Customized Biorhythm

2021

Dimension: 26'' x 28'' x 55''
Medium: acrylic, aluminum, neodymium, PLA, PET, motors, electronics

"The way a society deals with its plants tells us a lot about itself." — Lois Weinberger
Customized Biorhythm envisions a world where human intervention and technological innovations challenge or subvert conventional processes and natural laws. In this vision, faced with environmental degradation and poverty, humans opt to redesign flora and fauna as a solution.

This historical backdrop gives rise to a new ecosystem era dubbed “Generinature,” where a national biological center cultivates eight different tiers of plants, classified by the extent of human intervention they receive. Plants with minimal intervention are respected more for their rights to life and self-making-becoming generation, thus becoming more precious and rare.

These eight types of plants include:

Natural Plants: Those growing without human interference, seeding naturally.
Cultivated Plants: Grown through human sowing and cultivation.
Controlled Plants: Grown under strict human-controlled conditions.
Digital Plants: Plant information carried in digital form without a physical presence.
Virtual Plants: Plants with a visual appearance observable on digital platforms.
Genetically Edited Plants: Plants produced through genetic editing, with special/enhanced functions, variety changes, or hybrid forms.
Pseudo-Plants: Plants that have lost their natural appearance but retain core plant characteristics, usually made from artificial materials.
Intelligent Plants: Plants with subjective consciousness and learning abilities.

Customized Biorhythm focuses on the research of “controlled plants,” whose biorhythms have been reprogrammed through scientific methods. Researchers endow these plants with new growth patterns that no longer follow the natural diurnal cycle but instead grow and mature rapidly according to a set schedule. This artificial intervention results in the death of plants that cannot adapt to the new rhythms, leaving only well-domesticated varieties.

In this new era, researchers, like modern-day wizards, use environmental factors such as light and temperature to domesticate plants and reset their biological rhythms. “Customized Biorhythm” introduces lunar cycles and diurnal changes to regulate plants, such as basil, which completes its entire growth process within the 27.32-day lunar cycle. This practice is based on plants’ genetic responses to daily environmental changes, utilizing key metabolic pathways in the plant lifecycle.

These pathways are highly sensitive to the intensity, quality, and cycle of light, ensuring that the plants’ metabolic activities are synchronized with the artificially created environmental conditions. Through this method, light-domesticated plants align their internal biological clocks with the external environment.

Red and blue spotlights simulate the moon’s luminous surface, with their positions and sequence designed to mimic the phases of the moon. Viewed from above, this arrangement resembles the moon’s current real-time status. Adjacent equipment includes a windmill-shaped “time wheel” that starts at 6 a.m., lighting up a strip of lights every hour until 5 p.m. when all are lit. From 6 p.m., the entire system shuts down until 6 a.m. the next day. Additionally, a U-shaped tube containing 600 ml of nutrient solution, sealed at both ends with nanoporous plastic to allow light penetration while enabling air exchange.

Seeds are wrapped in rockwool and placed within a transparent sleeve to ensure continuous nutrient supply and prevent issues related to continuous cropping. As the rockwool absorbs the nutrient solution, the solution level gradually decreases, and the hydroponic system’s nutrient solution does not need replacement within a growth cycle. When someone walks by, the equipment emits a rustling rain sound, with vibrations induced by human activity transmitted through plant cells.