Living plant time

From The Works of Living World @ STARNET ZONE (Mashiko, 2005)

Living Plant Time is a tool that allows the viewer to observe a living plant in live fast-motion footage (i.e. by speeding up time).

A round camera watches a pot of plants. Photographing the plants at set intervals, it shows the previous six hours or perhaps three days for example in the life of the plants, via fast-motion footage.

Sample video: From exhibition at STARNET ZONE in Mashiko

Most of the plants were gathered from the hills behind the gallery.

Living World traveled to Mashiko in the weekends to replace any plants in poor condition, to do any necessary repotting etc.

Plant movement mechanisms include, apart from opening and closing related to sunlight, the movements involved in evaporating moisture from the leaves and sucking water up from the roots, and in maintaining the plants’ balance when putting out roots.

The visitors book included comments like this one from Sachiko chan, youngest daughter from the nearby Yamazaki family farm: “It made plants look just like animals! It can be really hard to tell, but plants are living too. They only move a little at a time, but they do move.”

The programming was done by design engineer Ryuichi Iwamasa.

with Ryuichi Iwamasa (GK Tech)
Production assistance: Kazuko Baba, Emiko Hoshi (STARNET); Yuichi Tsukada (Onshitsu), Hideki Takayama (Takayama woodworking shop)