and the late researcher, Rafe Sagarin, influenced the field of ecological learning. Today, Dr. Pauchard reflects on the validity of this pioneering publication that invites us to understand nature in tune with the idea that all reason comes from perception.