In civilized regions, plants usually live in pots on a window bench or in small gardens and open spaces in the city. Since they cannot locomote and strongly rely on external factors like water and light to grow and stay alive, they often almost totally depend on their owner or a person assigned for their upkeep.
What would happen if plants became their own autonomous masters in urban space?
‘Autonomous’ is defined as the state of being able to function independently and being subject to own laws only, to no control from outside. Plants depend on external factors to survive, which they usually cannot arrange for themselves as soon as they are taken from their natural environment and planted into a pot or a small space outdoors. Therefore, the following factors have to be taken care of to allow the plant to become autonomous: Water, nutrition, light and (to an extent) temperature.
The Autonomous Plant lives inside a glass bulb, keeping water and nutrition close. Via a small electrode attached to the plants surface, it is connected to a precise circuit to measure the plant's signals and further to its own plant LED, allowing the plant to dim the light according to its needs.* Thereby the plant becomes independent from the light situation in its environment. Additionally, motion sensors allow the plant to shut out human observers and wild animals as well as direct sunlight by closing the shutters surrounding the plant.
By shutting out its observers, the Autonomous Plant refuses to play along with the human’s intention to use plants for decoration and both questions the human’s superiority to plants and mimics the common anonymity occurring in human cities.
* In this prototype of the Autonomous Plant, light sensors control the LED. Using surface electrodes and a special circuit for the measurement is possible, but not implemented here.
This object is part of the Planterious project developed as a Master Project in the Digital Media Master at HfK Bremen.
(Project by Annika Engelhardt; Actor in the video: Denitsa Todorova.)
(Project by Annika Engelhardt; Actor in the video: Denitsa Todorova.)
