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Sommerer/Mignonneau «The Interactive Plant Growing» | The Interactive Plant Growing (installation setup)
Sommerer/Mignonneau, «The Interactive Plant Growing», 1993
The Interactive Plant Growing (installation setup) | Screenshot | © ; Sommerer/Mignonneau


 
Sommerer/Mignonneau «The Interactive Plant Growing» | The Interactive Plant Growing (3D model)Sommerer/Mignonneau «The Interactive Plant Growing» | The Interactive Plant Growing (installation setup)Sommerer/Mignonneau «The Interactive Plant Growing» | The Interactive Plant Growing (installation view)Sommerer/Mignonneau «The Interactive Plant Growing»Sommerer/Mignonneau «The Interactive Plant Growing» | play video
5.5*3.6*6.38 m (W*H*D) | Projection 300 x 400 cm, SGI Maximum Impact, Grafik-Projektor, 5 plants with low voltage sensors, sensor filters, 5 user, 5 wooden plinths for the plants, lamps, real-time graphics system, custom hard- and software. | Concept: Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau | Edition / Production: Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau / Institut für Neue Medien, Frankfurt/Main (D) | Archive / Collection: ZKM, Karlsruhe
 

 Sommerer/Mignonneau
«The Interactive Plant Growing»

Designing interfaces between vegetal and device-related systems, between man and machine, is one of the greatest challenges of interactive technology. No differently than in the industrial context, here too, the use of intuitive and user-friendly control tendencies is supremely decisive. With «The Interactive Plant Growing,» Sommerer and Mignonneau demonstrate an artwork of this species. Activating the plant triggers an image-generating impulse. This calls for neither the preparing of a symbolically conveyed action, nor the designing of ergonomically-formed pieces of equipment to make its control possible. The juxtaposing of the real plant and a computer-generated version of nature latently recalls explosive themes that arose when discussing the use of research results in the fields of natural science and technology.