THE SELFIE PLANT | Object Oriented Homes , A plant that socialises with humans | Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design 2015
A selfie can be defined as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically shared via social network“.
In recent times, the selfie culture has risen in popularity, but it has also raised a few questions. Whether the Selfie culture helps to build self-esteem or does it force us for self-obsession? Is it an expression for admiration or is it to achieve a sense of self, place and community?
What if nature gets addicted to this selfie culture and expresses itself. If it could record moments like blooming of a flower or a new leaf, and then share these moments on the social network. What if this expression could draw people’s attention and invite participation. How would people react if a normal plant starts to interact with their social lives.
The Selfie Plant is an attempt to provoke some thoughts in the above genre of expression. The Selfie Plant expresses itself in the form of a nice-looking selfies, which it clicks according to its mood, weather or occasion. It mimics human behaviour, by giving it’s best pose and adjusting the camera angle to take the perfect selfie. Undoubtedly, the plant posts these photos on social network via it’s Facebook profile.
Possibly in a future scenario, the plant can become autonomous and not be owned by an individual, but shared within a community. Everyone would take care of the plant in turns. With its unique social behaviour the plant might be able to draw public attention and would act as a bridge between humans and nature.
The plant is powered by Arduino Yun, which controls the servo motors and adjust the positions of the plant and the camera stick. A python script communicates with Facebook’s graph API to post the captured photos on plant’s Facebook profile.