float like a butterfly

September 1, 2011 8:25 AM

The Animal Architecture Awards have just announced the winners of their 2011 contest. Taking first place is Simone Ferracina’s Theriomorphous Cyborg, a (speculative) augmented reality game inspired by Jacob von Uexküll’s notion of the animal umwelt. Not truly architectural, Theriomorphous Cyborg instead shifts how a human participant relates to space and the landscape. Each level in the free-form game takes the player through different modes that relate to the sensory capacities of various animals. (via)

Once the participant has mastered one form of perception, she advances to more outlandish experiments with vision and navigation. Level 3 essentially blinds the player, and replaces his vision with the feed from a series of hacked CCTV cameras. Level 6 covers up billboards with images of bee-friendly flowers. A mouthpiece morphs the user’s words into animal noises, robbing her of the ability to communicate with language. By imagining an animalistic version of future devices, Theriomorphous Cyborg presents a trippy, compelling alternative to the assumption that all technology must be anthropocentric.

posted by infini (3 comments total)

I have to admit that I was initially hoping for the most badass doghouse ever built or something.

But this is interesting too.
posted by kmz at 8:47 AM on September 1, 2011

Image searching "most badass doghouse ever built" brings up: http://dog-milk.com/cubix-modern-dog-house/
posted by Spacelegoman at 8:58 AM on September 1, 2011

reminds me of a clockwork orange, the viddy flashing images of slaughtered cows inducing hypersynchronous neuronal activity.
posted by clavdivs at 6:57 PM on September 1, 2011