The Science of Senescence
Fall 2024
Starting off this project, I was given the brief of creating a project based on the key terms, “Extreme Scale.” This was to push more abstract and open thinking to what “Extreme” and what “scale” could mean. I began thinking of ideas of mediums or topics that I have been interested in. A major pillar in my thesis is thinking of the human experience and community. The motif that I drew back to was the idea of decay. As the winter is approaching, I have been moving my plants indoors so that they can persevere through the cold weather. It prompted me to reflect on this idea of the in-between-ness as these plants are not dying but they also need to be strong enough to withstand the shifts in climate. I felt like this connected to the “scale” aspect as a timeline can be thought of as a scale.
Something I love making are photo-realistic risograph prints. I love playing with the colors and testing out how to make the colors match well for the photos. This led me to making a set of 12 prints to depict the close up of the plant leaves with the scans of the plants parts. The design of these were influenced by the size of plant care cards that you often receive when purchasing a new plant.
I also have been extremely interested in infographic posters and data visualizations, which led me to designing a poster that talks about the decay and regrowth of my home plants. To mimic this effect of decay and inbetween, I texturize the images to have a grain feel, much like a withered leaf. I also chose a grey background since it is the color between white and black, symbolizing the stage of life and death. While taking photos of the microscopic view of the plants, I also took recordings of zooming in and the experience of the image turning blurry and refocusing. I decided to create videos and label them based on what the plant is called.
I installed the poster and prints on the wall, then projected over the poster and prints. For the prints, I hung them on rope and plant stakes that are typically used to help outdoor plants grow tall and in their section.
Poster & Projection Risograph Prints
Textiles