type
Mixed media installation (living plant, electronics, realtime TikTok interaction)
year
2024
concept
The project explores the relationship between users and social media platforms based on endless scrolling and algorithmic content tailoring. This relationship is described as a form of symbiosis between user and technology, where each continuously influences the other.
While the algorithm adjusts the stream of videos according to the user’s behavioural feedback, the constant flow of stimuli triggers dopamine release, keeping the user engaged and reinforcing habitual scrolling.
description
To metaphorically represent this dynamic, the installation shifts the user–algorithm dialogue to another living organism: a plant. Equipped with sensors that detect variations in its bioelectrical signals, the plant becomes the active agent generating feedback to the app.
A small device placed in front of a smartphone mechanically scrolls and likes videos on the TikTok “For You” page. As the interaction continues, the algorithm gradually adapts the content based on the signals produced by the plant.
In biology, symbiosis defines relationships between organisms of different species, often mutually beneficial and co-evolutionary. The interaction between user and social media mirrors this reciprocity: both systems adapt in response to one another.
Within the project, the algorithm is personified as the technological counterpart in this exchange — a computational entity adapting autonomously to the feedback it receives.
The work is part of a broader research path exploring the entanglement between humans, technologies, and natural agents. A second phase is currently being developed, focusing on mapping the plant–algorithm interaction through an analysis of the content generated and proposed over time.
exhibitions
Elektron Festival 2024 (LU)
Ars Electronica Festival 2024 (AT)
DA Fest 2025 (BG)