How will the flower bloom in 2100?
Plant Futures envisions how a flower might show climate data, data that could eventually shape our familiar surroundings into something entirely new.
Looking at just one flower, what does it need to survive and how might those needs be impacted by future climates? How a flower blooms is rooted in the place in which it grows. The variance in size, petals, color, even veins can be traced to that month's temperature, rain, storms, which is in turn traced by sensors and compiled as data.
This artistic research project into Helsinki’s nature, seeks to understand how the flora will shift in the face of future climate changes. Rather than focusing on the stories of climate change on a macro level — wildfires, floods — we want to uncover the stories of climate change on a micro level that could eventually shape our familiar surroundings into something entirely new.
When we discuss and visualise climate change, we often focus on how seas rise, how heat increases, how these will impact our cities, agriculture, jobs, lifestyle. Yet one of the overlooked elements of our daily lives, peace of mind and joy are the non-human beings who accompany us - the birch trees, cattail grasses, ferns and moss (here in the North). How might they change in the futures? What new companions will live among us instead?
Together with local partners, Annelie Berner and Monika Seyfried investigated the most populous plants in the local region. After collecting climate data for the Circaea alpina's location of Southern Finland, from 2023 - 2100, Annelie mapped the climate data values to possible changes to the flower and created one data-driven flower form for every yea
To imagine the future Circaea alpina, we researched how flowers morph in reaction to changes in their climates. From that research, we extrapolated and created the future Circaea alpina flowers.
As the future conditions change around us, as the sun shines more or less, as the clouds roll in and out, as the rain pours down or waits, breathless, for a gust of wind to sweep a shift in the weather, how will this one plant experience those changes? Findings suggest that flowers could shrink due to rising temperatures or change their scent due to air pollutants. One of the most interesting findings was that petal colors might change from increased sun exposure.
Credits:
Artist: Annelie Berner - Concept, research, design, programming, creation
Data art studio: Variable - Programming of data-based 3D flower and design input
Biologist: Aku Korhonen - Consulting biologist and local forest guide
Collaborator: Monika Seyfried - Research collaboration and exhibition video production