Hello Bruce Sterling,
Facebook for cavemen, mining for plastic, growing your own sneaker, and faking that all-natural flavor. Welcome to another issue of the Next Nature Newsletter, from the website http://www.nextnature.net, where we explore the nature caused by people.
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CONTENTS
-NANO Supermarket Call Extended
-New Theme Pages
-Blog Highlights
-Meet the Nano Supermarket Jury
-Next Nature Internships
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NANO SUPERMARKET CALL EXTENDED
This autumn, Next Nature will present the updated product line of the NANO Supermarket, a physical supermarket featuring debate–provoking visions on possible nanotech products expected to hit the shelves between now and 2020.
We call upon designers, technologists and artists to submit their speculative nanotech products for the supermarket. A selection of the projects will be presented in the NANO Supermarket and the accompanying publication. The best submission will receive a € 2500 prize.
Just what is a nanotech product? Think of self–cleaning windows, contact lenses with a built-in display, smart medicines, cyborg insects, nano-particle tagging spray to identify stolen possessions, breathing textiles, tooth phones, organic jewelry, implantable microprocessors – and thousands of other potential applications.
Submission deadline: 17 June 2012.
Visit http://www.nanosupermarket.com to learn more about the contest.
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NEW THEME PAGES
Next Nature has a selection of media-rich theme pages to showcase the best of our past work, and to explain just exactly what we mean by terms like "hypernature" and "anthropomorphobia". Explore our newest additions:
Microbial Factories
Read about bacteria that emit light, microbes that eat plastic, and algae that will solve all our problems. Bigger isn’t always better!
http://www.nextnature.net/themes/microbial-factories/
Suburban Utopia
Learn how we manage, mismanage, and do battle with nature (and human nature) in the seemingly perfect world of the suburbs.
http://www.nextnature.net/themes/suburban-utopia/
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BLOG HIGHLIGHTS
Cavemen Used "Facebook" Already
Between 4,000 BC and 600 BC, nomadic peoples in Sweden and Russia used rock art as primitive form of messaging and an expression of togetherness.
http://www.nextnature.net/2012/05/cavemen-used-facebook-already/
How to Grow Your Own Sneaker
Watch as bioengineer Raymond Ong explains how to create sneakers from transgenic stingrays at the last Next Nature Power Show.
http://www.nextnature.net/2012/05/how-to-grow-your-own-sneaker/
In the Future, We Will Mine for Plastic
Peak oil also means peak plastic. When the cost of producing plastic from oil becomes prohibitively expensive, we will turn to landfills as valuable mines for petrochemicals.
http://www.nextnature.net/2012/05/in-the-future-we-will-mine-for-plastic/
Complexity and Evolving Synthetic Soil
Guest contributor Rachel Armstrong discusses how we may eventually cultivate synthetic systems that perform the same functions as natural soil.
http://www.nextnature.net/2012/05/complexity-and-evolving-synthetic-soil/
Real Vanilla is Natural, but Natural Vanilla is Fake
Delve into the confusing world of vanilla, where "natural" flavor comes from rice bran and cloves, and "artificial" flavor is made of coal tar and dung.
http://www.nextnature.net/2012/04/real-vanilla-is-natural-but-natural-vanilla-is-fake/
Humans Caused Mass Extinctions Before There Were Even Humans
Scientists have implicated Australopithecus afarensis in the disappearance of 23 species of small carnivores in Africa around 2 million years ago.
http://www.nextnature.net/2012/04/humans-caused-mass-extinctions-before-there-were-even-humans/
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MEET THE NANO SUPERMARKET JURY
The jury of NANO Supermarket is a exquisite collage of distinguished scientists, designers, artists, journalist and thinkers. We are proud to bring together such excellent people from a broad spectrum of disciplines, who will capably to judge the submissions on their merits.
Dave Blank – Director MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology
Rob van Hattum – Creative Director NEMO Science Center, Director Science programs VPRO
Tracy Metz – Design Journalist & Writer
Mieke Gerritzen – Designer, Director MOTI, Museum of the Image
Ronald van Tienhoven – Artist & Design Educator
Lucas Asselbergs (Chair) – Director Studium Generale, Eindhoven University of Technology
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NEXT NATURE INTERNSHIPS
Are you a student looking for an internship? Next Nature has positions available in our Amsterdam office for designers, editors, programmers and producers. Interested? Send us your CV and a letter of motivation.
http://www.nextnature.net/internships/
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The good people of NextNature.net are grateful to the TU/e, Mondriaan Foundation and Stichting Doen for their kind support.
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