This video gives an overview of the The IndaPlant Project: An Act of Trans-Species Giving and ends by following the current community of three floraborgs, a term coined by the project’s creators for an entity that is part-plant and part-robot, on their daily rounds in the Engineering Department at Rutgers University. This art and science collaboration was created by Professor Elizabeth Demaray, Department of Fine Art, Rutgers University, Camden, and Dr. Qingze Zou, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Rutgars University,
New Brunswick. Project updates can be followed at: elizbethdemaray.org
This artwork is currently housed in the Engineering Department at Rutgers, where the floraborgs have become part of the daily routine. When Dr. Zou’s comes to work in the morning he is greeted by the three IndaPlants, which jostle with one another to exit his office in search of sun in the adjacent hallway. When an IndaPlant is thirsty, a moisture sensor sends a signal through the unit’s central processor which may decide that its plant species needs water. If so, the unit will locate a water dispenser in the hallway, via an inferred sensor. If a floraborg is in the immediate vicinity of the watering station, passer-buys are invited to give the plant a drink.