Plant Memory Stimulator

Speculative Proposal / Conceptual Design

I am extremely interested in the relationship between plants and humans. We are dependent on each other but we tend to view humans as superior. I wanted to turn the human into a device to simulate memory creation within the plant. If a human provides certain positive stimuli around a plant, I want to make it so the plant always is happy around that plant based on a formed memory.

Prototype:

I first created a quick illustrator sketch of the plant remote stimulator with labels and color codes. This allowed me to show the initial design to others. I next worked on building a circuit as a proof of concept for the tech side. My final prototype for now is a clay and steel structure which serves as a stimulation habitat.

int motorPin = 3;
int buttonPin = 7; 
int buttonState = 0;
bool buttonPressed; 

void setup()
{
  pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  while (! Serial);
  Serial.println("Speed 0 to 255");
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);

  buttonPressed = false;
}


void loop()
{
  buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);
  
  if (buttonState== HIGH && !buttonPressed)
  {
    buttonPressed = true;
    analogWrite(motorPin, 100);
    Serial.println("high and pressed");
    
  }
  else if (buttonState == LOW && buttonPressed)
  {
    buttonPressed = false;
    analogWrite(motorPin, 0);
    Serial.println(" not pressed and was on");
  }

Click to Expand

Precedents:

I looked at current tech for plants such as adafruit water sensor. People have at home connected these to a system of sensor to remotely understand and supply needed items to plants. I looked at art such as Plant Hotel by Project Machina and John Baldesari’s Teach a Plant the Alphabet. I expanded into scientific articles on plant growth which explored the Fungi network. I have also been reading books on environmental ethics and Michel Pollen’s Botany of Desire.

Process:

I began by planning to have my final product be a beautifully rendered physical model but ended up after making a rough version to create physical objects. Then I was going to make a controller with all components; the lights, vibration, and speaker, but ended up separating some of them out. I spent some making a vibration controller with an Arduino and then decided to make a more physical environment around that. I created clay models of that remote and light. I also welded together a habitat which the plant can eventually grow up through.

Open Questions and Challenges:

I am still questioning what role humans should have in plants life and how to visually expose that role. In class it was brought up, how to show the data from these interactions. I want to explore more how to use that data without taking away the natural connection between human and botanical life. I would like to pay attention to the human centric way we speak and how through art and tech that can be adjusted.

Reflection:

I wish I had not wasted so much time getting a simple circuit to work, it really ate into my conceptual planning and did not add very much. I learned more about how non performance art minded people will react to these concepts because this topic relates to my senior project. I feel the reaction from my art faculty and this class were fairly different. I would like to spend more time figuring out why people were a bit confused by the concepts I was raising while they felt so clear and important to me. I would also like to think more on what plants really need from us.

Attribution and References:

I used an image from the Adafruit website and a still from the John Baldesari piece, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet.

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Prosthetic

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The goal is to create a way for humans to aid plants in the creation of memories which stimulate their growth.

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