Green Sculpture

Together with Kai Nieves the idea arose of combining vegetal seeds in extruded threads of biomaterial to give organic matters the exposure it deserves. With the new methods and utilities presented to us during the Remixing Materials course we were able to built on our idea.

Goal and strategy

As rebuttal to the modern polypropylene industrial plant pots and casings, Green Sculpture expresses a organic and non-conventional way of germinating seeds and invitates its perceiver to growing food in a different approach.
Our approach was to stick to the fundamental animal anatomy structure as elaborated on in Remixing Materials and stick to less-processed materials only. A blender model served as reference image during physical modelling.

figure 1: Posture study of sculpture idea.

Process

The skeleton was spot-welded from curved metal wire and attached to a wooden base. The structure was selfsupporting and able to rotate around it's axle (left-leg), easing the mobility during further sculpting.

figure 2: Welded skeleton of the first idea.

The adhesiveness from the soil onto the skeleton had to supported by structural (chicken)wire to create proper connection. This gridded wire entangled the metal wire and was filled with the soil and seeds to give the object its body and starting point for germinating.

figure 3: Process of creating the figures.
figure 4: Drying output.

Results

The figures stayed outside afterwards while being watered regularly. The seeds started germinating after ten days.

figure 5: Flower seeds germinating from within the structure after 14 days.

The main figure germinated just partly, likely due to its relatively low (sun)light exposure which we decided because of its relatively thin shape that dries out much faster than the other, more pompous volumes. The leafed mask germinated nicely from within the structure and the seedlings rose up between the palm leaves. It offered a refreshing new view on spacial restrictions when designing for growing organisms.

figure 6: Seedlings growing from the sculpture's torso.