Umwelt [sim] (2020)

• 85%
• 2020
• Shi Zheng

Shi Zheng's Umwelt [sim] (2020) is an AI simulation of an installation work that reconsiders nature through technology and offers a good introduction to the issues of slow (viewing) time, computer vision, and the mediation of nature. The way nature gets encapsulated and made worth our attention is further addressed in Mark Dorf's Preservation (2020), where fluorescent lit transparent boxes, each with a golden tree, scroll across the screen. An underlay of verdant tree tops scrolls in the opposite direction. It glitches and disappears occasionally, revealing the gray room that harbors the golden tree cases. In this bare office space lie long fluorescent light bulbs and scattered panes of glass. The only space or nature that matters is that which has been made precious, entombed.