The Secret Life of Plants
In collaboration with the Chelsea Physic Garden.
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Design a set of interactions between plants and people that takes place at a microclimate level.
Outcome
Plants 'reflect near infrared light as they chemically cannot convert infrared into usable food, and so they just bounce it away to stay cool' (Near infrared imaging, 2010). By using an infrared camera, we were able to learn how much plants are photosynthesising. We then connected this element back to the garden's victorian heritage and designed a workshop for visitors to make their own stereoscope with which to view their infrared images in a new dimension.
Concept Development
After some initial ideation around VR and artistic installations, we agreed to focus directly on the Chelsea physic garden itself, and use its diverse foliage as the focal point of the infrared workshop experience.
User Journey
We then thoroughly designed the user Journey for the workshop, ensuring each of its stages felt carefully crafted and enriching to the participants. Potential low points such as having to wait for the pictures to be printed were identified and adjusted by timing the end of the stereoscope-building workshop with the completions of the printed photos.
Website Design
To further solidify the plausibility of our proposal, I designed the webpages where the experience would be advertised and explained to visitors, blending them seamlessly with the existing Chelsea Physic Garden website.
Presenting the Workshop
In order to present our design to our colleagues and tutors, we recreated areas of the garden within our studio and had participants experience the workshop. Our working infrared camera prototype enabled participants to explore the photosynthesis process occurring in the plants first-hand. They were able to navigate the camera around the foliage and see the live feedback on the screen.
Stereoscope Construction
Participants then took part in the second phase of the experience, putting together cardboard stereoscopes with which to view the images they would take in the first phase. The stereoscopes serve as the perfect souvenir for visitors of the garden to take home with them following the workshops.
Our aim with this project was to build a bridge between science and art, one which I believe we were able to achieve. The experience successfully combined the biology of plants with arts and crafts to create an enjoyable, educational experience which intriguingly connects humans to nature on a microclimate level.
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