"New Imagery" Participants

ABSTRACT
Metagenomics is defined as the application of modern genomics techniques to the study of communities of microbial organisms directly in their natural environments, bypassing the need for isolation and lab cultivation of individual community members. The traditional DNA sequencing has been targeting one organism’s genome at the time, while metagenomics is based on an idea of sequencing environmental matter without considering species-specific frames or borders. An interesting aspect of this method is the dismissal of the idea of individual species as isolated and distinct entity. The concept of Umwelt was developed by Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944) in the 1930’s. It claims that every living organism has their own species-specific subjective perception of the world that is impacted by the physiological abilities and biological needs of the species. Based on this perspective, the world can be imagined full of overlapping invisible bubbles that surround each individual. Uexküll’s Umwelt, which later became the founding concept of Biosemiotics, is tightly linked to the notion of survival in which each organism includes within its Umwelt what is necessary and essential for its biological survival. However, humans have departed from an innately driven biological survival and are increasingly designing their own bodies with new senses and abilities. Similar development is present in our environment through technological modification and development of technological networked environments. This paper aims at connecting technologically enhanced human as an essential part of the networked techno-ecological perspective. Additionally, the paper claims that the enhancement of human and technologically aided investigations of environment are impacting our perception of an individual. These technological potentialities enable the appearance of new kinds of networked connections between human and his/her environment. The paper will include the artistic works and interests of the author.