🤖 AI Summary
This paper addresses the persistent conceptual ambiguity and interdisciplinary divergence surrounding the term “digital nature” over the past decade. Methodologically, it integrates media art, bio-art, and generative art practices with algorithmic creation, large language models, and philosophical inquiry to systematically map the concept’s genealogy and expose the ethical–political risks embedded in techno-uncanny phenomena. Its contributions are threefold: first, it proposes a novel dual-axis analytical model—spanning virtual/real and anthropocentric/object-oriented dimensions; second, it repositions digital nature as a platform for intercivilizational dialogue; and third, it introduces the concept of “supernatural reality” to extend critical engagement with post-truth ecologies. Collectively, these advances advance art–technology collaboration toward a more culturally grounded and critically reflexive practice paradigm.
📝 Abstract
This paper critically re-examines"Digital Nature,"a concept that has proliferated across various domains over the last ten years. By"Digital Nature,"we refer to an evolving view of nature as a dynamic process of circulating computation and matter, one that extends into the realms of AI, XR, indigenous perspectives, and post-human theory. Despite its popularity,"Digital Nature"remains ambiguously defined. This paper provides a genealogical and philosophical survey of how the idea has emerged, diverged, and overlapped in media art, bio-art, and generative art, alongside relevant Eastern, Islamic, and indigenous worldviews. We then introduce a multi-axis framework (from real/virtual to anthropocentric/object-oriented, with sub-axes of enchantment and materialization), illustrating how digital technologies have reconceptualized the question"What is nature?"in unexpected ways. Finally, we discuss how the field might evolve, particularly through the lens of large language models, AGI, and"supernatural reality,"while highlighting the ethical and political pitfalls of techno-occultism. Our ultimate goal is to re-situate"Digital Nature"as both an intellectual frontier and a collaborative platform that invites continuous dialogue between art, science, technology, and cultural philosophies.