The Pet Project

Aristotle divided all living things between plants and animals. However, he never expected one day these living things will merge. In fact, with the breakthrough in genetic and nanotechnology all organic and inorganic creatures are merging. We are now living in a cybernetic world that technologies have made possible marriage between all sorts of odd relationships. There is literally no clear definition for living or non-living things anymore, the best example is the whole living virtual world behind the electronic skin. Traditional structure of classifying living things has collapsed, and being replaced by a more complicated system that no longer identifies individual or creature in a single category. Crossbreeds or hybrids are the new majority and human is facing a great challenge in avoiding creating any irresponsible or careless outcomes that are undesirable. Therefore, the new disciplines and parameters of designing for the new world would be as important as the ethical issue while manipulating these technologies.

However, the hybrid also opens up new possibilities to solving the world crisis that human are facing in Anthropocene age - global warming. In this proposal, I am looking at the extreme accelerating human population growth as one of the pros and cons in global warming after industrial revolution. The thought of "tree for life" is being adopted and a new "tree" has been invented, by turning a plant/tree into a pet/companion for human. By assuming a one to one human:tree ratio as an ideal scenario for reducing CO2 and cleansing the air pollution, it also shows some bright side in tackling the global warming in the next 50 years. Of course, it is only one of the many changes that human need to make in sustaining the human history on earth.
A new pet is being introduced to future kids as their lifetime companion, a genetic mortified plant that shares the childhood memories and grows with a human being, while being shaped and nurtured into a matured furniture (or other object) that takes sunlight and CO2 as its fuel (autotrophic) while also being fed with human love and synthetic nutrient.

With hydroponics and aeroponics method as its fundamental, a walking plant with controlled size root in a nutrient container that works like a human stomach that provides sufficient nutrition for the plant to grow into a self-sustained creature. As it was nurtured by a master, its senses react particularly to the master's voice, touch, smell, emotions and needs.