In Vena Verbum
In collaboration with Center for BioSystem Genomics
Tiddo Bakker with Henk Jalink & Rob van der Schoor
Message in a vein
In Vena Verbum (‘Message in a vein’) aims to make people aware of the fact that plants are more than simply static, decorative objects. Tiddo Bakker and the Center for BioSystem Genomics will reveal to us the hidden world of plants by developing a medium that measures the activity of the chloroplast, thereby revealing how the plant responds continuously to its environment. This medium as it were gives the plant a voice.
Quite unbeknownst to many of us, plants respond continuously to their environment. They respond to the quantity of light, the temperature, the CO2 content in the air, to nutrients and the water in the soil. Although we are responsible for the wellbeing of our plants – and even though we are able to measure their response – we rarely see how plants actually react to us. The Center for BioSystem Genomics has the technological capability to produce a measuring device that will make plant responses visible.
By developing a device that reveals the reactions of the plant, ‘In Vena Verbum’ aims to introduce people to this remarkable world. Designer Tiddo Bakker hopes to establish a new link between man and nature through this symbiosis of nature and technology, thereby giving people a greater insight into their environment and what their actions mean for the world around them. ‘In Vena Verbum’ will bring people into closer contact with the world, by enabling them to experience just how sensitive nature truly is.