Artificial Nature

Canonical definition

Artificial Nature is a complex ontological structure in which technological realities built by humans operate as environmental conditions for human experience and action through a substrate of matter, energy, data, and networks and a stratum of information, algorithms, UI, and UX.

Problem statement

Early accounts of Artificial Nature explained the constitution of technological environments by associating information, algorithms, UI, and UX with the four elements of nature. Analogy alone, however, cannot provide a sufficient ontological ground. A correspondence between water, fire, air, and earth and digital elements does not explain why the latter can be called “nature.” Recent research addresses this limitation by reformulating Artificial Nature through the dual structure of substrate and stratum.

Scope and distinctions

Artificial Nature differs from cyberspace. Cyberspace is easily understood as a virtual realm opposed to reality, whereas Artificial Nature refuses to separate material reality from digital environments. Artificial Nature is also not identical with the Mechanocene: Artificial Nature asks how technological reality is constituted. The Mechanocene asks how the relation between that environment and human beings has changed.

Connected claim

Directly connected sources

• A Study on the Ontology of Artificial Nature: The Four Elements of Base and Stratum 2026
• Birth of Artificial Nature and the Humanities of Coexistence 2021
• The Problems of Media Aesthetics in the Techedit Era (2): The Birth of Artificial Nature and the Transparency of Immersion 2021

Related concepts and relation status

• MechanoceneProvisional relation · author review pending
• Eco-DigitalProvisional relation · author review pending
• ArturaProvisional relation · author review pending