We traditionally think of mobile apps as having the ability to speed up communications, but two professors a the University of Rochester have designed an app they hope will cause you slow down and notice the world around you.
The "Indeterminate Hikes" (IH+) app encourages participants to focus on the environment and experience nature in unexpected urban spaces. Leila Nadir, a writer and lecturer on sustainability and her husband, assistant professor of art Cary Peppermint, designed the app to take people on a circuitous hike through any urban setting once the user enters their starting point and destination. The app encourages users to explore their urban environment in a way they might do if they were in a hike in a woodsy or rural space. https://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=5372 "When we talk about sustainability and the environment it is usually about protecting rural spaces," said Nadir. "With this app, we want to adopt that same mentality but apply it to cities to understand how they evolve."
Nadir and Peppermint are the co-founders of EcoArtTech, a collaboration that explores technology and environmentally focused work with other artists and organizations. Their work uses new media to inspire awareness of nature in everyday life, and can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum, Walker Art center and New Museum.
