Detlef Mertens gave a lecture at IIT about what he terms "bio-constructivism". In his talk Mertens made attempts to link the digital design movement to early soviet constructivism citing older (1915-1925) design printmedia. The talk was disappointing because Mertens made no attempt at discussing the implications of such a connection nor did he show any contemporary work that made a strong link to the constructivist movement. While he was doing that, I nodded off as it was dark, cold, and the subject matter was dated. I awoke for the most relevant part of Mertens' talk wherein he posited that the constructivist's attitude towards nature was different from what seems to be the binary man vs. nature relationship. Mertens said that the constructivists saw man as being a product of nature and therefore what man did was also part of nature. This non-binary view of humanity's interaction with the physical environment of the earth was interesting; but not pursued much further.
