Adaptation

A SymbioticA Project at Lake Clifton, Western Australia

About Adaptation With climate change hinting at catastrophic results to some life forms (while others may benefit) it is the capability to adapt which is an advantage for the future. In a broad scoping of issues surrounding life and ecology, ‘Adaptation’, SymbioticA’s long term project, opens important dialogue and debate surrounding human inaction, intervention, responses and responsibilities to the world at large. Embedded in Lake Clifton, south of Mandurah, Western Australia, ‘Adaptation’ proposes a dynamic program of production-based artist residencies and events with a vibrant outreach and community program. Lake Clifton, as a location and a metaphor, offers a microcosmic peak into the broader issues of ecology and life itself. Download the Adaptation PDF

Research areas may include, but are not limited to:
• historical importance of the thrombolites in evolution
• the area’s cultural history
• endangered migratory birds, fauna and flora
• environmental listing and protection
• the contradictory nature of agriculture and ecology
• global warming and its effects
• developmental impacts
• evolution of animal species
• stability and salinity of the lake’s water
• the network and interactions between the community, governmental bodies, scientific groups, action groups, businesses, land owners/dwellers and key cultural groups
• nuclear reactor site potential
• bio-prospecting
• the parallel between one of the fastest growing Australian regional cities to one of the slowest growing lifeforms

Rising North

Jane Marsching

Rising North, 2008

01SJ Biennial: Superlight

San Jose Museum of Art

May 10 – August 31, 2008

How can we make sense of the climate change predictions in the news? What does a seven degree temperature rise in the Arctic really mean? How do we absorb scientific information into our everyday lives?

Rising North takes monthly temperature readings from the North Pole data buoys and visualizes the rise in temperature of 7 degrees Celsius over a century (until 2107) that some climatologists predict for the region. Standard temperature color choices range from pale blue at –37 degrees to warm orange at 9 degrees. The audio combines background shortwave frequency static with the voice of an opera singer singing the top headlines from Google News about the North Pole on March 21, 2007.

New Genetic Knowledge

AWC research brings the benefits of the latest genetic technologies to New Zealand and creates cutting-edge mathematical tools to ensure the best use of the new wealth of genetic information.

Predicting Evolution

Evolutionary biologists need to show that our science is more than just about looking backwards. We need to show that we can also make predictions about what will happen next. In short, after 150 years of evolutionary thinking, the time has come for us to step up to the plate and show how evolutionary biology allows us to make predictions.

Dr Steve O'Shea

Steve joined AUT in 2003, and has been the Director of EOS since 2005. His research expertise is in marine invertebrate taxonomy, particularly that of cephalopods (octopus and squid), but his interests extend far beyond this to the systematics and ecology of many coastal to deep-sea invertebrates, and determination of the relationships between these species and their environment.

During the 1960s American physicist Edward Lorenz turned his attention to the seemingly mundane field of weather prediction. Devising a mathematical formula known as the Lorenz Attractor, he mapped the course of chaos itself.  The study of complex systems such as the weather has since been seen to have applications in all fields of the life sciences and humanities.  Systems theory, a science that looks at process and change in response to input from the environment, sees living systems and social systems in terms of the dynamic relation between the parts and the whole.

Some of the most interesting applications of Systems thought took place in the field of micro biology where a new definition of life found expression in the Santiago theory:

At all levels of life, beginning with the simplest cell, mind and matter, process and structure, are inseparably connected…. The Santiago Theory (Humberto Mantura and Francisco Varla) proposes a concept of cognition in which the mind as a separate ‘thinking thing’ is abandoned in favor of a model in which mind is not separate but part of a process, the process of cognition which characterizes the existence of life…. Cognition as understood in the Santiago Theory is associated with all levels of life … and … consciousness is a special kind of cognitive process which emerges when cognition reaches a certain level of complexity…. The relationship between mind and brain, therefore, is one between process and structure….1

In this worldview the phenomenon of consciousness is not separate from nature, as it is in Cartesian scientific thought, but is instead an essential part of all biological processes. This new understanding of nature focuses on the relationship between the parts and the dynamic processes where the flow of energy gives rise to new forms, placing human beings and human consciousness back within the complex fabric of nature and not on the outside like some disembodied brain looking in.

New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics (NZCEE) principal ecological economist and deputy director Marjan van den Belt says, the services humanity get from ecosystems, which include natural resources such as oil and gas, are free.

"We don't put a number on those services. We don't consider it a capital, therefore it's not taken into account when we do decision-making."

Forests control erosion - that's a service provided by an ecosystem. If the forest is chopped down, especially on the steeper slopes, the soil ends up in the waterways, causing problems for the freshwater systems, she says.

"I personally think it is a good idea to take those impacts into account as well. [It] broadens the indicators you measure with to see if you are doing good or not good."

What is Ecological Economics?

The knowledge base for the creation of an ecologically sustainable economy.

An increasing awareness that global life-support systems are endangered is forcing us to realise that decisions made on the basis of short-term criteria can produce disastrous long-term results on a global scale. There is also a growing acknowledgement that conventional economic and ecological models and concepts fall short in their ability to address global ecological problems in a truly systemic way.