GreenHouse

Greenhouse (2005) is a telematic artwork that creates a symbiotic relationship between a fully-automated greenhouse and single orchid flower housed within it. Using the Internet, real-time data is collected from a weather station in the orchid’s native habitat. This weather information is then used by a control system to create a simulation of these natural environmental conditions within the greenhouse.

Within this system, the roles traditionally associated to nature and machine are reversed. The plant is reduced to an industrial element defined by its production and consumption of various resources, while the machine is trusted with the role of caregiver to the life form housed within it. The calm and meditative state present within the greenhouse juxtaposes with the complex and dynamic interactions captured by the sensors and interpreted by the control system.