Can we measure time without standardized units? How would our lives be shaped if we had another way of perceiving time? Do we fully understand the concept of time? Are we disconnected from nature without realizing it? Perception of time from the perspective of a plant.
The Bodily Garden is an intergenus device that proposes a future horological system, highlighting perspectives outside of Anthropocentrism which aims to reconfigure our relationships to Mother Earth. Based on comparing two species on Earth: humans and plants. It encourages people to engage with and perceive our shared planet in a more-than-human way. This project is designed so that everyone can be a user. In particular, it serves as a suggestion for people today and for the next generation who may be born and live detached from the natural environment in the digital era.
This project was developed by researching the resemblance of the movement flow of the city and forest that spontaneously extend themselves in space and time. This instinct follows the human drive that compels the tool in more than a human way to reimagine the concept of time. The tool is the extension of our corporeality, tracing the growth of green species around the human community today. This tool extends from our hand, becoming a way to experience and contemplate our relationship to the natural world, reframing our perceptual awareness of time. It encourages us to slow down and appreciate the different forces that are part of our existence, away from the speed and precision of an increasingly disconnected, digital reality.
The machine consists of three key parts: the recording arm, the spinning disc, and the plant. The growing plant, gravity, and motor drive the entire movement. The recording arm is intentionally designed in an unbalanced state, with the pencil side slightly heavier than the side attached to the plant. As the plant grows upward, the pencil side gradually descends, recording the plant's growth by leaving rings on the rotating paper. This transformation of length into space is also influenced by the seasons. Darker drawings can be observed in winter, while lighter drawings emerge in summer, coincidentally matching the natural pattern seen in tree growth rings.
