Kuzuoka, H., Kosaka, J., Yamazaki, K., Suga, Y., Yamazaki, A., Luff, P. & Heath, C. (2004). Mediating Dual Ecologies, Proceedings of CSCW 2004, Chicago, 8th – 10th November 477-486. In this article about using robots as a communication medium/surrogate device to convey information between people located in different places, there is a pertinent discussion about "dual ecologies. Some excerpts:

"When people communicate via video-mediated communication systems, however, the relationship between space, gesture, and speech can become fragmented and gestures become relatively ineffective. For example, an individual may try to point to an object that is physically located within the remote environment by gesturing at their screen. The remote participant, however, is unable to connect the gesture as it appears on their monitor with the actual object in their environment and may not be able to make sense of what is being referred to (...) the use of a remote-controlled robot as a device to support communication involves two distinct ecologies: an ecology at the remote (instructor's) site and an ecology at the operator's (robot) site. "

Why do I blog this? I am less interested in the robotic aspects and how it supports mediated communication than in the vocabulary employed here about "dual ecologies" (very well connected to the discourse about "hybrid ecologies"), proximate/distal activities (ecology of the remote/ecology of the operator). This is of interest for my new project about the hybridized spaces. There does not seem to be a clear consensus on terms and how to express this different spaces that are fusing/merging.