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Hormonalweb/i-weather.org
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i-weather.org is an international consortium whose purpose is to establish the first artificial climate responding to the need to maintain human physiological metabolism in the deterritorialized spaces created by globalization : virtual reality, jet lag due to multiple air trips, and space travel and residence in space. Accessible to anyone, at any time, anywhere, via the Internet, i-weather.org makes it possible to experience life unconstrained by any natural geography by offering an artificial circadian rhythm synchronized with an endogenous periodicity of the human endocrine system. In the absence of the terrestrial night-day astronomical cycle, this periodicity has been found to be just above 25 hours. On it depend, for example, the variation of body temperature, the wake-sleep cycle, the accumulation or the secretion of substances such as hydrocortisone and oligopeptides. i-weather.org is, therefore, a first specifically human climate. Version 1.0b was launched on October 26, 2001, at the All Design exposition held at the Zurich Museum für Gestaltung [ Museum of Design ]. It will be improved steadily with advances in scientific knowledge about biorhythms and increases in hardware capabilities. In its beta version, i-weather.org Version 1.0b functions solely on the basis of the variation of melatonin levels with variations in the light intensity received by the retina.
Hormonalweb / i-weather.org is a proposal aimed at establishing a physical connection between virtual space and real space, weaving electromagnetic, chemical and biological ties between man and machine, understanding and entering into physiological relationships between the digital world and the sensory world. What physical impact does the virtual have on the actual, and more specifically, on the human body ? The digital realm calls for a new definition of space and time, with its own characteristic luminosity and a climate that must be redefined. These are deterritorialized places, which elicit a redefinition of the body and its metabolism. The computer is a locus of emission of information, light, sound and radiation around the body, initiating electrical and chemical reactions. The interior space becomes this receptacle of the visible and the invisible. It takes shape as the intersection of electrical, sound and magnetic fluxes that establish a new, vibrating, abstract, deracinated, fluctuating geography. The computer screen connected to the Internet is a new window ( Paul Virilio ). It is an interface between the internal and the external, through which information passes : a continuous flow of words, images and sounds. But the existence of this window notwithstanding, its design cannot be limited to a purely abstract point of view that neglects the materiality of the information medium. For the electromagnetic medium causes a physiological reaction in the receiver, regardless of the meaning of the content of the information emitted. Conventional windows do not serve merely to illuminate an interior or open it up visually to an external landscape. They also serve a physiological purpose. For example, window apertures provide a throughway for replenishing the air that is needed for breathing and thus for maintaining the chemical quality of the interior, regulating the ratio of oxygen to CO2 and nitrogen. Windows also enable light to pass into the interior to the body, through the eyes, on the skin. The body's metabolism is involved in a chemical interaction with light, with its variations. Its electromagnetic radiation affects the nervous and endocrine systems, for example by stimulating the vitamin D formation, regulating the neurovegetative system, reducing hydrogen sulfide compounds, stimulating enzymes, ferments and vitamins, regulating the level of calcium in the blood. Certain wavelengths have a specific effect on the human body. At around 509 nm, for example, light more effectively stimulates the pineal gland, which regulates the secretion of melatonin, a hormone related to the biological clock, ageing of the body, sleep and biological rhythms. Similarly, varying the intensity of the luminosity has an effect on sexual function by affecting gonadotropic hormones. Thus, the electromagnetic radiation of light, the day-night alternation, and seasonal variations in ambient luminosity interact with the metabolism and affect mood and the biological rhythms of the human body by acting on - among other things - corticosteroids, glucocorticoids, and variations in cortisol levels.
Given the existence of virtual realities and digital worlds, given the present-day possibility afforded to human beings of making a complete break with the natural rhythms of day and night, the alternation of the seasons and the geographical variation of environments, Hormonalweb / i-weather.org responds by offering a first virtual climate, specific to the Web. What is being recognized here is the inevitable physiological link between man and machine, through the electromagnetic emission from the monitor to the eyes and skin. The digital climate ( i-weather.org ) is intended to generate and control the radiation emitted by the machine to the body in order to prevent pathologic metabolic dysfunction, affecting equilibrium, the internal clock, hormonal regulation, etc., that might be caused by rupture of the physiological relationship between the human body and the natural environment./
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i-weather.org
Software
- Purple Institute, Paris, France, December 10-12, 1999
- Museum für Gestaltung [Museum of Design], Zurich, Switzerland, October 27, 2001, to January 27, 2002
- Whitney-Biennial.com, New York, USA, March 2002
- Sixth Leonardo / OLATS / IAA Space Art Workshop, Paris, France, March 17, 2002
- Flash Festival, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, May 25, 2002
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Décosterd & Rahm, associés
with fabric | ch
Patrick Keller, Christophe Guignard, Christian Babski, Stéphane Carion