Designing for the Non-Human Other

  • The Plant Sex Consultancy 

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    Visit our new exhibition in Natlab


    The PSX Consultancy is a research project and a workshop that investigates the art and science of natural reproductive strategies of plants. The project accommodates design augmentation inspired by nature and culture, to increase the pleasure and (re)productivity of plant sex as one of the staples of species survival.

    The outcome of the research project is a collection of concepts, which appeal to the viewers’ imagination, but leave them confused amidst the different rationalizations of what the objects are and what purpose they serve. Their formalizations linger between allusions to medical devices and erotic hardware, but their intended functionality can only be perceived through an understanding of the principles that support the interaction between the plants and the agents on which they depend to overcome their immobility.

    The PSX Consultancy project utilizes the capability of applied arts to shape the society’s perception of itself. In this sense, the project bluntly serves its own agenda, creating objects that carry true meaning for the human, but not the plant. The analogy between plant and human reproduction resides in the function of the designs and is communicated through the proposed solutions, which are misleadingly familiar. Each of the sex toys and medical devices carries a surprising functionality suited to plants.

    This project is developed by Špela Petrič and Pei-Ying Lin. Join us for the opening on March 6 at 18.00 Hrs.

    About

    Dr. Špela Petrič is the winner of the Bio Art & Design Award 2014. In her artistic practice she combines natural sciences, new media and performance. Petrič is also interested in anthropocentrism. She extends her artistic research with art/sci workshops devoted to informing and sensitizing the public, particularly younger generations. http://www.spelapetric.org

    Pei-Ying Lin is an artist, designer, programmer. Her focus is on the combination of science and human society, through artistic methods to reflect the cultural differences and connotations, as well as human hidden desires. She currently runs the Taiwanese BioArt community in Taiwan. http://peiyinglin.net

    The PSX Consultancy is a collaborative project developed within the "Designing Life" topic at BIO50 (the Biennial of Industrial Design 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia) by authors Pei-Ying Lin, Dimitris Stamatis, Jasmina Weiss, and Špela Petrič. Its development was supported by MAO (the Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana) and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

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