The works of Youngs and Rinaldo are meant to mold the viewer’s aesthetic reactions in a way that anchors their role in the Great Chain of Being as one part of a massive web of links and connections; as we humans are allowed to take up space and oxygen on Earth, so, too, are creatures like springtails and fallen leaves on the concrete ground allowed to exist. …read full review

– Anika Sultana

What does it mean to have an ecoconsciousness? The works here offer multiple answers to that question. ecoconsciousness measures our interconnectivity with the natural world. It celebrates our links to the animals with whom we share the planet, to the trees, fruits, vegetables, herbs and insects that make life possible, to the land and waters that bear witness to our best and worst impulses and to the ecological systems that sustain us all. It encompasses our awareness both of the beauty of nature and the devastating horrors created by our efforts to exploit it. It manifests itself in artworks that bring the perilous consequences of our actions to our attention through striking images, immersive installations, evocative performances and rituals and practical proposals. It engages with fields as diverse as science, technology, poetry, politics, history, anthropology, art history and futurism. And it poses questions about our place in the cosmos with wit, sorrow, anger and hope.

Eleanor Heartney, Juror

The ecoconsciousness catalogue can be viewed on ecoartspace’s website. Print versions can be ordered there.

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.

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.

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.

And I’m excited to get to participate in a panel discussion with Linda and 4 other artists at MoMA PS1 in Queens, NY, to celebrate.

From 3:00–4:30pm, “Monologue / Dialogue / Trialogue: Is Eco Materialism ‘What’s Next’ in Art?”

Join the discussion between Weintraub and artists Wenda Gu, Dove Bradshaw, Laura Parker, Zbigniew Oksiuta and Amy Youngs. Swap questions. Offer responses. Participate in the trialogue exploring contemporary art that pays tribute to matter, materiality, and materialization as introduced in “WHAT’S NEXT? Eco Materialism & Contemporary Art.” In the book, Weintraub identifies this vanguard art movement as ‘Eco Materialism’ because it affirms the emergent philosophy of New Materialism and it attends to the pragmatic urgency of environmentalism.

Also happening from 12-5pm, Weintraub invites you to create your own Eco Material brooch honoring neglected forms of materiality: feathers, acorns, pinecones, bones, moss, twigs, mushrooms, seeds, and/or lichens. Drop-in. Make a brooch. Transform Eco Material theory into Eco Material action.

The workshop and discussion are FREE and open to the public. Participants of all ages may drop in throughout the day. No RSVP is required.

Abstract: Materialism is occupying the forefront of intellection discourse in fields as diverse as anthropology, architecture, social science, cultural theory, feminist studies, philosophy, psychology, and theology. These disciplines are both defining and redefining humanity’s interactions with the materials of the planet. Their shared impulse can be traced to mounting evidence that humanity’s unprecedented abilities to manipulate substances, from nanoparticles to global weather, are undermining Earth’s ability to support diverse forms of life. The following text contributes to this urgent discourse by applying these considerations to individual behaviors. In order to facilitate personal scrutiny of the environmental consequences of one’s material behaviors, it identifies seven archetypes of material interaction: pet, sacred object, hazard, merchandise, specimen, resource, and sensual stimulus. In this essay, each archetype is presented from three vantage points. First, patterns of human engagement with each archetype and their environmental consequences are examined. Second, patterns of disposing materials that are no longer desired or viable are explored. Third, artists’ interpretations of these material patterns are presented. Each artwork utilizes dirt as its medium and theme to facilitate comparing and contrasting archetypes. Artists not only manifest each archetype, they warn against objectionable human/material relationships and demonstrate beneficial alternatives.

Article excerpt: “Youngs then inserted a communication channel between these divergent territories by installing an infrared camera inside the worm bag. The images were then transmitted to an LCD screen that was inserted into the top of the table, enabling Youngs to observe the worms’ virtuoso waste-disposal performances as they ate together. A second repulsion-reducing strategy involved adding an active care-giving regimen to the diner’s passive viewing of images on an LCD screen. Youngs accomplished this by inserting a cavity into the top of the table that functioned as a waste-disposal receptacle for pizza crusts, apple cores, and used tea bags. All her leftovers immediately provided the menu for the worms’ next meal. This built-in receptacle converted a tedious chore of waste management into the pleasurable act of feeding a pet.”

…read in full here.

About the book: “The first compendium on robotic art of its kind, this book explores the integration of robots into human society and our attitudes, fears and hopes in a world shared with autonomous machines. It raises questions about the benefits, risks and ethics of the transformative changes to society that are the consequence of robots taking on new roles alongside humans.” More on their RoboticArt website.