Cultivation as a Design Methodology: Plant root tissues as an affective possibility of interspecies co-design.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46516/inmaterial.v11.294Keywords:
roots, cultivation, design, care, biodesign, methodologyAbstract
The rhizosphere comprises the areas surrounding plant roots and is home to a wide biodiversity. The soil is alive! And ethics of soil care applied to cultivation processes establish affective value through the logic of attention they generate. Care can be understood as a selective way of directing attention. This makes it possible to recognize the condition of interdependence established between the roots of plant organisms and human and non-human actions.
The cellular activity present in the apical zone of the root, in the meristem and the root cap, offers effective possibilities for processes that consider plant growth as a design necessity. The cultivation of plant roots, from a fabrication perspective, has materialized in tools, utensils, woven bridges, sheets, tapestries and volumes. This remains a practice with limited dissemination.
Cultivation as a design methodology based on affective practices of cooperation with plant roots represents a technical, aesthetic, ecological and political possibility of relevance within the fields of visual arts and product, industrial and architectural design. The aim of this article is to deepen the understanding of the implications of these design practices.
These practices represent a revealing advance for biodesign, yet their production remains limited. The scarcity and dispersion of information sources may constrain a comprehensive understanding of these practices. The management of plant root distribution for human aesthetic purposes can also be understood as a significant form of manipulation from an ethical perspective.
The consolidation of plant root tissue cultivation represents a point of interest for fields committed to an inclusive ecological awareness for or with non-human organisms and sensitive to other ways of inhabiting the planet.
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