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Action & Reflection

Project 2: Conversations

Thinking about different ways of knowing nature and after a discussion in our class, I decided to incorporate others in this simple activity. In my action 1, I had tried “drawing” as an activity to know a natural element. However, drawing is just one of the many ways we can interact with them. I created a questionnaire and asked my cohort to share their experience with me.

I asked them to: “Choose any natural element you have at your reach. It could be an indoor plant or a flower bouquet, a tree in front of your window, a bush on the street or park, seashore, lake, birds, squirrels, pigeons,… basically ANY living being or element that you’d consider “Nature” or “a part of Nature”. How would you attempt to learn about this natural element/being with your senses (ex. sight, hearing, smell, touch) or an activity (Drawing, recording a voice memo, taking a picture or a video etc.)? Spend no more than a few minutes and do it quickly and intuitively. Share your experience with me! You can just write it down:”

I received 11 responses which you can find them bellow:

After putting all the answers next to each other, I was amazed by the variety. Each of them had something new to offer. For instance, Abhinav had mentioned “spices”. Something we regularly use but may not necessarily see as “nature”. Pablo had used light in his observation which made him discover new details about the plant. Christa had made an actual tool (a prototype for her own project). Charles had an element of playfulness. Kimia mentioned photography and paying close attention to details. Observing a special tree outside Jeffrey’s window feels spiritual. And April finds it calming to observe and record nature. Amen described how he’d use his senses in the particular order of “sight, touch, hearing, and smell”. Maleeka and Garmia both talked about their plant which they’ve bought from IKEA. Taking care of a houseplant is a learning journey itself and Garima explained further about the challenges she had come across.

Going through the responses, I extracted the keywords and tried to categorize them based on the time they were mentioned. What I was trying to achieve was coming up with a tool kit or a reference list for the things we can do when interacting with a natural element.

Thinking about interactivity, I wondered if we could be hinted by an external guide, to get inspired to interact with a natural element/space. I was thinking about people who are not as comfortable to initiate such actions; who might see the greenery merely as a background rather than a living being, sharing space with us.

Can technology help us facilitate this interaction? Can we use a digital entity in a non-invasive way? Adding technology to nature has been controversial among designers whose work is related to nature. There’s a thin line between using technology for doing something that simply cannot be done in any other way, and creating another uncanny artifact.

Pacific Spirit Regional Park , Zahra Jalali 2021

Going back to the picture I took in Pacific Spirit Park, I once again contemplated on the interaction that is shown in this picture, with no artificial object involved (But the device I took this picture with). What if I could be guided to explore more in the jungle? Similar to walking in this space with an elder who would tell all the mesmerizing stories about the trees. Can technology acts as a magical facilitator? Nudging me to go further? Just like how I was intrigued to follow the fir cones and I found the tree at the end of the trail.

Prototyping

Thinking about technology I tried to make a very low fidelity prototype with a house plant we have in our apartment. Thinking about subtle hints, I used paper arrows to show the way.

After getting to the plant itself, I would see some basic information. The name, the general living conditions, origin and a random fact such as having red flowers.

I would then be invited to interact with the plant through my senses.

After making this prototype, I went back and reflect on the answers I had gotten from the cohort. I thought what makes this set of information special, is the element of story-telling. Hearing “stories” about interacting with nature adds a personal layer. I asked them to allow me to share their names, as I wanted these stories to have “names” / “authors”.

I will be curious about Jeffrey’s mysterious tree, or how April would see the first Spring blossoms adding a pink splash of color to her view.

The prototype I made might intrigue some thoughts or technical critics. But how can this get more personal?

What if I told you more about this plant?(1) The real story behind it and how we met? And the next person would hear that story, and build up on that? Can we cherish the life of a plant (Plant as an example of a natural being) by telling personal stories? And how can we best preserve and transfer those stories?

(1)How we met: We met on December 2020, the first day of being outside after finishing our mandatory 14 days of self-isolation in the time of pandemic. It was the very first apartment we saw. I couldn’t help but to notice my new possible green housemates. It was sitting besides the balcony. Our landlord later told us to take care of the plants. We happily said yes though we were/are scared to take care of them poorly by mistake. Now we know that this plant doesn’t do well in cold weather. The snowy days made some of the leaves dry on the sides. It’s doing well now and having lots of new leaves. I noticed that their surface is somehow velvety and sometimes my fingerprints leave marks on them.

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