Artist Statement

Materialising a more tan human Internet of Things is the PhD research of media artista and designer Birgit Bachler at the School of Design, Victoria University of Wellington. While the buzz term ‘Internet of Things’ has mainly developed around human, market -and technology- driven concerns, this research experiments with methods for creatively engaging the often marginalised and unheard voices of more-than-human communities around local Wellington urban waterways as stakeholders and!co designers of an Internet of Things.
In a series of workshops, participants are invited to explore local waterways from a more-than- human perspective and walking the visible and hidden paths of local streams, which are often
culverted and piped underground. By carrying a variety of electronic sensors, including audio, video, GPS, humidity, luminosity, temperature, flow, etc. participants contribute to building multisensory cartographies for designing localised IoT contexts.
These immersive walks aim to collaboratively créate experimental prototypes for digital networks and DIY electronic devices as artistic interventions, to imagine novel ways of re-connecting with local Wellington waters and their more-than-human ecosystem. This talk addresses the challenges of searching for methods to include the creativity of more-than-human communities into the design process

• Birgit Bachler, New Zealand