PLANTOVERSE
by Ippolit Markelov (scientific supervisor), Mariia Moshchenskaia, Veronika Prizova, Siraj Farhan, Mikhail Shalepo
BioArt.team
Mariia Moshchenskaia is an interdisciplinary artist, a member of the BioArt Lab, Center for Art & Science ITMO University, she has a master's degree in innovation, profile Art & Science. She is doing research on interspecies communication, non-verbal dialogue, and interaction between humans and plants. The artist exhibited her work at the Speculum Artium New-media festival in Slovenia, the International Biennale "Art for the future" and many others.
Veronika Prizova is a culturologist, a mediator, an interdisciplinary artist and a member of the BioArt Lab, Center for Art & Science ITMO University, she has a master's degree in innovation, profile Art & Science. Veronika studies nature-to-culture narratives and issues of phyto-semiotics. The artist has taken part in the France-Russia Art Residency, in the Speculum Artium New-media festival in Slovenia and others.
Ippolit Markelov (aka Dmitrii Kadyrov) is an artist, researcher, and Ph.D. in Biology. His research focused on the problems of relations in interspecific communication and the transformation of the “living”. Ippolit is the founder of the Science-Art group “18 Apples” and Head of the BioArt Lab, Center for Art & Science ITMO University.
Contact info
Email bioart.team[at]gmail.com
Website: https://plantoverse.art/
Instagram: @bioart.team
Plantoverse aims to rethink the established attitude towards plants as inferior and simple objects. It is important to raise awareness about plants, learn more about their internal processes, and learn from them.
The concept of the project is based on the phenomenon of “plant blindness”, which means a human’s tendency to underestimate the importance of flora due to its non-anthropomorphism. Creating an emotional connection with plants can change our relationship with nature, species unlike us.
The study of plants at different levels of organization allows us to approach a new vision of plants and their interaction with each other. Within the project, a number of experiments were conducted to determine the optical properties of the upper epidermis of plant leaves, where cells act as collecting microlenses.
Viewers can see themselves in real-time thanks to the image formation algorithm based on the optical characteristics of the dermal tissue of the leaf.
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Mariia Moshchenskaia and Veronika Prizova are the authors of Plantoverse. Under the guidance of supervisor Ippolit Markelov (aka Dmitrii Kadyrov) realised this project as part of the BioArt Lab, which explores the themes of interspecies communication, non-verbal dialogue and interaction with plants.
The artists wonder about the values of plants, a caring and respectful attitude towards them. They want to construct the dialogue between “another'' being, currently with a plant and a person, and investigate subject-subject relations.
Co-authors Siraj Farhan and Mikhail Shalepo.
Scientific consultants Viktor Zakharov and Alexandra Burnusuz.
