In May 2014, RIXC centre for New media culture, in collaboration with Liepaja's University Art Research Lab, came out with two publications – Techno-ecologies 2, new volume of Acoustic Space journal and Talk to me book. These books not only tell about human communication with different environments, but also brings new perspective in world reception.

Talk to me book looks to Prince Charles 1986 television interview statement -  I just come and talk to the plants.

Recent scientific studies have proved that talking to plants may encourage their growth. RIXC artists were keen on testing this concept by developing Talk to Me, an online interface which allows people to talk to their plants while away from home. The Talk to Me book introduces the process and results of our artistic research project on human-plant communication. The networked installations with live growing bean-plants were set up and presented in Helsinki, Riga, Tallinn, Ventspils, Basel, Lueneburg and Stavanger. Before the beans ripened they received over 13 000 online messages in different languages.

On the other hand, Techno-ecologies 2 looks at future possibilities. Techno-ecological perspectives have become now one of the key directions in contemporary discourses and are part of a larger paradigm shift from new media to post-media art. A range of practices which were once subsumed under terms such as media art, digital art, art and technology or art and science, have experienced such growth and diversification that no single term can work as a label any more. Traditionally separated domains are brought together to become contextual seedbeds for ideas and practices that aim to overcome the crisis of the present and to invent new avenues for future developments. This is the 2nd volume in the Acoustic Space series that continues to build a 'techno-ecological' perspective whereby new artistic practices are discussed that combine ecological, social, scientific and artistic inquiries.

This volume gives various insights into research tactics and strategies which form the larger context of the Fields exhibition, while the texts included here are mainly contributions from two earlier conferences - Media Art Histories 2013: RENEW, the 5th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology held in Riga, 2013, and the Art+Communication 2012 festival conference Art of Resilience , Riga, Latvia.

Both published by RIXC (Riga) and Liepaja's University Art Research Lab (Liepaja), and are available via amazon.com, or by ordering directly from RIXC via e-mail:rixc@rixc.lv

http://www.amazon.com/Techno-Ecologies-II-Acoustic-Space-12/dp/9934843412
http://www.amazon.com/Talk-Me-Rasa-Smite/dp/9934843404