vegetal/digital

Alison Bennett (2022), ‘vegetal/digital’, photogrammetry point-clouds. Gestural interactive “Arising out of the heightened sensory perceptions of extended lock-down, this creative investigation began with contemplation of flowering street-trees. Through 262 days of lock-down, residents of Melbourne retreated to the hyper-local, often reinforced by a 5-kilometer travel bubble and a one-hour daily time-limit outdoors. The sublime ephemeral springtime flowers of street-trees were amplified by the extreme sensory and social constraints of social distancing. Drawing us into a suspended moment of slow encounter, we attuned to the contained glowing pulse of plants.” Artist Alison Bennett has rendered Australian native flowers as celestial encounters in the form of 3D point-clouds that coalesce and dissolve. Using a gesture-controlled interface, they have installed this innovative interactive screenwork as a room-scale data-projection, along with sublime large-scale prints of each plant model. Bennett has brought together an innovative combination of processes to create awe-inspiring real-time embodied interaction with the 3D point-clouds of Australian flowers. The use of a gesture-controlled sensor creates the impression that the work literally turns towards the viewer. This mirrors Bennett’s perception that, just as they attuned to plants, the plants were also turning toward us. The interaction design encourages the viewer to slow down and attune to the pulse of plants and computers, inducing an almost meditative state of mind. alisonbennett.net/vegetal-digital