| 1980 Born in Falls Church, Virginia, USA. Grew up in Southern Maryland, USA. 1990-1995 Apprenticed to painters Lisa and Peter Egeli, and George McWiliams. 1998 At The University of Maryland Baltimore County, designed a major in Artificial Life and the Digital Arts and studied sustainable environments under Phil Hawes. 2001 worked for Aeroflex Altair Cybernetics Corporation. 2001 joined the Ecological Systems Design team as the director of D.A.I.S.I. Currently creating interfaces for the Center for Art and Visual Culture at UMBC.B | | |
| A birdhouse is a simple and elegant gift to nature, self-contained, complete, and unimposing. It is the simplicity of it that we sometimes overlook, surrounded with technology as we are in the modern world. Our technologies are complex beyond our wildest dreams, and this complexity has allowed us to solve any problem, to overcome any obstacle; but sometimes this solution comes at no small price. Sometimes the solution creates more problems in its wake than it solves.
At times, in order to find a solution that will not only fix the problem at hand, but also have a lasting positive effect on the world, it is necessary to go back to basics, to go low tech, and to simplify. Sustainability often depends on how easily a solution can be replicated and repeated by as many people as possible. It is simply not enough that one person is doing the right thing, that one person my find the perfect solution. If it ends there, then so does the effect.
Artificial intelligence carries such great potential to provide solutions to problems in our everyday lives. But the materials that are commonly used to build such devices are not sustainable with current practices. Everyday problems beg for simple solutions and sustainable materials. In building my birdhouse, it was important to me that the materials it was constructed with were natural, and that I did not use any petro-chemicals or by products of the fossil fuel industry. The key to sustainability is that the practices can continue indefinitely without causing harm or destruction to the environment.
Living seeds posses an intelligence so fundamental and profound, yet contained in such a small package. One small pod can carry all the knowledge and intelligence necessary to grow into a great tree, or grasses swaying in the wind, or rows of corn to feed a family. If only human creations could mimic such elegance and simplicity.
I chose the metaphor of the seed for my birdhouse for several reasons, first being its simplicity and self-contained nature. But also the form of the seed as an aggregate of many smaller components speaks of the nature of community, built of individuals working together as a coherent balanced whole towards a similar goal. The seed is regenerative, and self-perpetuating. Seeds are small, but they are many. | |
