Green Rhythms
Post-photosynthesis Storytelling through an Adaptive Ecology System
This study explores how ecological entanglement can be sensed, enacted, and reimagined through a micro-ecosystem shared by humans, plants, and computational systems. Drawing on posthuman and ecological theories, the installation speculates a post-photosynthesis scenario in which human breath becomes a meaningful atmospheric force. Combining carbon dioxide (CO2) sensing, ambient light sensor, and plant phototropism data, the system visualises subtle exchanges between human respiration and plants’ rhythms. Green Rhythms invites viewers to participate in the post-plant’s circadian cycle, rewriting ecological narratives. It positions digital art as a space where environmental processes can be felt and reflected upon, fostering ecological awareness and opening speculative pathways for more-than-human futures.
Based on the speculative design that is not about making things, but about making people think, Green Rhythms is built under the framework of posthuman, ecological entanglement and symbiosis in trouble to create the post- photosynthesis. In the post-plant era, plants have evolved new metabolic mechanisms. During the day, they still bend toward the light through photosynthesis [16], absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) and light energy. At night, photosynthesis is reversed to be continually processed. When the level of CO2 in the air is raised by humans exhaling, the photosensitive system within plants is activated by blue-violet light, converting carbon back into energy and oxygen. This art installation is created in the projection environment with a potted plant and different sensors for interaction.
