y Christan Hörner
Augmented Interfa(e)ces
by Christian Hörner
Most of Tallinn's wastewater flows through Paljassaare into the Baltic Sea. Spanning a large area of the peninsula's surface with its basins, tanks, and hangars, the Water Treatment Plant of Tallinna Vesi is the central node of the city's wastewater infrastructure. The plant’s apparatus contains a complex mechanical and chemical cleaning process that removes those components from the “dirty” water that we humans think should not leave the controlled human domain towards “nature”. A byproduct of this process is sludge, a brown earthy material that is further used for landscaping purposes. The material is stored and dried on a concrete plane next to the plant bordering the nature preservation area of Natura2000, which takes up the rest of the northern peninsula.
At first glance, Tallinna Vesi in its constant mundane functioning seems to take place far from any processes of generic urban development, growth or change. The view that enables me to grasp water treatment as a relevant actor of the city process pays special attention to urban exchanges between the human and non-human. Tallinna Vesi mediates the flows of the socio-ecological system of the city, more concretely the metabolic exchanges of waste and water between humans and their non-human surroundings. This view produces questions concerning the long-lasting boundaries between cities and so-called “nature” by pointing to how cities as human-made constructs constantly co-produce and influence non-human environments through their intakes and outputs (Swyngedouw 2006). Seen from a non-anthropocentric perspective, the urban metabolism reveals a multiplicity of stakeholders like plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, also taking into account their relationship with one another.
This coproduction of urban natures transcends scales from the planetary to the molecular. The finer the resolution, the less clear the distinction between “urban” and “natural” entities becomes. As there is no distinctive “urban” substance, "human activity cannot be viewed as external to ecosystem function" (Harvey 1996, 186). Contrarily, public discourse maintains a tendency of envisioning ecological processes as cyclical, employing a romanticising image of natural perfection, often allowing us to disregard how human activity leaks into environments masking the inflicted damage of our interventions (Kaika 2004).
In Paljassaare rainwater dissolves molecules like phosphates and nitrates out of the nutrient-rich sludge, which permeates into the water bodies of the nature reserve. This perpetual process of eutrophication of Natura’s aquatic biomes is relevant in exposing a connection between the areas of the Tallinna Vesi Sludge Fields and the neighboring preservation area. The nutritional enrichment stimulates plant growth and reduces water quality, affecting the ecosystem drastically by displacing birds and other animals from the centre of the peninsula (see Pasquero 2017, 6). The entanglement of urban and non-urban systems becomes apparent in this instance, illustrating one of the many intersections and connections that challenge the distinction between the urban and the natural.
My installation Augmented Interfa(e)ces explored these exchanges using the means and tools of augmented reality (AR). AR as a visual medium works by virtually enhancing the analog human perception of the site, illustrating the multiple scales, localities, and actors that converge in the area of Tallinna Vesi in terms of an urbanisation that is more-than-human. On site, participants received tablets that functioned as interfaces to the augmented reality - the installation became visible through the camera and display of the devices.
The starting point of the experience was the bathroom, the locus of our everyday hygienical practices connecting us to the location of Paljassaare through wastewater infrastructure and thus its politics. I employed glitch as a central design method of the digital model in order to question the digital representations of elements through intentionally alienating the participant from the images. Objects and textures were warped into each other by manipulating the data in their files: Digital trees, molecules and other site-specific elements augmenting the site shared a deformed, glitchy, and flawed appearance that made them questionable. If digital media and specifically AR are frequently used to represent flawless natures for educational or promotional purposes, the installation experimented with implying an imaginary of nature that is fundamentally flawed, at least from an anthropocentric viewpoint. The visuals were accompanied by a soundscape which adds warped and glitchy audio snippets to the collage.
Even more so, the strange image and sound pointed towards an alternative understanding of urban natures beyond ideal circular flows and perfect systems of hermetical integrity. This perception deviates from an idealisation of natural ecology and asks questions about how the relationship with the multiplicities of that are our non-human environments are commonly perceived. The installation proposes the experimental departure from functionalist and positivist understandings of ecological systems towards a more-than-human perspective of irregularity, random exchange, and imperfection. Nevertheless, my goal was not to undermine the position of natural sciences in achieving climate justice. I aimed at pointing to their limited scope and often biased research agendas, running along the same lines of power that produce ecological injustice in the first place.
How can we use new media like AR to tackle problems of urban natures while simultaneously questioning the medium and its immersive capacities? My project tried to raise awareness about the complexities of the production of urban natures, specifically in terms of wastewater infrastructure. Beyond that, the glitch pointing to imperfections in digital representations was employed to question both medium and ecological imaginaries at the same time. When glitches on a screen put us off, AR becomes useful in intensifying this experience immersively. Altering datafied images of nature and ecology creates new ways to question their perception, moving towards a more-than-human perspective on urban metabolistic flows.
References
Swyngedouw, Erik. 2006. “Circulations and metabolisms: (Hybrid) Natures and (Cyborg) cities.” Science as Culture 15 (2): 105-121.
Harvey, David. 1996. Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell, p. 186.
Kaika, Maria. 2005. City of Flows: Modernity, Nature, and the City. London & New York: Routledge.
Pasquero, Claudia. 2017. “Anthroposcene Island: Introduction” Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2017 / = bioTallinn. Tallinn: Eesti Arhitektuurikeskus.
At first glance, Tallinna Vesi in its constant mundane functioning seems to take place far from any processes of generic urban development, growth or change. The view that enables me to grasp water treatment as a relevant actor of the city process pays special attention to urban exchanges between the human and non-human. Tallinna Vesi mediates the flows of the socio-ecological system of the city, more concretely the metabolic exchanges of waste and water between humans and their non-human surroundings. This view produces questions concerning the long-lasting boundaries between cities and so-called “nature” by pointing to how cities as human-made constructs constantly co-produce and influence non-human environments through their intakes and outputs (Swyngedouw 2006). Seen from a non-anthropocentric perspective, the urban metabolism reveals a multiplicity of stakeholders like plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, also taking into account their relationship with one another.
This coproduction of urban natures transcends scales from the planetary to the molecular. The finer the resolution, the less clear the distinction between “urban” and “natural” entities becomes. As there is no distinctive “urban” substance, "human activity cannot be viewed as external to ecosystem function" (Harvey 1996, 186). Contrarily, public discourse maintains a tendency of envisioning ecological processes as cyclical, employing a romanticising image of natural perfection, often allowing us to disregard how human activity leaks into environments masking the inflicted damage of our interventions (Kaika 2004).
In Paljassaare rainwater dissolves molecules like phosphates and nitrates out of the nutrient-rich sludge, which permeates into the water bodies of the nature reserve. This perpetual process of eutrophication of Natura’s aquatic biomes is relevant in exposing a connection between the areas of the Tallinna Vesi Sludge Fields and the neighboring preservation area. The nutritional enrichment stimulates plant growth and reduces water quality, affecting the ecosystem drastically by displacing birds and other animals from the centre of the peninsula (see Pasquero 2017, 6). The entanglement of urban and non-urban systems becomes apparent in this instance, illustrating one of the many intersections and connections that challenge the distinction between the urban and the natural.
My installation Augmented Interfa(e)ces explored these exchanges using the means and tools of augmented reality (AR). AR as a visual medium works by virtually enhancing the analog human perception of the site, illustrating the multiple scales, localities, and actors that converge in the area of Tallinna Vesi in terms of an urbanisation that is more-than-human. On site, participants received tablets that functioned as interfaces to the augmented reality - the installation became visible through the camera and display of the devices.
The starting point of the experience was the bathroom, the locus of our everyday hygienical practices connecting us to the location of Paljassaare through wastewater infrastructure and thus its politics. I employed glitch as a central design method of the digital model in order to question the digital representations of elements through intentionally alienating the participant from the images. Objects and textures were warped into each other by manipulating the data in their files: Digital trees, molecules and other site-specific elements augmenting the site shared a deformed, glitchy, and flawed appearance that made them questionable. If digital media and specifically AR are frequently used to represent flawless natures for educational or promotional purposes, the installation experimented with implying an imaginary of nature that is fundamentally flawed, at least from an anthropocentric viewpoint. The visuals were accompanied by a soundscape which adds warped and glitchy audio snippets to the collage.
Even more so, the strange image and sound pointed towards an alternative understanding of urban natures beyond ideal circular flows and perfect systems of hermetical integrity. This perception deviates from an idealisation of natural ecology and asks questions about how the relationship with the multiplicities of that are our non-human environments are commonly perceived. The installation proposes the experimental departure from functionalist and positivist understandings of ecological systems towards a more-than-human perspective of irregularity, random exchange, and imperfection. Nevertheless, my goal was not to undermine the position of natural sciences in achieving climate justice. I aimed at pointing to their limited scope and often biased research agendas, running along the same lines of power that produce ecological injustice in the first place.
How can we use new media like AR to tackle problems of urban natures while simultaneously questioning the medium and its immersive capacities? My project tried to raise awareness about the complexities of the production of urban natures, specifically in terms of wastewater infrastructure. Beyond that, the glitch pointing to imperfections in digital representations was employed to question both medium and ecological imaginaries at the same time. When glitches on a screen put us off, AR becomes useful in intensifying this experience immersively. Altering datafied images of nature and ecology creates new ways to question their perception, moving towards a more-than-human perspective on urban metabolistic flows.
References
Swyngedouw, Erik. 2006. “Circulations and metabolisms: (Hybrid) Natures and (Cyborg) cities.” Science as Culture 15 (2): 105-121.
Harvey, David. 1996. Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell, p. 186.
Kaika, Maria. 2005. City of Flows: Modernity, Nature, and the City. London & New York: Routledge.
Pasquero, Claudia. 2017. “Anthroposcene Island: Introduction” Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2017 / = bioTallinn. Tallinn: Eesti Arhitektuurikeskus.
