Before private ownership, all natural resources were open to everyone. But how open is nature today? Nature has always been a product of human perception, identified one day by our ancestors and continually discovered on macro and micro scales. Mechanisms such as DNA and ecosystems were named in the latter half of the 20th century; and now, we are simultaneously surrounded both by nature in its primal sense, as well as by its artificial and virtual derivations. The latter are becoming more and more real, and amalgamating with 'original nature.' The exhibition 'open nature' at InterCommunication Center (ICC), Tokyo, focuses on the technological, aesthetic and philosophical 'openness' of nature. Yukiko Shikata, ICC curator for the exhibition, says 'open nature presents several different approaches interpreting the new 'nature' that has emerged due to the development of digital information environments.' Artworks by visual and sound artists range from Robert Smithson's ‘Spiral Jetty’ (1970), to r a d i o q u a l i a's ongoing 'Radio Astronomy,' to Fukuhara Shiho and Georg Tremmel's (UK/Japan/Austria) new project 'Biopresence 2055,' for which they will embed human DNA in trees, transforming them into 'living memorials.' - Keisuke Oki