Digital naturalism: Collaboratively designing technology for holistic ethological interaction
While describing the principles and abilities of Ethology and Digital Media in the previous chapters, key problems and tensions were discovered in the intersections between the fields. For instance, ethology’s highly localized interactive experimentation and digital media’s behavioral qualities have yet to join harmoniously in any sort of specific framework for digital design and studying animal behavior. Other key challenges facing this intersection derive from many assumptions historically built into the fields themselves. For instance the historically industrialized qualities of digital technology have led to its adoption in this science primarily to increase efficiency rather than encourage exploration. Studying the behavior of particular animals has unique, specific demands, but many digital devices have been steered towards one-size-fits-all approaches. Such prescribed technological methods can also take over the focus of the original research question and prevent the instruments from adapting to evolving research. The traditions of science at large have mired ethology in centuries old dissemination technologies, and have hindered exploration of new, digital-aided interactive means of communicating behavioral research. Overall, the key component missing in this hybrid field is a critical framework which can aid in the design and evaluation of digital technology within Ethology. A medium-specific grammar and guidelines for ethological digital media can support the entirety of the study of animal behavior in natural contexts.
I will present case studies of my work with ants, bees, bats, and frogs during my collaborative field research with scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa Panama.
