Augmented Ecology; no privatelife for plants?
Hi there. One of the elements within the groWorld presentation by FoAM will be Boskoi the Android mobile app for foragers. (see http://www.boskoi.org)



Perhaps the app can serve as a starting place for a discussion on what the benefits and impacts could be of

Mapping (urban) wildfood sources raises interesting issues:

  • Will the exposure harm or help protect a plant (or animal) population?

  • How polluted is the environment from which you want to take fruits or herbs?

  • Can we use foraging to keep invasive species under control?

  • Do new media give new opportunities for people to connect meaningfully to their environment?


And more broadly:

Animals are fitted with tracking devices, web-cams and hooked up to sms services, satellites are tracking global crop development in real time, ecosystem monitoring is crowdsourced with mobile technology; is there still a private-life for plants and animals? Are they exposed to new intruders or can we use the data to establish corridors for them to exist within human dominated landscapes or even establish new networks between species?

At Pixelache different stakeholders within augmented ecology can meetup such as; urban foragers, wildlife organizations, biologists, gardeners, urban planners, gamers, designers and artists.



foraging Hawthorn in Amsterdam for Ketchup.