Graphic Filament

What links the graphics of the natural world to our own graphic expression? Graphics have existed in the wild long before humans got the hang of them. Plants and animals use their graphic exteriors to aid in a number of activities (mating, camouflage, hunting, etc). Through biomimicry, humans have harnessed our own graphic impulse. That impulse has now materialized well beyond our immediate exteriors, forming a graphic social skin that is inseparable from our humanity. With an impending virtual and augmented reality, this social skin is becoming increasingly inhabitable and interactive. As we start to fuse ourselves with this graphic skin, what do we stand to learn from exploring the graphic knowledge of the natural world? Cross pollinating ideas introduced in the publications Graphic Arts Future (2013), Café Avatar (2017), and Shape Song (2018)—we use a hybrid performative lecture format to explore these questions through text, image, and sound.