Ezgi Tokdil
This study examines how material nature is reorganized through digital technologies and transformed into a cultural form of interstitial existence, with a focus on light- and sound-based installations. These simulated representations of nature, reconstructed through digital projections, algorithmic surfaces, and artificial objects, transform physical reality and create a new degree of interstitial existence between the natural and the artificial. In a time when ecological crises are becoming increasingly evident, the significance of such digital nature productions extends beyond their purely aesthetic aspects, encompassing critical ecological and ontological implications. This study aims to reveal that simulated nature designs are multilayered practices producing ontological consequences in the context of ecological pressures and the virtualization of material nature, by examining how they redefine the material integrity of nature and the intervention areas that transform human–nature relationships. The works sampled for the study were analyzed through conceptual analysis, systematic visual analysis, and critical discourse analysis. The interactions between the works and their surfaces, the transformative effects of projection technologies on natural existence, the discontinuous and temporary nature of the represented environment, and the ways the works generate ecological awareness or aesthetic romanticization were examined. The findings indicate that while simulated nature designs can foster positive awareness of ecosystems, they also carry the risk of reducing nature to a cultural object and rendering physical reality invisible. In this sense, the study presents both the critical and supportive dimensions of simulated nature, offering a unique contribution to the literature on digital environmentalism and post-digital ecology, and emphasizing the necessity of considering the cultural, ecological, and ontological dimensions of digital nature representations together.