#NMN - #Transliteracy and #Digital Literacy

Week 10: Technobiophilia Guest Lecture from Professor Sue Thomas

Thank you so much to Professor Sue Thomas for the guest lecture this week. As usual, please respond with any comments, questions and answers to Sue's questions, in the comments' section below.

Technobiophilia: theory and practice
Dr Sue Thomas, www.suethomas.net, @suethomas
New Media Narratives 2014, University of Alberta, 10 March 2014

I’ve decided to present this material as a series of videos and weblinks along with questions for you to choose from and respond to in the comments section. It’s something of an experiment, so I hope it works! I look forward to discussing it with you online this week.

1. Watch the trailer for Biophilic Design: The Architecture of Life http://vimeo.com/27874539

Biophilic Design: The Architecture of Life (Trailer) from Tamarack Media on Vimeo.

Question:  Have you encountered an example of biophilic design in your own surroundings? If so, please describe it and any beneficial effect you experienced.

2. Watch this advertisement for Meetup.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhpf-CcPy-s

Question: Does the kind of life shown here resemble your own life or that of anyone you know? What are the features of this kind of life?

3. Read this discussion Does Technology destroy our relationship with Nature? http://www.ted.com/conversations/18068/does_technology_destroy_our_re.html

Question: What do you think are the most important points made in the discussion?

4.  In this article I outline my theory of technobiophilia and digital well-being. But the magazine editors gave it a title which is not what I was saying:  We surf the net, stream our films and save stuff in the cloud. Can we get all the nature we need from the digital world? http://aeon.co/magazine/nature-and-cosmos/can-we-get-all-the-nature-we-need-from-the-digital-world/  

Question:  Contrary to the article title, I don’t believe that we can get all the nature we need from the digital world. Do you? Why? Why not?

5. Watch this trailer for Flower, by ThatGameCompany. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJam5Auwj1E#t=34

Question: Do you think playing games like this can provide similar feelings to being out in nature?

6. At Medium I’m creating a collection of suggestions for ways to bring nature in our digital world. https://medium.com/how-to-bring-nature-into-your-digital-world You can also find it on my blog http://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/category/how-to-bring-nature-into-your-digital-world/

Question: If you have a Medium account, feel free to write an article and submit it to the collection for consideration. Or maybe you’d just like to add a suggestion to the blog?

Other materials which may be of interest

·      Technobiophilia website including articles, videos and bibliography: http://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/technobiophilia/

·      
My blog http://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/blog/