Experiments  (1st homework) 

02.04.2024, Halle (Saale)

In preparation for The Plant Project, the homework has already given us a broad overview of different topics within plant-based design. Firstly, we all carried out an experiment that a researcher or designer had already done with plants. Secondly, we each brought along ten everyday materials that are either surprisingly plant-based or so normal that their plant-based origins are overlooked in everyday life.
In order to obtain pigments from organic residues, Jolanda orientated herself on Ladina Ingold’s “Rest-Druck-Verfahren” (“residual printing process”) and Nicole Stjernsward’s “Kaiku” project. She used plant residues from cooking, such as leeks, carrots, onions and beetroot. She was able to obtain pigments from these foods by boiling or drying them and then processing them into a powder. Mixed with methyl cellulose (wallpaper paste), she was able to use the pigments for screen printing.
Luci and Malin were inspired by the project “Biomenstrual: Designing Multispecies Menstrual Care” by Nadia Campo Woytuk and Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard. It is about entering into more-than-human interactions through the practices of menstrual care. It provides an answer to the question of how caring for one’s own (menstruating) body could be combined with caring for the environment. In the experiment, they imitated the proposed plant-based menstrual products made of gluten and moss within agar-agar layers, which are intended to serve as fertilizer for plant soil after usage.
Jona was inspired by plant-to-plant communication strategies and wanted to transmit the action potential of the Venus trap to the mimosa to stimulate the closing of its leaves without touching it. However, he was unable to perceive any of the expected reactions.
Even if some of the experiments did not produce the expected results, we probably all discovered exciting topics through researching and experimenting and gained new insights by trying things out.

project:

The Plant Project
– Resilience Part II
year:2024
text by:Malin Melzer