Digital Naturalism investigates the role that Digital Media can play for Biological Field Work. It looks to uphold the naturalistic values of wilderness exploration while investigating the new abilities offered by digital technology. Digital Naturalism unites biologists, designers, engineers, and artists to build and analyze new devices. It focuses on crafting DIY technology and interacting with animals in new ways. In particular, Digital Naturalism looks at how digital media can be used to explore animal behaviors situated in their natural context. Most recently, this research has been carried out directly in the field in the form of Hiking Hackathons. This research originally comes from Andrew Quitmeyer's Ph.D. research at Georgia Institute of Technology. It now forms a lifelong project and multiple cross-disciplinary collaborations all pursuing the many aspects of Digital Naturalism.
The Digital World and Image Group focuses on two main areas: virtual spaces and real-time imagery gathered from them. We see game spaces and game media as important forms of self-expression. That is why we work to improve creative access and the expressive range available in interactive digital media such as games. Research is conducted in a combination of theory, analysis, and practical experimentation.
