La+ Journal: Simulation: Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture

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Our epoch has been dubbed the Anthropocene Era to mark the significance of human activities as the greatest force of environmental change. The distinctions between biology/technology, organic/synthetic, and natural/artificial are increasingly impossible to maintain. Cloned sheep, climate models, digitally-printed tissue and lab-grown meat - this is not the nature of our predecessors. This issue of LA+ addresses the theme of SIMULATION in terms of how recent technologies have changed how we understand the nature of nature. From Plato's Cave to Baudrillard's "Simulacrum, " simulations were historically understood as counterfeits or facsimiles and were based on the distinction between a model and its copy. Simulations remain central to mediations between reality and its representation, however, the latest forms of simulation-whether genetic manipulation or computer modeling-are not seen as impediments to truth and knowledge but as tools to uncover the complexities of nature. A diverse list of contributors critically investigates the theme through a myriad of lenses including biology, computer sciences, engineering, environmental science, industrial design, philosophy, planning, among other fields. In a brief snapshot of the LA+ SIMULATION issue: . Through an historical analysis of land use classification systems, architect and planner Robert Pietrusko examines the fallacy of "raw data" by examining how representational techniques become reality, . historian of science Paul Edwards elucidates the making of 'control earths' in climate models, . philosopher Etienne Benson tracks the making of the 'minimal animal' in ecological modeling, . architect and civil engineer Eduardo Rico and architect Enriqueta Llabres Valls reveal the power of models as surrogates in shaping the material world, . historian Gideon Fink Shapiro finds the function of fiction in the landscape imagination, . by interrogating synthetic biology, theorist Pablo Schyfter demonstrates the interdependency of representational systems and the knowledge they produce, . artist Mark Nystrom sumptuously captures the hidden patterns of our ever-changing environment, and . interviews with philosophers Koert van Mensvoort and Eric Winsberg illuminate the role of simulation in how we understand the nature of reality. LA+ SIMULATION is guest edited by Karen M'Closkey and Keith VanDerSys.