“Info/Eco: The Nature of Information”
Towards an Ecological Understanding of the Information Environment.
https://info-eco.art

“Info/Eco” is the title for my current meta-attempts to creatively frame an inter-dynamic, co evolutionary ecological whole systems understanding of ‘information’, as local-global society’s most fundamental and critical ‘grand challenge’.

This initiative is an attempt to understand and communicate the ecological and economic nature of information, with broad consideration of bio-physics, lifelong learning, intangibles and externalities, property, common pool resources, the arts, truth and the nature of life. Working meetings, collaborations, creative presentations, writings and an intended book are in-process.

“Info/Eco” is also the overarching title for my body of works and ways since 1966, resulting from a personal challenge to creatively present and set examples for understanding the information environment and our actions therein, within a whole-systems ecological framework. Beginning in 1970, I realized that this would be a yet uncharted journey, requiring new ways of sensing, thinking and communicating; not just as a project, but as a dedicated life’s work.

Descriptions of my four primary “Info/Eco” initiatives with sub-projects and images, follows a short concept text. Contact and follow-on discussion are appreciated.

Info/Eco: The Nature of Information

Towards an Ecological Understanding of the Information Environment

In this age, increasingly shaped by communications and technology, humanity is becoming acutely sensitive to its frail security. The rationalism of science continues to accelerate the conflict between global mind and local body. Societies are now facing existential threats that are forcing us to come to terms with very real relationships between ourselves and the environment.

When speaking of the environment, most people still think only of the tangible, physical environment of air, earth, fire, water and life. But these material ecosystems are bound together in an emergent flow of sustaining energy and information; the Earth-Sun-Universe connection. It is this thermodynamic life force, this radiant electromagnetic environment, and its impacts on the human body and mind, and on all life, to which a sense of ecology must also be acknowledged.

We have long known that the environment is much more than matter, with contemporary physics and ecosystems sciences showing that ‘the environment’ exists in elementary, complex, interdynamic and co-evolutionary states of matter, energy and information. While we understand a great deal about material ecosystems, and are now including entropy and energy flows in our equations, we have barely applied understandings of ecology to information; therefore to an integrated, whole-systems understanding of ecology. This will have evermore troubling consequences as local-global societies increasingly tune into, develop, pollute, manipulate and live in the energy-information environment.

Information Ecology extends our basic understanding of ecology to include the physical, social and economic transformations being wrought by fundamental thermodynamic processes to human scale rapid developments in information technology, networked learning, and by our becoming an increasingly collective “society of mind”.

There is much to do to integrate matter, energy and information into a whole systems ecological understanding. Becoming a bit smarter about the way the world works, may also be dangerous, coming into conflict with long dominant, vested-interest belief systems and ideological fictions. Addressing and mitigating the impacts of climate change and human interactions with the greater environment cannot be achieved through ‘business as usual’ approaches. Education, thoughtful exchange, research, creative examples and respect for differences are needed. There is no solution, however. We can only begin to take small “steps to an ecology of mind”.

“Info/Eco” is a small step and a signpost near the beginning of a long path, with many byways. Networked learning, community-building and creative actions are needed to set examples for integration of ‘information ecology’ into our applied understandings of whole systems ecology, by science professionals, by teachers, by civic leaders, by our children and by those who inspire us with hopeful realities.

The Need to Extend Our Understanding of Ecology

Ecology is a relatively recent area of applied science and understanding, with vast implications. Ernst Haeckel first coined the term in 1866, writing, “By ecology, we mean the whole science of the relations of the organism to the environment including, in the broad sense, all the conditions of existence.”

Ecology, in studying the Biosphere, the thin planetary layer that consists of all life forms and extends from about 11,000 meters below sea level to 15,000 meters above sea level, has all too often been considered to be a branch of Biology. New understandings, especially emerging from interdisciplinary and complexity sciences, are changing this.

Ecology is the study of the complex relationships between living and non-living, inter-dependent dynamic systems. It describes the fragile balance in which such systems interact and by which they co-evolve.

Ecology is now inclusive of and deals with the beginnings of life on Earth, biological and biotic ecosystems interactions, the nature of aquatic and geophysical environments, human social environments and processes, technological development, the impacts and implications of climate change, and the potential of life beyond Earth.

Given the realities of our current planetary conditions, ecological data and understandings are having evermore impact on economics, political decision-making, conflicts and public activism. Significant new understandings urgently require that Ecology be more appropriately defined to be inclusive of fundamental, complex, existential matter, energy and information relationships.

Unfortunately, ecology is still a marginalized concept, applied primarily to biology and the earth environment, and distractingly argued when extended to other realms of ‘the natural order’ or ‘care of home’. If our often stated desires for sustainability are to be at all realized, they will have to be based upon more pragmatic understandings of the dynamic interrelationships and interdependencies of complex evolving systems, from micro, to human, to macro scale.

Only when we better take into account the evolutionary development of human understandings, beliefs, emotions, dynamic differences and failings, might we begin to construct life-serving political, organizational, educational and economic systems that that will help to guide us from where we have come, to where we are going.

“I look forward with great optimism. I think that we undergo not only a historical, but a planetary change as well. We live in a transition to the noosphere.”

Vladimir Vernadsky, The Biosphere and the Noosphere, 1945

A bit of information can be defined as the difference that makes a difference.

Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, 1972

The Nature of Information

The information environment, the flow of information, and the sensory and communicative effects of information, have to date not been included in most whole-systems ecological understandings or applications. This is a major omission that will have evermore troubling consequences as local-global societies increasingly tune into, develop, consume, manipulate, pollute and live in the information environment.

An ecologically integrated understanding of our information environment and of our actions therein will be as critical to life and sustainability goals, as is improved ecological understanding of climate, energy, watersheds, microorganisms, forests, food, agriculture, migrating and increasing populations and the economy.

Information is not just data or bits. It is not simply a useful technical resource; a commodity that can be sent and received, bought and sold, and regulated. Information must also be considered as patterns of perception, genetic expression, cognitive relationships and differences. The flow of information determines the course of social evolution. Decisions regarding spectrum allocation, regulatory interventions, copyright, property, privacy, digital divides, technology development, or ‘new economies’ cannot be effective, if made without an ecological context.

The Information Revolution, if it is primarily a technologically mediated revolution, will likely result in increased consumerism, social systematization, bureaucracy, waste and war. The more cumulatively energy consuming and less ecologically sustainable, the more fragile technological progress will become; and ultimately more disruptive in its potential (inevitable) failures.

Information Ecology: The model of ecological information processes has been established. A fundamental law that governs the entire information discipline, namely the law of information conversion and intelligence creation, has been discovered, which is as essential as the law of energy conversion and energy conservation.

Yixin Zhong, PhD. (‘Father of AI’), Beijing, China

“Just as the physical environment determines what the source of food and exertions of labor shall be, the information environment gives specific direction to the kinds of ideas, social attitudes, definitions of knowledge and intellectual capacities that will emerge…. When there occurs a radical shift in the structure of that environment, this must be followed by changes in social organization, intellectual predispositions and a sense of what is real and valuable…. We might say that the most potent revolutionaries are those people who invent new media of communication, although typically they are not aware of what they are doing.”

Neil Postman

“Bio-Dis-Plays”

Eco-Sensory Arts

http://www.richardlowenberg.com/bio-dis-plays.html

“Bio-Dis-Plays” is the title for a large body of experimental, interactive bio-media-performance artworks created during the 1970s, influenced by Cybernetics, Zen, ecological understandings, emerging processes, technologies and the design of meaningful arts/sciences/society interactions. Exploring, experimenting and example-setting with signals, systems and synergies, the works integrated analogue audio and video synthesizers/processors with extended biofeedback (EEG, EMG, EKG +), multichannel bio-telemetry systems, environmental and biological sensors, laser holography and other advanced technologies utilized by specially trained dance movement practitioners, and recorded/presented as media performance works.

Creative involvements in NYC from 1970-72, included EAT membership, collaborating with physiological psychologist/friend, Peter Crown, PhD., playing with the Vasulkas into the first year of The Kitchen, and having works in the Whitney’s First Video Show.

“Bio-Dis-Play” drawing, published in La Mamelle, 1978

Relocating to the Bay Area from 1973-79, project realizations included establishment of the Bio Arts Lab in San Francisco, conducting a series of pioneering NASA-Arts Collaborations, participation on early artists’ use of tele-communication satellites and ARPAnet, gravitational simulation trainings, interspecies communication with marine mammals and Koko the gorilla, video/performance experiments with IR thermal imaging, production of sequences for “The Secret Life of Plants” feature film, choreographing for blind echolocating dancers, plus occasional showings at museums and other arts institutions, with partial funding from the NEA.

“Bio-Dis-Plays” experimental video and performance artworks were augmented with writings, drawings, technical diagrams, sound recordings, photo and video documentation, within an ongoing process of ‘tuning’.

Keija w/ EMG Biotelemetry sensor-transmitter.

Jill playing EEG w/ plants on the set of The Secret Life of Plants.

NASA-Arts Collaborations, collage.

“Information Revolutions (IR)”

“The Best Defense is a Cultural Offense”

http://www.richardlowenberg.com/information-revolutions.html

Creative Works and Explorations of Surveillance, Privacy, Information Warfare and Terrorism as Constituent Aspects of our Information and Communications Ecosystem

“Information Revolutions (IR)” is the title for a body of creative works initiated in 1984, shining a light on and demonstrating a cultural perspective and counterpoint to the corporate, military and intelligence sector’s role in shaping the emerging information society ecosystem.

Intent on interacting at the techno-social front lines, “IR” involved social collaborations and assistance of military research labs, corporate defense contractors, intelligence agencies and others, to delve into the hearts, minds, ways and tools of ‘the military/industrial complex’, and to explore information ecosystem dark-side issues of surveillance, privacy, information warfare, terrorism and economics, as emergent aspects of our pervasively networked information society.

In the 1980s-90s, national security was not what it became after 9/11, so that though I had no clearances, access to military bases, contractors’ facilities, research laboratories and newly ‘restricted’ tools were not very difficult to access. I approached this work with the personal ethical intent of creative openness and truthfulness, with highly informed credibility, similar to that of an investigative journalist or diplomatic agent. Research and personal recommendations by prior contacts with NASA and it’s contractors helped greatly. By the early 1990s, the Internet had become an additional project medium.

FLIR video frame from ending of “IR: Thermal Echoes” performance, 1986.

During the first “Gulf War’ in 1991, as we were already in contact, the Pentagon sent me (leaked’) FLIR videos of ‘friendly fire’ incidents, including data and voice communications. I immediately shared these with ABC News, and the videos were aired on all news networks by the next day. A “Friendly F(IR)e” composition was added to “Information Revolutions (IR)”.

“Information Revolutions (IR)”, comprising text and computer speech compositions, night vision photography, FLIR videos and large (12’x24’) paintings, have been variously presented/ exhibited since 1985, including at: CADRE/San Jose ICA, Video Free America, 1986 Venice Biennale, Telluride Film Festival, Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf, MIT List Center, Santa Fe CCA and CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility) conferences; with images, writings and reviews published widely, and early partial funding provided by Art Matters.

“La Chinoise” nightscope photo

“Information Revolutions (IR) installation at 1986 Venice Biennale.

“Tele-Community”

Networked Arts, Communities and Society Initiatives

http://www.richardlowenberg.com/uploads/1/8/3/0/18303441/tele-community-rl-web.pdf

Telecommunication arts projects with NASA in the 1970s, which included use of wireless bio telemetry, ARPANet and CTS satellite systems, followed by BBS networking in the ‘80s, led to initiatives integrating networked society planning within comprehensive community planning, arts and eco-social considerations.

Involvement in Telluride, CO regional planning, beginning in 1979, provided the opportunity to realize the integration of rural community planning with emerging ‘information society’ infrastructure, economics, environmental and cultural development.

Telluride Institute’s InfoZone became the first rural Internet PoP and wireless community network in the early 1990s, featuring many civic and arts applications, with extensive early support and international notoriety. Relocating to California from 1996 to 2006, I directed the Davis Community Network (still thriving), and was Adjunct Professor of Technoculture Studies and Artist-in-Bioregional-Residence at UC Davis. Creative rural networking and example-setting brought opportunities to also present and collaborate on community networking initiatives internationally.

InfoZone Community Network Diagram, Telluride Insttute

Founded in 2006, my 1st-Mile Institute became a broadband networking resource in New Mexico, preparing the State’s “Integrated Strategic Broadband Initiative” plan for the Governor in 2008, followed by stewarding statewide ARRA broadband stimulus applications, resulting in NM entities being awarded nearly $280M in federal funds for next phase deployments and education. In 2017, having worked with tribal groups in Canada and the U.S., I co-organized and hosted the Internet Society’s first “Indigenous Connectivity Summit”, in Santa Fe.

Rural community broadband networking consulting and presentations extended from work in numerous U.S. states, internationally to Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Tyrolian Alps, Japan, Argentina, Canada and the UN/ITU. Writings have focused on ecological economics, open networking and whole ecosystems approaches, and included co-authorship of the National Research Council’s 2001 publication, Broadband: Bringing Home the Bits.

Mountain InfoZone “Networking for Mountain Sustainability” https://mountaininfozone.world

In a renewed working relationship with the Telluride Institute, I prepared a 2022 Report for the UN FAO Mountain Partnership, on coordinating networked connectivity and online applications to advance the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, with direction for the start-up of the Mountain InfoZone.

NM Broadband Infrastructure Map, 2010

“Info/Eco: The Nature of Information”

Current Works

http://www.richardlowenberg.com/current-works.html

1st-Mile Institute: SARC (Scientists/Artists Research Collaborations) http://www.1st-mile.org/sarc.html

I established the Institute upon locating to Santa Fe, NM in 2006, to address two program areas, the New Mexico “Broadband for All” initiative and SARC, with projects conducted with: ISEA 2012, UNM, Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs, Santa Fe Institute, Balance/Unbalance, CURRENTS New Media Festival, Thoma Foundation and the Institute for American Indian Arts.

“The Energy & Information Ecosystems of the Colorado Plateau: An Arts/Sciences Field Study” Research + Mapping + Digital Media + Photos + Performing Arts + Narratives + Web www.richardlowenberg.com/uploads/1/8/3/0/18303441/coplo-mapping-meaning-5.2018.pdf

A grounded environmental arts and sciences ‘field study’, complementing other regional ‘natural resources’ studies and decision-support processes, being designed to collaboratively inventory, map, assess and to most creatively present enhanced understandings of the complex human and non-human ‘energy and information ecosystems’ of the Four-Corner States’ Colorado Plateau.

“PoeTexts”: Short, poetic text writings on ‘the nature of information’. Limited edition published, 2.2026.

An information war is being waged.

It is an economic and territorial war

between power and servitude,

between have and have not,

between knowledge and confusion.

Cloaked in deception,

it is waged by a vested interest in negative entropy; fueled by a thermodynamic lie.

“Eco-Value Scale” Balancing Earth’s Economy

http://www.richardlowenberg.com/uploads/1/8/3/0/18303441/eco-value-scale-2018-v4.pdf

“Eco-Value Scale” is a proposed public artwork, developed to creatively address complex issues of real and relative economic value, based on principles of ecological ‘Earth’ economics. The work will integrate economic analysis software, electro-mechanical interfaces, digital audio/ video displays, sculptural elements and a large holographic projection panel, with an interactive web-based operating system, to be placed in a major global financial center. Taking the concept and sculptural form of a classic balance scale, for weight and justice, it is intended to involve people, on-site and online, in learning how to balance our Earth’s economy.

“Mushroom Economics” Mapping Our Fungible Gift Economy https://myco-eco.art (hacked)

A conceptual public artwork, selected and supported by ArtPark 21 and the Santa Fe Railyard Arts Committee, as part of “Urban Ecologies”, for installation in the Santa Fe Rail Yard Park and other Santa Fe public areas, from Earth Day, April 22 through Sept. 2021. The project website tracks the sporadic geo-paths of hundreds of foraged ‘gift’ ceramic mushrooms.

“Interferences & Resonances: The difference that makes a difference”

http://www.richardlowenberg.com/uploads/1/8/3/0/18303441/interferences_resonances-v4.pdf

An in-process arts installation being developed to sense, process and display selected low frequency eco-bio-signals photonically, not electronically, demonstrating laser interferometry, the technique used to create holograms and to detect gravitational waves, as a sensing and display medium, opening a window onto a world of vibrant thermodynamic interactions. Real-time eco data from multiple remote and on-site sources (Schumann resonances, plant signals, human brainwaves, tides, financial market fluctuations, climate/temperature changes) will concurrently be processed, visualized, sonified and presented in an installation focused on differences that make a difference, to enhance our sense of light, nature and a potential for enlightenment.

Arts & Sciences: Telluride 2024

https://info-eco.art/arts-sciences-2024 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvV9s8ooOaD52eQdsqAzklSD9uNdsh4mg https://info-eco.art/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AS-T24-Report-reduced.pdf

“The Nature of Information: Towards an Ecological Understanding of the Information Environment”, July 26-Aug. 2, 2024, in Telluride, CO, and via a series of 12 Leonardo LASER Zooms over 8 days, with over 35 international presenters.

“Info/Eco: The Nature of Information. A Conversation with Claude”

https://info-eco.art/info-eco-a-conversation-with-claude/

Paper and presentation, 2025 Summit of the International Society for the Study of Information, 7th International Conference on Philosophy of Information, June 24, 2025.

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http://www.richardlowenberg.com/

All images copyright and courtesy of Richard Lowenberg

Art, Creativity, Culture, Ecology, Environment, Information, Technology