-- Digital Craft & Dark Ecology Connecting ourselves to Dark Ecology & Agrilogistics by making
Digital Craft & Dark Ecology Connecting ourselves to Dark Ecology & Agrilogistics through making A written statement by Nikki Vieler In this statement I shall form my thinking concerning the connection of Digital Craft and Dark Ecology through 5 principles. Each principle is substantiated (according to my views and philosophies) with an explanation. Making can connect us to the Dark Ecology which we are currently forming. We are living in an ecology which is becoming darker as each day passes. The increasing amount of concealed surveillance(1), Trump mania(2), Erdogan's accusations of Nazism, Fascism and organised genocide against Germany and The Netherlands(3), Russia's involvement in the annexation Crimea and involvement in war in the Donbass(4,5), further development of Nuclear weapons by North Korea(6), increasing world-wide food shortages(7), migration issues(8) and an ongoing ecological devastation(9,10) are some reasons to believe that we are living in an ecology which is becoming darker. The light on a clean and healthy future has become increasingly dim and darkened. In light of these developments, the scholar Timothy Morton has come up with a term which, for others and myself, typifies these times and conditions, namely Dark Ecology(10). In these dark times we need to seek a future by finding a way of thinking which helps us understand our time and the flawed thinking this has created. A most intriguing approach would be to build tools which may help us with this task. After all, didn't we eventually develop computers to break through the dark code which emanated from the Nazi's Enigma machines? This code which Nazi Germany used to throw a dark veil over Europe during World War two(11). Considering that technology from that period eventually has formed our view of the world and is involved in shaping this Dark Ecology, it seems to me that we need to craft something in the digital realm to deal with the Dark Ecology we face. After all, if we crafted ourselves into this Dark Ecology, then surely we should be able to craft ourselves out of it. Making allows us to create an intimacy with our ecology through material experimentation. One could suggest that Western Liberal Society is a society of the mind(12). Consider the way which the academic, liberal and the digital world's enormous influence on the development of society over the last 20 years is finally fading(13), it may be wise for human beings to try to reconnect to the sensuous, sensual and material world(14). So as to reconnect each person in the world. This might break down the academic and human barriers that have grown under liberal beliefs. Additionally, we are already living in Post-Digital times(14,15,16,17,18), although this remains a quite fiercely contested term(19). It would therefore be wise to reconsider what the Digital means and how we can re-engage with the "real" world and ecology through a new understanding of how the material world and the digital world relate