See the world from a plant’s perspective: on creating an interactive multimedia sculpture implying plant optics

Abstract

Humans constantly interact with their environment, with other humans, as well as natural and artificial non-human agents. Nevertheless, our somatosensory system limits the diversity of our ways of communicating. Such organisms as plants thus escape our notice, blending into the landscape. This phenomenon is called Plant blindness. This leads not only to indifference and lack of empathy towards plants among ordinary people but also to a deficit in funding plant conservation. We believe that it is important to develop connections and also rethink the relationship between humans and flora. This paper examines the Plant turn in the context of an art-science project titled Plantoverse. The scientific part of the project is based on a study of plant epidermis cells, which possess optical properties and function as a “lens”. The data acquired via confocal microscopy was used to construct a mathematical model of these lenses which in turn formed the basis of the artistic work. It is a representation of the plant epidermis in a digital environment. The work allows us to look at ourselves through “plant optics'' and find new tools for interacting with the vegetal world. This interdisciplinary approach can help transfer knowledge about flora from the professional environment to lay society and form a new, more empathetic view toward plants.