Submitter: Sylvia Janicki, Georgia Institute of Technology, sjanicki3@gatech.edu
Abstract:
How can living materials be integrated with digital technologies to reframe the body-environment dichotomy and elevate care for more-than-human communities? This project draws from scholarship in ecofeminism and feminist post-humanities to reframe people and the environment as co-constitutive and to foreground care for more-than-human communities. The memorial consists of living plants growing inside a plexiglass box. The box is lined with a two-way mirror on the front, a regular mirror on the back, and LED strip lights along the sides. An ultrasonic sensor detects distance of a body from the memorial, triggering LED lights to brighten when the body approaches, and dim when the body recedes. At a distance, the interactor sees only their own reflection. As they approach, LED lights brighten to create a co-constitutive view of the person becoming one with the plants. Upon reaching the front of the memorial, the interactor’s reflection disappears, leaving only a view of the plants and soil within, illuminated under an infinity mirror effect. Participants are encouraged to open the lid to feel and water the plants. Though it may seem closed and bounded, the memorial is, in fact, an open system, necessitating porosity, exchange and care from the outside to thrive.
Areas of STS Scholarship: Feminist STS, Environmental/Multispecies Studies
Authors/Participants: Sylvia Janicki, Georgia Institute of Technology
