Human Plant Interfaces
Abstract
We are living in an age with many social challenges and environmental changes. Physical limited resources and environmental effects caused by human actions are two indicators of our disturbed relationship with nature. These developments and the human fear of the consequences raised the people’s dream of green products. These new generations of products are supposed to be sustainable and eco-friendly to its environment as well as to its society.
This master thesis seizes on the green movement and investigates the developments in Human Plant Interfaces from an artistic and scientific point of view. The research reveals methods of visualizing data with plants, sensing human interactions and various approaches that enrich social life in urban environments through plants. The results and projects are described in their function, technical implementation and their impact on the society. All introduced projects propose solutions for merging technology with nature. In that relation, they also provide approaches for strengthening our relationship with plants and nature. Some of the interfaces hold educational attributes in human plant relationships and some others projects intend a more eco-friendly and independent life style.
Beyond that, this master thesis explores the interactions between the disciplines art, technology, botany, social science, urban development from a plant perspective. It summarizes emerging movements and research efforts for declaring new fields in an on-going research in Human Plant Interfaces.
Table of contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Definition of Human Plant Interfaces
1.2. Benefits of Human Plant Interfaces
1.3. Research objectives and methodology
Theoretical part
2. Botany for Interface Design
2.1. Plant Physiology
2.2. Plant Ecology
2.3. Ethnobotany
2.4. Horticulture
3. Plants, Interfaces, and Art
3.1. Visualizing techniques with plants
3.2. Biosensing for Human Computer Interactions
3.3. Locomotion applied to plants for Public Spaces
3.4. Digital Network and Community Design with plants
3.5. Experimental expressions in relations to plants
4. Practical component
4.1. Methodology
4.2. Perception of Nature: “Season Patterns”
4.3. Public Intervention with plants: “Travelling Plants”
4.4. Plants in urban environments: “Dead Tree Drops”
4.5. Plants as a barometer: “Charisma Garden”
5. Conclusion and Findings
5.0. Evaluation of the research
Presentation
Download the presentation slides in PDF
Artistic Human Plant Interfaces von Florian Weil ist lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International Lizenz.
Über diese Lizenz hinausgehende Erlaubnisse können Sie unter ./human-plant-interfaces/ erhalten.
The cultural laboratory FoAM investigates also heavily the topic Human Plant Interfaces in their project groWorld. Their wiki contains many other useful resources and links!
The Dutch media artist Sander Veenhof explored in his dissertation EXIT HUMAN. ENTER THE PLANT – An evolutionary study on interactive media use (2009) at the Dogtime Instable Media department of the Rietveld Art Academy the relationships of Human Plant Interfaces. Especially, the interactions between plants and (networked) computer are described in more detail.
Andrew Quitmeyer investigated during his PHD at the Georgia Tech the topic Digital Naturalism. The result is a pragmatic framework for designing digital media to support the intrinsic values of scientists studying animal behavior in the wild. I am pretty sure that some findings and methods could be applied to the plant’s world as well.
See also:
Digital Naturalism – Theory and Guidelines (PDF)
Mindaugas Gapševičius and Prof. Ursula Damm give a lecture about GMU:Bioelectronics, aesthetics and other interesting things (2016) at the Media Art & Design Department of Weimar Bauhaus University. One slot deals even with Plant Sensing.
The designer Katja Budinger explored and shared her research about interactive plants on her blog. She gathered some nice projects around plant roboters, sensing with plants and some more topics.
Under the hashtag #FieldBioArt by The Bio Media Lab you can find some really interesting Workshops and projects
https://twitter.com/hashtag/FieldBioArt?src=hash
https://twitter.com/biomedia_lab
https://twitter.com/ArtBioCollab
On May, 24th in 2018, Prof. Alexander Müller-Rakow organized a very interesting symposium about Human Plant Interaction at the University HTW in Berlin.
https://kd.htw-berlin.de/aktuelles/artikel/news/symposium-human-plant-interactions-am-donnerstag-24-mai-2018-16-uhr/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1497810290347792/
Speaker list:
Netzwerke der Natur [Entdecken – Erleben – Verstehen]
Dr. Dieter Volkmann, Biologe und apl. Professor i.R. der Universität Bonn
Technology assisted human plant interaction –
Raune Frankjaer, Designforscherin, Department Digital Design & Information Studies Aarhus University | http://frankjaer.de/
Blockchain forests: Natural resources taking back control –
Paul Seidler, Künstler und Interaction Designer | http://plsdlr.net/
Very interesting department and research field Computational Plant Science: Science at the Interface of Math, Computer Science, and Plant Biology
http://www.computational-plant-science.org/
https://vimeo.com/274750377
https://community.plantae.org/article/5001229466979009767/computational-plant-science-science-at-the-interface-of-math-computer-science-and-plant-biology
Wonderful talk by Simon Collision about the intersection of communication technology and natural design.
The Internet of Natural Things on Beyond Tellerrand 2018 in Munich
https://vimeo.com/251356531
Simon will discuss the ways digital technology can strengthen our connection to the world around us, and actually benefit our well-being. He’ll lift the lid on his research so far, share some experiential optimism, and outline ideas for ensuring the products we create have a positive influence on our lives.
—————
Talk & speaker bio:
beyondtellerrand.com/events/munich-2018/speakers/simon-collison
http://colly.com/ – Speaker Website
https://tinyletter.com/colly/archive – Articles about Internet of Nature
https://medium.com/@colly/latest
Information about beyond tellerrand:
beyondtellerrand.com/
twitter.com/btconf
THE DIGITAL NATURALISM CONFERENCE (2018) – Field Biology | Interaction Design | Wild Hacking
https://www.dinacon.org/2018/11/02/book/
https://de.scribd.com/document/388308632/Proceedings-of-the-First-Digital-Naturalism-Conferenc
Hannah Perner-Wilson aka Plusea will hold a very interesting workshop on the intersections of electronics and (bio-based /plant based) material
Blurring Boundaries: Electronics as Material Practice (2019) by Hannah Perner-Wilson
http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=7540
https://www.shakerag.org/page.cfm?p=1004
https://twitter.com/openPlusea/status/1100737995014053890
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBcdrMTQXcI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csQsKn-7rcA