The First Prototype
In Tuesday's mid-presentation, we illustrated our concern of relationship between humans and plants in culture meaning, then displayed this Arduino Spring Onion(Figure 5).
Both Alaistair and Tyler pointed out that although they appreciate how we criticise human behaviour in the context of plants, it seems too "heavily human". They suggested to us to reveal what actually happens to the plant rather than superimpose human emotions. This feedback left us very confused.
Figure 5: First model: Arduino Spring Onion. Made and photoed by David and Sylvester
In the meantime, I noticed that another group also struggling with "human interpretation". Group B has given their telesthetic calendar many random patterns in order to illustrate human incomprehension of the calendar. The advice to this group is to rethink how the calendar prehends valid information rather rather than distance response. So it looked like our two groups received opposite opinions, which forced us to balance the real meaning of unconscious experience.
Rethinking Capitalism
In the project Pulsu(m) Plantae from Leslie García(Figure 6), plants use their own biological processes to communicate with surroundings by changing the sounds or electrical conductance without any human explanation. In this project, she gives audiences the opportunity to interpret. This has really inspired us, we decided to remove all the human emotions in our prototype and keep the natural prehension of the plants.
Figure 6: Project Pulsu(m) Plantae from Leslie García
The Journey of A Rose
Roses, in most cultures, represent love. We know how the human mind perceives this because the meaning was given by us, but from the perspective of the main object, how do roses receive this cultural representation?
We created a journey of a rose(Figure 7). The rose is plucked from the soil, delivered to the florist, then picked up by a lucky customer, finally ends up staying in a vase, without attention.
In these four different scenarios, the surroundings of the rose switch constantly: natural elements; dark and small spaces; "meaningful" labels and price tags; and a completely new human context.
Figure 7: The Journey of A Rose, Illustration by svaney
Showtime
During the presentation, David simulated four environments with props and zoom backgrounds( Figure 8), and the rose also changed colour via an LED or made sounds via a buzzer each time the scenario switched. A pity that we were supposed to complete the journey with four people through Larping, but due to the limitations, it turned out that we could only perform it on one screen.
Figure 8: Presentation, Performance by David, photography by Sylvester
Feedback & Reflection
Alastair was surprised at our readjustment in a short day and impressed by our critical thinking about the relationship between humans and plants. However, I noticed that there is still a contradiction there, where emotions are already overlaid on objects when we make reflections on human behaviour. How to accurately measure prehension and how to appropriately apply OOO needs to be continuously tested in later practices. I hope that in my future designs I can better balance aspects of environment, culture and technology and so on.
Reference
Leslie Garcia (2012) Pulsu(m) Plantae _ project presentation. Available at: https://vimeo.com/62232734 (Accessed: 4 February 2021).