Plant-to-Plant Protocol
Plant-to-Plant Protocol (June 2019) was a collaborative teaching and research project between SSS and Sarah Grant which investigated the fragility of data communication by setting information networks in a botanical setting. Over the course of a week, students were given a deep dive into radio and networking technology. They developed point-to-point devices which were attached to plants in a garden; each pair sent the same image file between them via modular infra-red (IR) sensors. As the plants move and react to the light and wind conditions in the garden, the sensor connections fracture, glitches get introduced, and bytes get dropped or arrive out of order – all of which makes its way into the final image received.
Our initial idea was to explore how critical enquiry could be integrated into technical teaching, using creative approaches such as experiments and live performances to bring out the uncertainties, complexities, and surprises which emerge from complex systems in the wild. Information networks are often perceived as invisible, immaterial, infallible, and politically neutral; and we wanted to explore how art and design students could learn and challenge these ideas through technical and creative practice.
We worked with artist and educator Sarah Grant, and explored what type of project she wanted to develop. Sarah’s work focuses on radioart, networked media, and ways of demystifying computer networking technology. She was particularly interested in working with biological and botanical systems as a way of thinking through networks. We realised we could make use of the IDA Garden at LCC: originally a derelict yard behind the BA IDA Studios which had been transformed by students into an active community space.
From these conversations, Plant-to-Plant Protocol was developed as a week-long workshop as a deep dive into radio and networking technology, open to students of all abilities and creative practices across UAL. At the start of the week, students were given their own hardware kit - Arduinos, IR sensors, and radio modules - and given a crash course in the concepts behind information networks. Over the following two days, they developed their own point-to-point device from the kit.
We then went out into the garden to attach the devices to the plants, using pipe-cleaners. Once the installation was complete and weatherproofed – a necessity due to classic British summer weather – the files were sent from plant to plant. When we saw the transmission data on screens, we realised that some of our initial assumptions about how the botanical network might react were incomplete.
We’d anticipated that the networked transmission might be broken up by wind movement - in fact, the clouds passing over the sun also affected the IR sensors which led to even more glitchiness. As each pair transmitted the same file, we could see the differences in how data travelled from one point to another.
Participants: Sarah Grant, Elle Castle, Wesley Goatley, and the Creative Technology Lab.
The project was funded by a Teaching and Learning Innovation Grant from London College of Communication.