Plantfluencer Gazing

‘The network’ has become a defining concept of our epoch. – Wendy Chun

How to build up a symbiotic relationship with evolving entities constituted of information patterns? Is decentralization can only an illusion in terms of existing infrastructure?

In this project, I dove deep into the fields of the Internet and gathered the most popular hashtags of instagrammable plants through algorithms to explore connectivity and collectivity. With WebVR and sonification programs, I sonified a series of latent videos to demonstrate the evolving connectivity of planfulencier on social media, creating a hybrid environment that links physical and virtual entities, public and private spaces, and digital and analogous experiences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made people more eager to build up the ideal home life when social interactions are constrained. Still, is there a normalized commonality for such a spectacle beyond the limits of time and space? Particular species from predominantly and various subtropical origins, for instance, Monstera Deliciosa, have become symbols of certain lifestyles. They can stay invisible within contemporary indoor environments while being eye-catching on social media worldwide. It parallels that connectivity is an exotic term and represents homophily with digitality.

We simultaneously see others and ourselves when scrolling down newsfeeds on pervasive screens, creating an imaginary network that emphasizes the concept of “similarity breeds connection.” There are no accidents and slips of the tongue in big data. Every action reveals a larger allegedly unconscious pattern. This project discloses how humans, nonhumans, and technical devices co-constituted each other In a flattened ontology established through the gaze of algorithms.

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