Models for Environmental Literacy creatively and critically explores the challenges of describing a landscape, an ecosystem, or the specter of environmental collapse through human language. How do we see, feel, imagine, and talk about the environment in this post-digital era, when non-human/machine agents have been trained to perceive “natural” spaces?
In the face of climate change, large-scale computer-controlled systems are being deployed to understand terrestrial systems. Artificial intelligence is used on a planetary scale to detect, analyze and manage landscapes. In the West, there is a great belief in ‘intelligent’ technology as a lifesaver. However, practice shows that the dominant AI systems lack the fundamental insights to act in an inclusive manner towards the complexity of ecological, social, and environmental issues. This, while the imaginative and artistic possibilities for the creation of non-human perspectives are often overlooked.
With the long-term research project and experimental films ‘Models For Environmental Literacy’, Tivon Rice explores in a speculative manner how A.I.s could have alternative perceptions of an environment. Three distinct A.I.s were trained for the screenplay: the SCIENTIST, the PHILOSOPHER, and the AUTHOR. The A.I.s each have their own personalities and are trained in literary work – from science fiction and eco-philosophy, to current intergovernmental reports on climate change. Rice brings them together for a series of conversations while they inhabit scenes from scanned natural environments. These virtual landscapes have been captured on several field trips that Rice undertook with FIBER (Amsterdam) and BioArt Society (Helsinki) over the prior two years. ‘Models For Environmental Literacy’ invites the viewer to rethink the nature and application of artificial intelligence in the context of the environment.
the baltic sea - finland
duration 13:15
Whisper Poems maps the small islands surrounding Helsinki, which are rising twice as fast as the surrounding waters of the Baltic Sea. This is part of a 10,000 year process of post-glacial rebound, so instead of reflecting an uncanny image of human intervention, they present a more paradoxical image of a system operating in geo-historic rather than human timeframes.
The A.I. co-authored narratives for this chapter follow a circular pattern where 2-3 words of the previous output is considered for the following prompt. So, like a whisper poem, or a game of telephone, there is some continuity but also a greater chance of misunderstanding as the story evolves.
the ijsseloog - netherlands
duration 10:05
Circular Conversations maps the Ijsseloog, arguably the strangest visual landscape in the Netherlands – a perfectly circular island, 1 kilometer across, built for the deep storage of industrial toxic sediment. After first seeing this circle on satellite images, then during subsequent field trips to drone-photograph the site, I couldn’t help imagining it as a kind of monumental frame upon, or a portal into the past, present, and future of the local environment. In some ways, the IJsseloog is a kind of punctuation mark (like a period or a comma) in the story of the Zuiderzee Works, the land reclamation project that shaped the Netherland's northern coastline.
Here, one A.I. model is asked the simple question “tell me what you see”, and its response becomes the prompt for the next model. In this dialogue, the entire paragraph from the SCIENTIST becomes the prompt for the PHILOSOPHER, and the PHILOSOPHER’s output is the prompt for the AUTHOR, and so-on.
the volkerak - netherlands
duration 13:13
Echo Chambers focuses on the southwest of the Netherlands, where the Delta Works creates a different kind of engineered environment. During FIBER’s Cartographies of the Vanishing Now workshop, we traveled to the Volkerak to observe the algae blooms lining the shores, and to discuss the complex cultural, hydrological, and agricultural histories that have deeply impacted that ecosystem.
In Echo Chambers the logic of the dialogue is a feedback loop, in which one model’s output becomes its own input, over and over again. Thus, each character has a much longer monologue, without being in dialogue with the other voices. Each text is prompted by the question “where are we?”
FIBER Festival
Instability
September 2020
Amsterdam, Netherlands
PIKSEL 20
Rural Futurism
November 202
Bergen, Norway
PCD '21
Future Vision
February 2021
Porto, Portugal
MozFest
March 2021
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Homeostasis Lab
April 2021
São Paulo, Brazil
19th WRO Media Art Biennale
Reverso
May 2021
Warsaw, Poland
The National Gallery X
The AI Gallery
June 2021
London, UK
Pixelache Festival
#BURN_____
June 2021
Helsinki, Finland
Art Machines 2 International Symposium on Machine Learning & Art:
Constructing Contexts
June 2021
Hong Kong
xCoAx '21
9th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X
July 2021
Graz, Austria
RIXC Art Science Festival
Postsensorium
September 2021
Riga, Latvia
Museum of Museums
Models for Environmental Literacy
October 2021
Seattle, USA
CYLAND CYFEST 13
Cosmos & Chaos
November 2021
St. Petersburg, Russia
NTAA '22
New Technological Art Award International Exhibition
February 2022
Ghent, Belgium
ISEA '22
Possibles
June 2022
Barcelona, Spain
Currents New Media
Video Festival
June 2022
Santa Fe, USA
ARS Electronica
Welcome to Planet B
September 2022
Linz, Austria
Patchlab Art Festival
Econtinuum
October 2022
Kraków, Poland
Relacje
Festival of Visual Arts
June 2023
Warsaw, Poland
CAS Members Exhibition
Computer Arts Society
July 2023
London, UK
Sound
Stelios Manousakis (NL/GR)
Stephanie Pan (NL/US)
Voice
Esther Mugambi (AU/KE)
Arnout Lems (NL)
Michaela Riener (AT/NL)
Curation
Jarl Schulp
Support
Commissioned by FIBER Festival
Google Artists + Machine Intelligence Focused Research Award
Creative Industry Fund NL
Stimuleringsfonds Digital Culture Grant
Creative Industry Fund NL
Stimuleringsfonds Space for Talent Grant
STROOM Den Haag
PRO Research Award
TU Delft
Crossing Parallels
Residency Program
BioArt Society / SOLU
Imagining Godzilla
Artist Residency
FIBER
Cartographies of the Vanishing Now
Research and Workshop Program
Made possible by DXARTS - The University of Washington Department of Digital Arts & Experimental Media
Deep City: Climate Change, Democracy and the Digital
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
March 2021
Lausanne, Switzerland
xCoAx 2021: 9th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X
Graz, Austria
July 2021
SIGGRAPH Conference on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques
August 2021
Los Angeles, USA
DRHA Digital Matters:
Designing/Performing Agency for the Anthropocene
Humboldt-Universität
September 2021
Berlin, Germany
Renewable Futures: The Futures of Living Technologies
November 2021
Oslo, Norway
Schulp, Jarl. 2020."Augmented Narratives: In Conversation with Tivon Rice." FIBER, edited by Morris, Rhian.
Best, Andy. 2021. "Imagining Godzilla: An Art Research Network Platform." Situating Sustainability: A Handbook of Contexts and Concepts, edited by C. P. Krieg and R. Toivanen, 293–330. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
Rice, Tivon. 2021. "Models for Environmental Literacy".
xCoAx 2021: Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, edited by M. Carvalhais, M. Verdicchio, L. Ribas, A. Rangel, 429-439. Porto: University of Porto
Rice, Tivon. 2021. "Models for Environmental Literacy".
Art Machines 2: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Computational Media Art, edited by Allen, Richard , 233-234. Hong Kong: City University Hong Kong
Rice, Tivon. 2021. "Models for Environmental Literacy".
Digital Matters: Designing & Performing Agency in the Anthropocene, edited by Mosse, Ramona, 71-72. Berlin: Humboldt University
Ludovico, Alessandro. 2022. "Models for Environmental Literacy: Inauthentic Trustworthy Dialogues". Neural, 69: 44
Haraguchi, Iwao. 2022. "Models for Environmental Literacy". DiVA, 52:40-41. Society of Art & Science
Grba, Dejan. 2022. "Deep Else: A Critical Framework for AI Art". Digital 2, 1: 1-32.
Rice, Tivon. 2022. "Models for Environmental Literacy".
ISEA 2022: Catalog of the International Symposium on Electronic Art, edited by P. Alsina, I. Vilà, S. Tesconi, J. Soler-Adillon, E. Mor, 266. Barcelona: ISEA International
Rice, Tivon. 2022. "Models for Environmental Literacy".
NTAA 2022 Catalogue, edited by A. Geenen, 86-91. Ghent: Zebrastraat
Rice, Tivon. 2022. "Models for Environmental Literacy".
Gallery 4 Culture: Remark, edited by J. Howland and A. Le, 104. Seattle: 4Culture
Rice, Tivon. 2023. "Models for Environmental Literacy". AI Creative Writing Anthology, edited by Davis, G. Ch. 16. London: Leopard Print
