Botanical Bodies
Botanical bodies investigates the possibility to use plants
as a raw material for the creation of human compatible organs. Vegetal and
human tissues share microscopic similarities making hybridation between those
two kingdoms, which are usually seen as separated, a possibility. What if the physical body could progressively merge with the vegetal world? What happens if we consider our body not as an independent set of organ, but as an organism constantly evolving toward a symbiosis with plants?
Bringing recent scientific research to a speculative level, this project investigates new ways to use the shaping powers of nature, thanks to which a poplar tree can be modified to the point of replacing an actual human bone.
From the extraction of the bespoke bones from the transplantation, boundaries between disconnected organisms fade away toward a new synergy.
Wood and human bones share microscopic similarities, which makes wood an excellent candidate for the creation of artificial bones. What if the transplantation of poplar bones would lead to a blend between the identity of the plant and the one of the receiver? An hybridation between humans and tree, man kind slowly merging back to the vegetal kingdom.
Bones are the organs approaching the most vegetal characteristics : slowly renewing, they could be the first vector for this man-plant symbiosis.
Being able to extract bones and more generally organs out of plants would lead to a commodification of bones : where transplantation is not reserved anymore for fixing issues, but as a way to achieve a desired synergy with the vegetal kingdom.
Decellularization is a technique used to treat plants before they could be used as scaffolds for the growth of human cell lines. Leaving only the cell walls made of pectine and cellulose, the decellularization process makes the plants transparent and opens the door for a new kind of hybridation : the spinach becomes the support for human cells, a bit less plant and more human.