Sammendrag
This thesis is an attempt to bridge art, design and science around environmental concerns through the lens of two artistic projects including Augmented Plastic Air and Everyone Speaks. As such my multimedia Masters project explores the questions surrounding how humans perceive, feel, interact, relate to, and communicate with their socio-natural surroundings, and what environmental imaginaries these interactions produce. Through a speculative design methodology combined with scientific and artistic research, I first pay attention to the invisible property of microplastics – the presence of which in the environment threatens humans and nonhumans alike which we are only beginning to understand – and follow their trace. Looking closely at making visible the invisible brings me to the second project which is about our relationship to the living world. Everyone Speaks tries to imagine alternative ways of communicating with nonhumans, starting with my house plants. While the former deals with how we live with the dangers of the Anthropocene, the latter offers hope.