Critter Geek

A scientist, artist, and activist, Natalie Jeremijenko challenges us to think critically about our relationship to animals and the environment. What I especially like about her work is the way she embraces and uses technology; her way of getting “back to nature” doesn’t mean trying to turn back the clock in some luddite fantasy. Here’s a quote from her talk at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in 2005 (available as a free MP3: Social Robotics, Smocial Robotics).

People are very scared of feeding animals. Everywhere you see animals, where you interface with animals, it says, “Do not feed the animals.” Or “Do not tap on the glass.” Or “Do not interact with the animals”. That sign is as ubiquitous as the desire to do that, that desire to interact.

And you see in the aquariums…people are tapping right on top of the signs saying do not tap! So this desire to interact, this desire…why wouldn’t we want to feed the animals? Because human food is good enough for humans but bad for the animals? What, they might get diabetes or high blood pressure, obesity? (Probably.) Or that we would create a “dependency”. What?! You know, this idea that we’d make them dependent on us, would interfere with their natural instincts, this kind of crap. We’re changing the entire global climate and we’re worried about interfering with them? It’s like a crazy thing!

When I heard that, I knew I’d found a new hero and I’ve been eager to learn more about her projects ever since. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve found:

Ooz is a delightful set of interactive projects for a zoo without cages. Among other things, you can drive a robotic goose to interact with live geese and learn their language, or interact with fish in the Hudson River. An Ooz project, “For the Birds”, was installed for the 2006 Whitney Biennial. Perches in the museum courtyard’s “bird restaraunt” are equipped with sensors…when a bird lands on the perch, it triggers recordings that educate visitors about avian flu, and how helping the birds can actually help prevent the spread of the virus.

Feral robotic dogs are cheap toy robotic dogs that are hacked by students and then used to sniff out environmental contaminants. It’s playful but serious activism, and makes for a great media event. And if you subscribe to MAKE Magazine, you can read Ooz and Oz from MAKE 02, where Dale Dougherty takes us along for a release of feral robotic dogs.

Jeremijenko’s activist work includes the founding of the Bureau of Inverse Technology, “a kind of guerilla technical intervention into some of the emergent techniques and technologies of the Information Age”. Some of that intervention includes protest technology developed and deployed during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

To learn more about Jeremijenko and her work, you might like Salon’s profile of her, The artist as mad scientist. And you could spend hours browsing and reading through her project hub.

(Photo of Natalie Jeremijenko courtesy of Mark Frauenfelder.)