McMullen Winkler
The Algorithmic Gardener’s Field Guide to Pulling Weeds

Authors

  • Shannon McMullen Purdue University
  • Fabian Winkler Purdue University

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DOI:

10.31182/cubic.2022.5.55

Keywords:

critical gardening, computer vision, artificial intelligence, weeds, future natures

Abstract

Teach a robot to pull a weed. What sounds like a straightforward task comprises an intricate set of actions and complicated ideas of nature. Translating a culturally-defined, ambiguous object (‘a weed’) into successful machine code directions requires human-machine negotiation and reveals emerging nature-technology relationships. The field guide provided here contains instructions for a Taurus dexterous robot, commonly employed in tele-surgery and roadside bomb diffusion. The soybean plant, also addressed in the code and images, is an intentional choice based on the combination of agro-environmental, technological and political issues involved in its cultivation globally. As an artistic experiment based on existing technologies, this visual and prose-based algorithmic narrative asks readers to think about how culture and politics are embedded in computer code, and how both algorithms and data structures may manifest themselves in future environmental and agricultural realities.

How to Cite

McMullen, S., & Winkler, F. (2022). The Algorithmic Gardener’s Field Guide to Pulling Weeds. Cubic Journal, 5(5), 124–138. https://doi.org/10.31182/cubic.2022.5.55

Published

2022-12-17

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 5 (2022): Alternative Knowledges — Communities · Creativity · Narration

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Shannon McMullen, Purdue University

Shannon McMullen, PhD and Fabian Winkler, MFA are interdisciplinary artists and researchers working together as McMullen_ Winkler. They combine their backgrounds in new media art and sociology to produce collaborative artworks at the intersection of nature and technology, a research and creative practice they define as critical gardening. Shannon McMullen holds a joint faculty appointment in Art and Design and American Studies at Purdue University.

Their work has been shown internationally at venues such as the National Museum of China, Beijing; International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, NL; Science Gallery Dublin, Ireland; Art Center Nabi, Seoul, Korea; ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany and the Spark Festival, Minneapolis, USA. They have also published articles in Leonardo (MIT Press), Plurale – Zeitschrift für Denkversionen (Berlin, Germany), Media-N (Journal of the New Media Caucus), Senses and Society (Berg Publishers) and The Environmentalist (Springer, New York). Their large-scale investigation of Images of Nature at the intersection of art, engineering and science was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Fabian Winkler, Purdue University

Shannon McMullen, PhD and Fabian Winkler, MFA are interdisciplinary artists and researchers working together as McMullen_ Winkler. They combine their backgrounds in new media art and sociology to produce collaborative artworks at the intersection of nature and technology, a research and creative practice they define as critical gardening. Fabian Winkler holds a faculty appointment in Art and Design. Both teach in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art and Performance at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, USA where they co-direct the area of Electronic and Time-Based Art.

Their work has been shown internationally at venues such as the National Museum of China, Beijing; International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, NL; Science Gallery Dublin, Ireland; Art Center Nabi, Seoul, Korea; ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany and the Spark Festival, Minneapolis, USA. They have also published articles in Leonardo (MIT Press), Plurale – Zeitschrift für Denkversionen (Berlin, Germany), Media-N (Journal of the New Media Caucus), Senses and Society (Berg Publishers) and The Environmentalist (Springer, New York). Their large-scale investigation of Images of Nature at the intersection of art, engineering and science was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation.

References

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