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The relationship between online creativity and offline ecology are at play in this Internet artwork by Transnational Temps. NOVUS.EXTINCTUS begins with the observation that while thousands of domain names are registered each year for new Web sites, simultaneously thousands of species are falling into extinction. This juxtaposition of creation and extinction challenges simplistic notions of technological progress, generally, and invites more specific enquiries into the promise of the Information Age. NOVUS.EXTINCTUS reframes the game-like processes of e-culture, trying to see how ‘productive’ cultural enterprises contribute to the process of extinction. The website mimics the procedure ‘content providers’ use to establish their Internet domain names. Offering as ‘free’ the Latin names of recently extinct species, NOVUS.EXTINCTUS highlights the momentous die-off that is making the names ‘available.’ Visitors are then led through a confusing production process that culminates in the futile generation of codes to replace the missing species. NOVUS.EXTINCTUS was inspired by search engines specializing in images. When using them to locate images of endangered animals online, one finds that images of animals are often more numerous than the animals themselves in the wild. This suggests that a remarkable inversion is taking place. Real animals and plants that formerly occupied taxonomists are disappearing, while at the same time it seems there are not enough names available to identify all of the new phenomena being created in cyberspace. Mediated Nature We do not question whether the things that happen on radio or television have actually occurred. The fact that we can confront them mentally through electronics is sufficient for us to know that they exist... (Les Levine) For the many people who live in ‘media rich’ societies, losing touch with the condition of the biosphere is easy. The frenetic production and distribution of information, constantly amplified and accelerated, is stealing nature's thunder. With the transformation of media technology, an altered perceptual condition has emerged. Although much information is produced and exchanged concerning environmental problems, the use of Internet databases to interpret the condition of the planet is problematic. The constant duplication of digital imagery blurs the status of the things pictured. And there is no guarantee that things made visible by the expanding Internet database continue to exist ‘offline.’ In a state of confused distraction, the natural world is difficult to recognize. Priorities have shifted. The shadow play of media has become more like ‘primary’ experience. Focus has shifted from the classification of genus and species to the branding of GenusSpecies.com. NOVUS.EXTINCTUS traces the transition away from the taxonomy of natural things and towards the new taxonomy of online phenomena. The new naming protocol does not index physical plants and animals, it references Internet addresses. Not things but places -- ‘domains.’ As attention is directed ever more towards these online virtual places, the flora and fauna that the old naming system classified are disappearing. Quietly. |
