LIFE

A Transdisciplinary Inquiry

Edited by Jeremy Swartz, Janet Wasko

Publication date:

16 February 2024

Publisher

Intellect Books

Dimensions:

244x170mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9781789387926

LIFE: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry examines nature, cognition and society as an interwoven tapestry across disciplinary boundaries. This volume explores how information and communication are instrumental in and for living systems, acknowledging an integrative account of media as environments and technologies.

The aim of the collection is a fuller and richer account of everyday life through a spectrum of insights from internationally known scholars of the natural sciences (physical and life sciences), social sciences and the arts.

How or should life be defined? If life is a medium, how is it mediated? Viewed as interactions, transactions and contexts of ecosystems, life can be recognized through patterns across the sciences, including metabolisms, habitats and lifeworlds. The book also integrates discussions of embodiment, ecological values, literacies and critiques, with bioinspired, synthetic and historical design approaches to envision what could constitute artful living in an ever-evolving, interdependent world.

The volume foregrounds systemic approaches to life, drawing on a wide range of disciplines and fields, including architecture, art, biology, bioengineering, chemistry, cinema studies, communication, computer science, conservation, cultural studies, design, ecology, environmental studies, information science, landscape architecture, geography, journalism, materials science, media archaeology, media studies, philosophy, physics, plant signalling and development, political economy, sociology and system dynamics.

This is the second volume in the MEDIA • LIFE • UNIVERSE Trilogy. It follows and builds upon the 2021 collection MEDIA: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry ISBN 9781789382655

Preface to a Trilogy

Introduction

Genealogy

‘Life, Nature and Systems’, Fritjof Capra
‘What is Life?’, Mark A. Bedau
‘Why Life Cannot Be Defined’, Carol E. Cleland

Information and Ecologies

‘Propagating Organization: An Enquiry’, Stuart Kauffman, Robert K. Logan, Robert Este, Randy Goebel, David Hobill and Ilya Shmulevich
‘Friends, Neighbours and Enemies: An Overview of the Communal and Social Biology of Plants’, Roza D. Bilas, Amanda Bretman and Tom Bennett
‘The Conceptual Ecology of the Human Microbiome’, Nicolae Morar and Brendan J. M. Bohannan

Enactions and Values

‘From Life to Mind’, Mark L. Johnson
‘Metabolism and Drift’, Thomas Nail
‘From ALife to No Life: On Mediatic Contexts of Life and Death’, Jussi Parikka

Ecomediations and Education

‘Media and Information Literacies for a Living World: Engaging with a Cyberist Era’, Divina Frau-Meigs
‘Journalistic Learning and Intentional Teaching with Technologies: STEM and Rural Communities’, Ed Madison
‘Dirtying Ecocinema Studies’, Salma Monani and Stephen Rust

Syntheses and Biodesigning

‘System Dynamics, Machine Learning and Structural Validation’, William Schoenberg and Jeremy Swartz
‘Life from the Edge of Synthetic Biology’, Pier Luigi Luisi
‘Templating Life: DNA as Nature’s Hard Drive, Version 2.0’, Mél Hogan and Tessa J. Brown

Artful Lives and Metaliving

‘Aqueous Mediums, Urban Architectures, Anadromous Being’, Brook Muller
‘Satoyama and the Art of Rural Regeneration’, Diane Durston
‘Metaliving’, Jeremy Swartz

Appendix: Exhibition • Experience • Nature

Notes on Contributors

Index

‘Tolle Lege — though rarely apropos, this stunning book meets the criteria. Destined to be a classic, it revolutionizes communication studies. The impressibility of life systems is imagined globally through sophisticated research. Instead of marginalia and augmented scholasticism, these profound essays teach us innovation and gravitas’.