I wanted to showcase the usefulness of dandelions, which most consider pesty weeds. Many people value the aesthetic of their gardens to the point of spraying harmful chemicals on these gentle yellow flowers! These little “weeds” actually have so much to offer. Although the flowers themselves are nice to look at, they have other great qualities- such as providing nectar and pollen for bees and other insects, being a coffee substitute, great cooking ingredients, and great for herbal medicine.
The input controller will be made with conductive paint and may have a nature aspect such as a field of flowers for pressing different flowers or grass(still deciding). The structure itself will look like a dandelion, with green wires trying to emulate the stems.
As an output, I plan to highlight the lifecycle of the plant, as it grows and then spreads its seeds around. The seeds in this case will morph into uses for the plant, almost like planing new “seeds'(ideas). The soundtrack I was thinking of incorporating is from Studio Ghibli. The instrumental in “The Flower Garden” is beautiful, or maybe “Castle in the Sky”.
To interact with the piece, there will be a conductive drawing a user can press to activate the dandelion.
Artist Question: Does making the seeds morph into new “ideas planted” add harmony to the piece? or instead confusion?
To answer your question, I think the idea makes sense it retrospect, but I’m not sure I would have figured it out on my own. I would be more likely to understand it if the seeds all became dandelions, then morphed into new “ideas”.
I think the idea is a little confusing with your current input plan. However, what if you were able to show off a dandelion through its stages physically? (Seed, Bud, Flower, White-Fluffy flower), and each one of those plays an animation talking about the uses of dandelions? Maybe it could even be as specific as how the dandelion can be used in that stage- for example, touching the seed will show you the uses of dandelion seeds- if that is something that is feasible.
I echo Nathan – if each seed turned into a flower and then the use was shown, this could be effective as well. But if you want to directly have them morph into uses of the dandelion, I think that could be effective as well. If the physical piece looks enough like a dandelion, I think that the digital portion could work with your original idea.
I think the way you have the seeds morph into the ideas makes sense. I would be curious though if you could make the interactive piece 3D, almost like a felt bouquet. Instead, the stems would still be wire and maybe the petals and leaves could be the interactive components.
This might be a little far from your original idea, but I wonder if there is a way to play with the idea of the dandelion seeds coming off of the dandelion and having that be the trigger for animations instead of pressing. Have loose pieces that could be removed, so the animation could be a way of saying, “Wait! You don’t have to get rid of/waste the dandelion you just picked, you can do [x] thing with it instead!”
Seeing the seeds morph into these different outputs works really well. If anything, as a user, I’d want to see a couple of different steps for each end result to make the process more fluid.
I agree with Hannah, it may be a little less confusing if you split up the stages of the dandelion’s life and go through the animations from there.
I think if you show the seeds being applied to more useful things, then it may be less confusing than them literally transforming into the more useful things.
Also, I love Studio Ghibli films!
I really enjoyed the idea you had for the dandelions, and I think this could be a really calming and interesting piece of interactivity. What emotions do you want the painting to invoke?