Interventions
PlantBot & PollinatorBot Workshops use friendly animatronics and recycled materials to create whimsical robot-plant hybrids and interactive public events that support ecological literacy.
Workshop Description
Problem: Our pollinators are in decline, and we no longer know the actual price of our food. Our food distribution systems are so complicated and muddled that it is unrealistic to ask consumers to make responsible choices based on the knowledge at hand. Realizing transparency in food production is necessary, how can we begin a discussion?
Solution: PlantBots & PollinatorBots encourage people to think about their food, how it is produced, where it comes from, and where it may be going when we take our remote control robotic plants to the streets. The goal is to get people to question their food and how it reaches their plates. An out-of-gallery or museum art experience is unexpected and can be more memorable while attracting a wider audience. Our street tactics bring art and STEM education into a community despite the level of support for art, technology, and food transparency in that location.
To further engage the public, we encourage communities to participate in PlantBot Building Workshops that cumulate in an intervention or PlantBot Invasion. Such events teach participants to hack recycled animatronics and turn them into a PlantBot that could correspond to the environment specific to the site. Once the PlantBot and its unique story are contextualized, participants don a lab coat and take their sculptures to the streets or community location. The newly created PlantBots are released to make a humorous and interactive PlantBot Invasion that each community member becomes part of to encourage further discussion.
PlantBot Genetics provides all materials necessary for the workshop, including animatronics and foliage. Workshops can transpire in a studio or class situation or be made into a performance or happening. PlantBots become the property of each workshop participant, or there can be an associated exhibition and even donated back to the laboratory. Contact Jschmuki(at)gmail.com or wdeschene(at)hotmail.com to arrange a future PlantBot Workshop in your community.
Images on the right represent various Plantbot workshops and interventions in partnership with community members.
Grand Rapids, MI
Young community member looking at electronic parts during a PlantBot demonstration and workshop at Columbus State GA.
Savannah, GA
Student posing the PlantBot she created at a weeklong workshop at Statesboro University in Georgia.
Gatlinburg, TN.
Sam Houston workshop participants posing with the PlantBots they made during their weeklong workshop.
SUNY Geneseo NY workshop participants working on their PlantBots.
Young girl works on a drawing of a Plantbot.
University students inspecting a PlantBot during a public intervention at Statesboro University.
Student PlantBots created at a weeklong workshop at Sam Houston University in Texas.
Advanced sculpture students working on their PlantBots during a workshop at Statesboro University.
SUNY Geneseo NY workshop participants documenting their PlantBots during a public intervention on their campus.
University students inspecting a PlantBot during a public intervention at Statesboro University.
Participants pose for a group photo at the workshop in Statesboro University
Young community member looking at electronic parts during a PlantBot demonstration and workshop at Columbus State GA.