GMU:The Plant Plant

Werk/Fachmodul

Lecturer: Christian Doeller, Klaus Fritze

Credits: 6 ECTS, 4 SWS

Times: Thursday 13:30 - 17:00

Venue: DIY Electronics Lab (B15 / K07), DIY BioLab (M5 / 202)

First meeting: October 24, 13:30 @ Marienstraße 5, Room 204

Description:

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 invite you to put aside any productivity factors and hand over control to the plants. With the help of DIY sensors and microcontrollers, we attempt to measure interactions between plants and their environment and transform the collected real-time data into a dynamic spatial atmosphere. We draw inspiration from cybernetic control systems and provoke various types of feedback between plants, the environment and humans. In the process, we take a critical look at upcoming relationships and effects. Our aim is to collectively develop a speculative sensing space - a human-scale environment whose atmospheric parameters such as light, temperature and air circulation are regulated by our ‘green control center’.

This is a hands-on seminar. It includes three workshops in which we grow plants under different conditions, learn the basics of DIY electronics / sensor technologies and program control systems with Arduino / ESP32 microcontrollers, motor-driven devices and light sources. Furthermore, we discuss corresponding examples of artistic research in the context of media art.

Requirements for participation: Interest in exploring plant environments, enthusiasm for tinkering and experimenting with DIY electronics, commitment to group work and passion for creating speculative spaces of experience. No prior knowledge is necessary, participants need their own computer / laptop.

Please send your registration by Sunday (20 October) via e-mail, subject ‘The Plant Plant’, with a short letter of motivation (3-4 sentences) to christian.doeller@uni-weimar.de.

Participants:

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

Exhibition @ Winterwerkschau 2025

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Schedule:

October 24, 13:30, M5 Room 204

• first meeting

October 31 - free

November 1 - November 2, 10:00 - 16:00

• Two-day workshop @ DIY Electronics Lab (B15, basement) / DIY Biolab (M5, Room 201)

November 7, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• discuss workshop results
• form working groups
• first brainstorm in groups
• networking & data exchange

November 14, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• presentation of artworks / context
• presentation of ideas, feedback

November 21, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• Progress of ideas / concepts
• starting hands-on sessions: independent work and 1:1 consultations

November 28, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• hands-on session: independent work and 1:1 consultations
• please note: no class next week
• > time for progress and preparations for midterm presentation

December 5, independent work (no official class)

December 12, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• Midterm Presentations
• hands-on session: independent work and 1:1 consultations

December 19, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• hands-on session: independent work and 1:1 consultations
• preparations Christmas break: to do / to get until first class in January 9?

Christmas break

January 9, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• check-in session: progress?
• Winterwerkschau Application
• hands-on session: independent work and 1:1 consultations

January 16, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• hands-on session: independent work and 1:1 consultations
• Brainstorm Winterwerkschau

January 23, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• hands-on session: independent work and 1:1 consultations
• Winterwerkschau – concept for space

January 30, 13:30 - 17:00, DIY Electronics Lab

• hands-on session: independent work and 1:1 consultations
• get ready for Winterwerkschau

February 2 – final: Winterwerkschau

Topics:

• Growth of plants under different conditions
• Hermetospheres / bottle gardens
• DIY Electronics: Basic Sensors
• DIY Electronics: Basic Actuators
• DIY Electronics: Microcontrollers (Arduino / ESP) and cybernetic control systems
• The basics of cybernetics, recursion, feedback
• Immersive "sensing spaces"

Technology:

• The Plant Plant - GitHub Repo

Artists:

• Philippe Parreno
• Ursula Damm
• Marco Barotti
• Cornelia Sollfrank
• Katja Tillbörger
• Robertina Šebjanič
• Agnes Meyer-Brandis
• Hicham Berrada
• Ingo Vetter, Annette Weisser
• Mel Chin
• Maria Thereza Alves
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Literature:

• Donella Meadows: Thinking in Systems. A Primer
• Ludwig von Bertalaffny: General Systems Theory
• Jagadish Chandra Bose Die Pflanzen Schrift und ihre Offenbarungen. https://books.google.de/books/about/Die_Pflanzen_Schrift_und_ihre_Offenbarun.html?id=n5sYAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y
• Gustav Theodor Fechner: Nanna: On the Mental Life of Plants https://www.amazon.de/Nanna-%C3%9Cber-das-Seelenleben-Pflanzen/dp/3843014280
• Peter Tompkins/Christopher Bird: The Secret Life of Plants https://www.amazon.de/Secret-Life-Plants-Fascinating-Emotional/dp/0060915870
• Floriane Koechlin: Plants whispers- A journey through new realms of science https://lenos.ch/buecher/plant-whispers/isbn:978-3-85787-939-5Plants - sensing movement: https://academic.oup.com/plphys/article/187/3/1131/6359831
• Charles Darwin: The Power of Movements in plants (publ.1880) https://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Freeman_ThePowerofMovementinPlants.html
• Emanuelle Coccia: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/emanuele-coccia-die-wurzeln-der-welt-pflanzen-atmen-aus-was-100.html
• Lynn Margulis: Symbiotic Planet: A New Look At Evolution (1999) https://www.amazon.de/Symbiotic-Planet-New-Look-Evolution/dp/0465072720Movie: Symbiotic Earth: How Lynn Margulis rocked the boat and started a scientific revolution https://mubi.com/de/de/films/symbiotic-earth-how-lynn-margulis-rocked-the-boat-and-started-a-scientific-revolution

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Language & skill level:

• The module will be held in English, unless all participants are speaking German.
• No prior knowledge is required.

Criteria for passing:

• be on time, attend the classes, be active
• develop a prototype for The Plant Plant
• document your work on the wiki page