I’ve been stuck with where I wanted to go with this project. I’m not completely satisfied with the original project idea involving creating ads for an internet service of the future because I’ve been wanting to explore the use of physical systems (rather than purely social), a la Hans Haacke or Tim Hawkinson, to not only transform the “viewer” into “user” but to do so in a physically participatory way. I spent a lot of time brainstorming in a way similar to my daily practice routine. Stepping away from the computer screen, standing up and drawing stream-of-consciousness style was a helpful way to get myself out of this rut:

So my idea is to build a laptop cooling system that will change fan speed based on various quantifiable parts of a desktop aquarium ecosystem that I will put together, as an attempt to map my computer’s performance to the health of an ecosystem. I’ll methodically document the entire process, perhaps daily, in the form of a blog.

This system will serve to symbolize a microcosm of our larger urban infrastructure, highlighting the manufactured disconnect we’ve imposed on ourselves through it. Many thinkers, including Donna Harraway, Tim Morton, Zizek, etc, over at least the past several decades have criticized the “nature”/man-made duality, yet I feel like this psychological disconnect is still prevalent which I think leads to a sense of powerlessness over this distant “nature”. With this project I aim to obfuscate this duality and illustrate the level of agency at the hands of each individual.

A rough sketch of the concept:

The cooling pad (containing a fan or two) will be connected to my computer for power and data transfer via usb. The tank will also either have sensors transferring data to my computer via usb or I will manually observe and quantify data points by hand. Some potential measurable aspects: light, water purity, # species, water temp, growth rate… I will try to generate as much biodiversity as I can within the aquarium, but am thinking of sticking mostly to corals and underwater plant life with as few fish or animated creatures as possible for simplicity’s sake.

This successfully acts as a physical system for which I’m an active part of and it’s both conceptually sound and feasible enough that I’m comfortable moving forward with it. Although the final output won’t be participatory/interactive as documentation in the form of a blog, the act of blogging should add a performative element to the work, immersing viewers throughout the process in a somewhat time-sensitive format. This also opens me up to documenting in different ways, like maybe live streaming an IP cam into the aquarium. One concern is monetary constraints, as building an aquarium is not cheap. Another is where to install: I’m always moving around from place to place, and so I might only be able to monitor/participate with this system for so many hours a day. I also need to consider that I’ll have a bunch of living things in my hands by the time I’m finished. When will I be finished?