When we discuss and visualise climate change, we often focus on how seas rise, how heat increases, how these will impact our cities, agriculture, jobs, lifestyle. Yet one of the overlooked elements of our daily lives, peace of mind and joy are the non-human beings who accompany us - the birch trees, cattail grasses, ferns and moss (here in the North). How might they change in the futures? What new companions will live among us instead? In this project, we seek to use techniques of hand drawing, collage and data visualisation to communicate a local story of change.
In Plant Futures, Annelie Berner and Monika Seyfried, together with local partners, will investigate the most populous plants in the local region. How do they show they flourish? What do they need to live? They will create a visualisation of their current system (what comes in, how does the plant respond). And will use near and far future projections of the local region's climate in order to generate new inputs for the plants and identify possible future plant inhabitants.
Plant Futures is realised within the European Media Art Platform's 2023 residency programme and hosted by M-cult in Helsinki. The project also connects with Central Park Archives, M-cult's local collaboration on Helsinki's urban forest.
Watch the video M-Cult produced during the residency:
Video/Sound: Kalle Kuisma
Interview/Production: Mia Mäkelä
Plant Futures premiered 25th of Oct 2024 at Kin(d) Relations II | Group Exhibition at Antre Peaux, France
Plant Futures is exhibited through specimens of the circaea alpina from the archive of the Finnish Museum of Natural History, prints, and a single-channel video that presents the story of the project.
Plant Futures envisions how a flower might show climate data, data that could eventually shape our familiar surroundings into something entirely new. Looking at just one flower, what does it need to survive and how might those needs be impacted by future climates? How a flower blooms is rooted in the place in which it grows. The variance in size, petals, color, even veins can be traced to that month's temperature, rain, storms, which is in turn traced by sensors and compiled as data. Thus a flower represents, in and of itself, its surroundings as well as the broader climate.
Image: Annelie Berner
