The Secret Life of Plants - Flora Fantasia
Design a set of interactions between plants and people that takes place at microclimate level.
Timeline
April 2021
(6 weeks)
Team
Eric Dodd (graphic), Maria Seve (Technology), Sanya Nayar (copy writer)
Role
Researching, model making, user testing
Problem
How to open the black box of the plants' world?
Human and non-human are living and entangled in the same world, which means we are in a relational ontology, one change of human action can affect others.
The Chelsea Physic Garden is a walled, 350-year-old collection of 5,000 plants considered useful by people.
How can we use digital technologies to explore plant behaviours and intelligence at the micro-level as well as events contributing to an threatening the microclimate?
Final Outcome
Flora Fantasia
Flora Fantasia is an adventurous experience in the garden that includes live camera interaction with Near-infrared and NDVI imaging and stereoscope workshop at the end of the experience to view photos in three dimensions. Making an interactive experience to learn about plants through playing.
Key Insights
Humans could not experience all the changes that are happening in nature, which includes inter-species exchanges, as well as events contributing to and threatening the microclimate.
The Impact
We flattened the hierarchy between humans and plants by opening the black box of what we cannot see by naked eye. Bringing a closer attention to the action human do that can affect the microclimate.
The Experience
Stage 1 - Introduction into NDVI
Stage 2 - Workshop
Web page design
Research Methods
Literature Review
From the literature review, we understand that the microclimate is the complex of environmental variables, including temperature, radiation, humidity and wind, to which the plant is exposed (Jone, 1985)
The mini weather stations in the garden, measuring wind speed, rainfall and soil temperature inside the garden
On-Site Visit
As we are designing for the garden, we used different research methods to understand the place better; learning through seeing. We also used AEIUO, Artefact analysis and interviews to explore the garden at the micro-level.
AEIOU, Interview and Artefacts analysis helps us to understand the visitors and the garden
Key findings
People come to the garden to appreciate the beauty of the nature, therefore making such claim about climate change are difficult as it doesn’t match the vibe of the garden. Finding different ways for visitors to interact with plants
Observing the Plants
Observing the plants not only from the god-eye view, but "going into" their root, using different methods and technologies to monitor their changes, we got interested in the underground network of the plants
Prototyping
Making the prototype can help us understand the underground network because it is confusing when reading the text and looking at the images online, so the purpose of this prototpe is to visualise how the complex system works.
Ideation
Crazy 8
We did a crazy 8 session to generate ideas. We came up with a cool variety of ideations, including workshop, exhibition, tech-related works and interactive performance.
Designing with People
The design process is not straightforward. We have incorporated different co-design and user testing workshops to improve our design.
Reframing the problem using metaphors
Reframing wood wide web and microclimates as a fair ground
Testing out the prototypes
Based on the fair ground idea, we have came up with three model, which includes Stereoscope, Flipbook and Phenakistoscope
Refining the experience
Refining the experience based on audience's feedback
Trying Out Different Technologies
Near-infrared photography had been a key tool for planning at the industrial and governmental levels. Large farms and NASA used aeroplanes and satellites for agricultural and ecological assessment.
Hybridisation Between Art and Technology
The three artefacts are invented from Victorian time, the Stereoscope can be used to see depth from a 2D image. By printing the NDVI images, the viewer can immerse themselves into the secret world, so it is another way to experience the garden through the lens of historic invention.
System Mapping
User Journey
The user journey is an excellent way to see everything in a bigger picture and create a more systemic approach to improve the experience.
Mapping of the Event
As we want to create a fair ground like experience in the garden, we printed out all the actors associated with the network and shuffle them freely according to our needs. This mapping provided a more holistic appreciation of the complexity of interaction in the garden.
Situated Back to the Garden
Due to Covid-19, we could not create an experience in the garden, so we have photoshopped some scenario and turn our studio into the garden
Feedback and Reflection
The seven weeks project went by so fast. Through this project, we explored many different technologies, when things did not work, how to learn from failure. Also, I have learned to collaborate when most of our group members are not in London, so managing and scheduling in-person and online meetings were not easy. However, we all have different strengths and skills that can be fit together, like finding the correct puzzle.
The Feedback from our partners was positive. Francies liked the Victorian inventions and the technologies that we have explored, which can create a new interaction between people can plants, but she also bringing us back to the reality by questioning us about the marketing aspect that we should consider deeply.
