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13. IMPLICATIONS & APPLICATIONS

(UN)ROOTED

In a world of constant motion—where places, identities, and relationships merge and transform—the longing for stability, for a place to pause, for grounding, continues to grow. (Un)Rooted explores this tension between arrival and departure, body and mind, closeness and distance.

Where do I come from, where am I going—and where can I stay when everything is changing?

Today, roots no longer grow only in physical soil or social contexts, but also within digital spaces, in streams of data, memories, and connections. The analogue and the virtual weave together into new forms of belonging—fleeting, networked, yet full of resonance.

The installation creates a space for sensing and reflection. Rootedness appears not as a fixed state, but as a living process—an inhalation between presence and absence, grounding and suspension.

Naturally grown roots intertwine with parametric design; human touch meets sound; physical presence merges with digital motion. The result is a transformable space between nature and technology, between the visible and the invisible—a place where interconnectedness becomes tangible across bodies, spaces, and time.

Installation Set-Up

At the heart of the installation hangs a floating frame holding physically grown roots. These roots have developed within parametrically designed forms —structures that define shape while allowing the unpredictability of natural growth.

Behind the object, a screen projection displays the real-time growth of digital roots. Together, they form two co-existing layers: material reality and its digital echo.

Ideas on installation set-up - AI generated images

Interaction

Visitors become part of the growth process.

Touch, proximity, and pressure sensors integrated into the roots translate physical input into visual and auditory responses:

  • Proximity Sensor: The closer one approaches, the louder and more intense the sound of growth becomes—as if the work were breathing in response to human presence.
  • Touch Sensor: With every touch, new random growth forms appear within the digital projection. The virtual root structure expands, mutates, and overlaps.
  • Pressure Sensor: Touch pressure modulates movement and sound—the gesture becomes impulse, resonance becomes visual event.

The work thrives on the unpredictability of these interactions. The roots respond, grow, resonate—each encounter leaves a unique trace.

Tools and Materials

  • Rhino / Grasshopper – Creation of parametric forms
  • 3D printing – Fabrication of moldes for growing
  • TouchDesigner – Projection control and real-time visualization
  • E-textiles & Sensor Systems – Linking physical structure and digital reaction
  • Biomaterials – Cultivation of roots

Research Focus

My conceptual focus lies in the intersection of art, technology, and botany by translating physical experience into digital presence - linking corporeality and digital visualisation.

The work examines how tactile, human impulses continue to exist and become visible in digital space, forming a new kind of rootedness: not as static belonging, but as a living, multilayered relationship between human, nature, and technology.

Project Aims

  • Master Rhino/Grasshopper for parametric design
  • Learn Arduino sensor integration (touch/proximity)
  • Explore TouchDesigner for real-time 3D visualization
  • Growing roots in parametric shapes

My goal is to acquire all these skills and techniques and combine them with the theme of Unrootedness."

INSPIRATION

Inspiring projects on roots

  1. Grown Exploration - Jacob Olmedo

  2. Root Systems - Carole Collet

  3. Rootful - Zenna Holloway

  4. AMBER GRAIN EMBROIDERY - Barbara Rakovska

  5. Apical - Diana Scherer

Inspiring projects on the intersection of art, technology & botany/texitles

  1. The orchid beauty, 2023 - Volkan Dincer : a cyborg orchid survives on Instagram likes, revealing the ironic entanglement of ecology, social media, and the beauty industry.

  2. A Fabric that Remembers - Laura Devendorf - fabric that remembers where and how it was pressed with a tablet to visualize touch in realtime.

  3. Of Work And Waves - Mika Satomi & Hannah Perner-Wilson - was a participatory public intervention by KOBAKANT, in which crocheters collaboratively handcraft a copper-thread antenna, intertwining traditional craft, collective labor, and the invisible presence of electromagnetic waves.