How do plants perceive their environment, how do plants and environments interact? How can we turn these processes into an immersive experience, to what extent can our concepts and technologies do justice to the plant world?

In the agricultural industry, the combination of plant breeding and cybernetics is aimed at optimizing crops. Machine learning and robotics are used to achieve higher yields, disease resistance and climate adaptation.

In the seminar ‘The Plant Plant’, we put aside any productivity factors and hand over control to the plants. Using sensors, DIY electronics and microcontrollers, we measured environmental parameters of plants growing in semi-insulated containers. Ultimately, we used the collected data to construct dynamic spatial atmospheres and speculative narratives. In addition to an exhibition of the resulting prototypes, the seminar included workshops on plant cultivation, the basics of DIY electronics, sensor technologies and microcontroller programming.

Participants: Arın Aydın, Hanna Bremerich, Fritzi Buhtz, Lilli Endres, Fiene Freist, Krittaporn Mahaweerarat, Annika Müller, Juyoun Oh, Dania González, Meng-Yun Tsai, Dyah Setyaningsih