commission – Amy M. Youngs

Experience Becoming Biodiversity

hypernatural — Sun, 19 May 2019 03:18:35 +0000

The augmented reality art app was free in the Apple and Android app stores from 2019 – 2024. While the animated elements are no longer available, the full audio tour version has been published by (Re) Verb. It will work on your phone or computer.

There are 8 scenes which place at Willow Lake, on the South end of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, in New York. The starting point for the app tour is the East entrance of the Pat Dolan Trail, right after walking over the Van Wyck Expressway pedestrian bridge. The tour takes about 26 minutes and the one-way walk down the trail is less than a mile. You can also use the app in your local park, GPS is not required.

Becoming Biodiversity audio tour with map on (Re) Verb.

Soundcloud audio-only version, available.

Explore ecological networks in a park in New York City.

Start at this location, for optimal experience.

Site specific Flushing Meadows Corona Park in New York, but it can be used anywhere.

Go outside for best experience.

This artwork is a guided tour which allows us to inhabit the worlds of multiple species along an urban park trail, allowing them to become visible and “sense-able” to us. The viewer re-enacts stories from the perspectives of non-humans; playing the part of a plant calling out to a bird to help with pest control, an ant planting spring flowers while simultaneously feeding her babies, an underground fungal network delivering goods to struggling trees, and a cormorant searching for a meal in a man-made lake in Queens, NY.

Becoming Biodiversity augmented reality app on the Pat Dolan Trail, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY.

Thank you to collaborators Josh Rodenberg, Danielle McPhatter, and Jayne Kennedy. And project supporters Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, NY, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, and the New York Urban Field Station, a partnership between NYC Parks, the US Forest Service, and the Natural Areas Conservancy, NY.

More info about the site, process, and people involved in this artwork here.
My research bibliography is here.
Opening events to celebrate the app are announced here.

Harvestworks Artist in Residence & Commission

hypernatural — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 02:21:46 +0000

I’m working at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York, NY this fall. This non-profit Media Arts org has been around since 1977! They have commissioned my project Becoming Biodiversity and, as an Artist-In-Residence, I receive technical assistance and space to work in their media arts lab. I’ve also partnered with the New York City Urban Field Station, as the project will be sited in a park in New York. And I am fortunate to be collaborating with audio/new media artist Josh Rodenberg.

Becoming Biodiversity is an augmented reality artwork that will encourage participants to explore and experience local, ecological networks present in an urban park site. Cell phones and headphones are used to view the artwork, which includes mixed-reality animations and storytelling as an overlay to the actual park. The experience will be an embodied one, designed to connect humans empathetically with the biodiversity, symbioses, and unseen worlds in public park spaces.

Fantastic ecologies exist everywhere on earth and at many scales, many of which are invisible to us. Though we mostly ignore and disrespect the non-humans in these networks, our lives depend upon them. This artwork/guided tour allows us to inhabit the worlds of multiple species along the network, allowing them to become visible and “sense-able” to us. The viewer re-enacts scientific stories of where oxygen comes from, how seeds are planted, and how mosquitoes are kept in check. An appreciation and respect for the non-human networks we are a part of will surely increase our ability to participate as better citizens in the ecological commons.

More info on my process and progress here.

Commissioned ecosystem artwork

hypernatural — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 05:00:57 +0000

Commissioned by the University of Maine, Ken Rinaldo and I are creating a new artwork for the lobby of the lobby of Stewart Commons, which houses the Innovative Media, Research and Commercialization Center and the Wyeth Family Studio Art Center, at the University of Maine.

We are creating Machine Garden, a system sculpture in which plants, worms, microbes, and machines will coexist in a state of symbiotic intertwining. Food waste will be transformed into fertilizer in a worm hive composter, which provides connections to the plants via a highway of interconnected tubes that allow worm migration throughout.

We are building this work as 2017 Researchers-in-residence at the innovative Media, Research and Commercialization Center. This is an incredible facility outfitted with a variety of tools and equipment, including a full shop, 3D printers and 3D scanner, computer-controlled machine tools, a cutting and engraving laser, plastic vacuum former, large format printers, a range of design and production software, electronics workbenches, video and still cameras, audio recording and mixing equipment, and a variety of tools for supporting interactive environments and installations.