VIRTUAL SEEDLING
Research Study using online social media platform Instagram. Installation. Participation. Digital Collage. 2021
A research study on human connection to objects and how individuals relate to and perceive objects in their lives. Documenting life on an urban allotment in Isleworth, West London, over a 3 year period and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Interviewing and studying a diverse group of inhabitants on the allotment, a microcosm of urban society; taking monoprints of plants and weeds and photographing, sketching, filming and recording audio on site. I created collages of some of the plot holders with objects they from the allotment they connected with.
Then, I selected a diverse group people who had no association with the allotment . I asked the individuals to select a seed that I would plant for them on the allotment and I invited them to follow the growth of the seed on social media platform Instagram.I soon noticed the participants started to send personal messages to the seedlings on Instagram, messages encouraging the seedling to grow, therefore creating a virtual connections with themselves and seeds. Further results showed the participants started to connect with the seedling as if the seedling was growing in real life, or further more as if they were humans.
The research continued with a participation study in a gallery setting, where I set up the virtual seedling study in a pop up greenhouse and again asked the participants to choose a seed and watch it grow online. I obtained similar results with the participants connecting with the seedling as it was growing and as if the seedling was human.
