In this project I tried to address the ways in which we perceive our environment, and the effects culture plays on this perception. First, I would say that in current Western culture, information filtration has become a focus of our activities. Information acquisition processes have become very narrow. Humans once obtained information directly from their environment alone, then communication developed and humans could obtain information indirectly about the environment from speaking to each other. Today, one can use a search engine and find information that is so removed that one cannot know where the information came from. However, this wealth of information has let alternative forms of information acquisition to atrophy. When we are put into a situation in which we cannot obtain information in a manner we are familiar with, we become bored and anxious. Anxious because we cannot obtain information about our environment, bored because we are not obtaining information at all. In this project I am obtaining a set of information about a space that usually goes unperceived, wind dynamics.

Wind is generally perceived temporally instead of spatially. This is due to its temporal variability in a given space. However, we still understand wind to be locative as well; beaches and highways are windy spaces, whereas thick forests and shopping malls are not. But this knowledge is not nearly as detailed as what sailors knew several centuries ago. Now we delegate this kind of information to meteorologists, who themselves use satellite pictures to indirectly perceive wind patterns. However, for other species, wind is a source of information about future weather, predators, food, and possible reproduction. And wind direction and speed affect the information provided by the wind. So it would seem that many species rely on cognitive models of wind speeds that are locative as well as temporal. So I created a similar map of wind speeds in the location of Racetrack Playa.

Racetrack Playa is a unique ecosystem consisting of seasonal microorganisms, sparse insects, and lonely bushes. To the human eye, it is barren. Its incredible lack of information is astounding; however, this sharpens one’s perception of the information that is available. As I walked my snaked path across the playa I noticed winds slowing in the north and center of the playa, strong southeastern gusts along the edges, a strong gust from the east about mid-playa and small eddies of wind coming from all different directions. The wind brought clouds in the early afternoon and took them away. However, the day I was there the playa was indifferent to the wind, as is generally the case. I recorded wind direction and high and low speeds in a grid with a resolution of 300 feet east-west and 360 feet north-south, giving me 68 points of data. Although, I provide this information as it is to humankind, I felt that if it were left in its original form it would become meaningless. Although wind information is important for many species in other ecosystems, the species of the playa are not concerned with wind. However, compared to most places, the wind in racetrack playa is of particular curiosity to humans because of its effects on those who do not have any sort of cognitive model, the rocks. Still, the day I was recording information, the rocks were just as indifferent about the wind as the rest of the playa. So I felt that I needed to construct a story for the playa.

The story I created is based in surrealism as much as in realism. This surrealism exists to push forward the theme of wind. The flowers grow faster in windier areas, and their seeds are spread out based on wind patterns. Green buffalo, which were inspired by large bushes seen in the distance, go to seek the flowers spread by the wind. The giant spiders come to hunt the buffalo, but the buffalo run away from the spider that is upwind from them. Ghost pupfish and insects are more subjects that add to the truth and my myth of the playa. Although there is an element that is slavishly dependent on the wind, this creates a foundation on which other subjects can make their own choices of navigation. The buffalo make individual choices and the spiders make choices as a pack (quite the opposite from nature, but reflects the loneliness of the bushes and the group nature of predatory animals). Even though these other species are not directly affected by the wind, their movement still reaffirms the wind’s existence because it is fundamentally important to the buffalo. If there were no wind, the flowers would not spread across the playa and they would be mowed flat by the buffalo. Thus this story about the wind of Racetrack Playa is told by the navigation and cognition of the characters that I have populated it with.

Navigation in the playa is very different from how navigation occurs for most humans in everyday life. We find our way by using a set of waypoints that will eventually lead us to our destination. However, in the playa there are no waypoints. In order to collect this information I had to use a GPS device with artificially constructed waypoints. However, the characters of the playa do not seek to navigate through the playa as much as within the playa. The flower seeds navigate by wind without making any cognitive choices. Humans could choose to navigate this way, by follow the wind by choice. The buffalo do choose waypoints, but they do this by seeing a flower within a certain range and choosing to go towards it. They have no memory of past waypoints as their only concern is to eat flowers. This is somewhat similar to how humans navigate through shopping malls, a point of interest is seen and then once it has been reached another point of interest is seen. This type of navigation for humans requires the capability for spontaneous two dimensional movement, which is rare compared to one dimensional movement, such as navigating a linear path. The spiders have a social system for navigation for which the cognition is distributed and shared. For humans this requires communication among the members of the group; however, these spiders have evolved telepathic communication among its members. I tried to create these three methods of navigation for my characters so that the difference in their movements may characterize their methods of navigation as well as visualize the wind in complementary ways. I think it is an important consideration with natural resources to consider the layers of effect on the characters.

I believe that wind and air is a natural resource that is often forgotten. It cannot be seen or held so it often is ignored. I am also telling this story to remember the wind. Because Racetrack Playa is a remote location that is rarely experienced directly by humans, the location lends itself to being mythical, which allows one to tell a story about wind that cannot be told in another context. Often humans find themselves these days in controlled wind environments, which cuts off any effect wind has on our lives in this environment. We are effectively isolated from this resource. We must recognize we are in a system of control, before we can go outside and feel fresh wind for ourselves.