In Search Of Nature

Pétur Thomsen has attracted attention in recent years, both in Iceland and abroad, for his projects Imported Landscape and Umhverfing. Both projects deal with man’s attempt to dominate nature; man’s transformation of nature into environment.

Pétur Thomsen has attracted attention in recent years, both in Iceland and abroad, for his projects Imported Landscape and Umhverfing. Both projects deal with man’s attempt to dominate nature; man’s transformation of nature into environment.

Boids is an artificial life program, developed by Craig Reynolds in 1986, which simulates the flocking behaviour of birds. The name refers to a “bird-like object”, but its pronunciation evokes that of “bird” in a stereotypical New York accent.
As with most artificial life simulations, Boids is an example of emergent behavior; that is, the complexity of Boids arises from the interaction of individual agents (the boids, in this case) adhering to a set of simple rules. The rules applied in the simplest Boids world are as follows:

Separation: steer to avoid crowding local flockmates.
Alignment: steer towards the average heading of local flockmates.
Cohesion: steer to move toward the average position (center of mass) of local flockmates.

Video by flight404.

One of twelve 3D fractal animations by Tom Beddard created for a 147 screen installation at L’Eclaireur in Paris in the summer of 2011.

Watch the full set here.

The first production by Incubate Pictures: a 34 minute animated documentary about resource depletion and the impossibility of infinite growth on a finite planet.

The Open Space Office series was shot in Portugal over a 2-year period and represents a transformed landscape that portrays the existence of man as a constructive, reconstructive and contemplative being. —Tito Mouraz (2011)

The Open Space Office series was shot in Portugal over a 2-year period and represents a transformed landscape that portrays the existence of man as a constructive, reconstructive and contemplative being.

—Tito Mouraz (2011)

Adorno & Horkheimer on science:


Myth turns into enlightenment, and nature into mere objectivity. Men pay for the increase of their power with alienation from that over which they exercise their power. Enlightenment behaves toward things as a dictator toward men. He knows them in so far as he can manipulate them. The man of science knows things in so far as he can make them. In this way their potentiality is turned to his own ends.

—Theodor W. Adorno & Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944)

Dennis Wojtkiewicz explores the sensitive nature of time in his oversized oil paintings of fruit and flowers. The transitory nature of his subject matter is encapsulated, transfixed and glorified with hightened photorealism. Light and translucence make these paintings glow. Nature’s perfect patterning allows each painting to take on a meditative quality.

Dennis Wojtkiewicz explores the sensitive nature of time in his oversized oil paintings of fruit and flowers. The transitory nature of his subject matter is encapsulated, transfixed and glorified with hightened photorealism. Light and translucence make these paintings glow. Nature’s perfect patterning allows each painting to take on a meditative quality.