Grow: Experiencing Nature in the Fifth Dimension

Abstract

Grow: Experiencing Nature in the Fifth Dimension, is an interdisciplinary practice-led research project traversing the realms of art, science and technology through the exploration of germinating seeds. Through my investigation of the aesthetic possibilities of the computational extension of vision with time-resolved (4D) micro-X-ray Computed Tomography, I have tested the potential for visualising virtual germinating seeds in an immersive stereoscopic installation. Using this technology I have set out to create a work of art where an audience can experience seed growth from a very different perspective. However, the rationale to propagate seeds in this way began not just to test the limitations and possibilities of this technology. As an artistic inquiry, my premise for focusing on plant life also began as a way to examine this work from an ecological perspective. By considering the third and fourth dimensional elements in this project I am proposing that an individual’s experience of nature in my work can be considered as an additional ‘fifth dimension’. My research is placed within a range of disciplines from contemporary art and new media practices to scientific technological research and the natural sciences. The works of art developed through this research have been viewed in relation to ideas of the fourth dimension in modern art, to microscopy in both historical and contemporary art practice, to contemporary installation practices, and in relation to ideas of time and wonder. My experience of meeting the Seed Morphologist Dr Wolfgang Stuppy and staying at the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, West Sussex in the UK has also been a point of reflection. The seed becomes a visual analogy for ideas of time, growth and renewal in the context of issues of creating art in the time of the Anthropocene. This exegesis explores the multi-dimensional properties of my research in the wider context of art, science and philosophy.