The artificial

So, I've read about the growth of the planets population from the beginning of time until the 1970s, and the impact of human life upon the earth, and the problems that needed to be urgently addressed forty years ago and really haven't been dealt with at all in this book:

Ehrlich, P. (1973). Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman

which was terrifying, and interesting.
I've also read about the behaviour of primary school children in Palmerston North as it is shaped by the community of their classroom in this book:

Anderson, R. Apple School. In Gregory, R. (Ed.) (2003). Human Ecology and Community. Delhi, India: Kamla-Raj

which was intriguing, and, at times, depressing.

And a bunch of journal articles of which I read very little because they were not very relevant:



Unfortunately, none of this material really made sense along side my work, so, on advice from Helen, I am switching my theme to the artificial part of nature and the artificial.

This is both helpful and not helpful because it is a very difficult area to research in so far as whenever I look for material in this area all I find is stuff on artificial intelligence,which could be helpful if by intelligence it meant the spy kind, but since it means robot brains, it is even less helpful than ecology.

The book makes artificial judgments on people based on very limited information. This is done in a lighthearted way, as I make the judgments impossibly specific, drawing an artificial picture of the person whose handwriting I have 'analysised'. I want this theme to be subtle, for the book to stand on its own as an object, but also to have a reason for being beyond aesthetics.