An Installation
Year 2, Semester 3
Brief: To design and build an installation that is inspired by the properties of Emergence.
Concept: Emergence: Swarm behavior in Roots
Site: BSSA campus, Mumbai
Emergence refers to the existence or formation of collective behaviors — what parts of a system do together that they would not do alone. In describing collective behaviors, emergence refers to how collective properties arise from the properties of parts, how behavior at a larger scale arises from the detailed structure, and how behavior and relationships function at a finer scale.
Interactions between individuals that are guided by simple rules can generate swarming behavior. Swarming behavior has been observed in many groups of organisms, including humans, and recent research has revealed that plants also demonstrate social behavior based on mutual interaction with other individuals. I have chosen to study the swarm theory as shown in the roots of a Maize plant.
Plants have developed intricate root systems that are characterized by complex patterns and based on the coordinated group behaviour of the growing root apices, in order to exploit soil resources optimally. The communication channels among different root apices of the same plant depend on electrical, hydraulic and chemical signals. Sensory information collected by one plant is shared with neighbouring plants to aid in their navigation, coordination, cooperation, competitive aggression and symbioses with fungi and bacteria. Each plant is assumed to interact with neighbouring plants causing spatial attraction or repulsion depending on the individual root responses. The root apices adjust their direction as they detect their neighbours within a certain radius. Thus, the emergence of these root systems enabled plants to acquire information through and within their root system, which is processed through social interactions and which provides solutions to cognitive problems that are not available to isolated individuals, allowing them to better exploit and survive.
An experimented documenting the growth of maize roots (1)
Analysis diagrams from the footage of the experiment conducted
Concept proposal sheet
Once the concept was selected, we had to work in a group to build the installation. This part of the studio incorporated the site with concept, and we began modifying and evolving the design to be large in scale, as well as interactive in nature.
Evolution of the design into an installation
Design sheet
Process video
Lights were installed to give the effect not just through the structure, but through the shadows created by it as well.
Installation on site
Citation: (1) Ciszak M, Comparini D, Mazzolai B, Baluska F, Arecchi FT, Vicsek T, et al. (2012) Swarming Behavior in Plant Roots. PLoS ONE
