Unrooted is an interactive installation that explores the meaning of rootedness and belonging in a time shaped by mobility, digital interconnection, and fluid identities. It creates a sensory space where visitors can reflect on what it means to feel grounded—emotionally, socially, and physically.
The work emerges from the tension between connection and displacement: the experience of belonging everywhere and nowhere at once. It asks a central question: how do we root ourselves in motion? Here, rootedness is not a fixed attachment to place, but an evolving process shaped through interaction, presence, and shared experience.
At the core of the installation is a participatory process. Participants respond to questions about their sense of belonging, and their answers are translated into parametric designs. These designs generate custom molds in which seeds—cat grass and barley—are grown over time. As the roots develop, they follow these encoded paths, forming organic structures shaped by personal narratives.
Once returned, the individual pieces are assembled into a larger textile-like surface: a quilt of interconnected root systems. This collective “root blanket” becomes the central element of the exhibition, where each contribution remains distinct while forming part of a shared whole.
Visitors can interact with the installation through proximity and touch. A sensor activates a projection recorded during the root growth process. Growth occurs only through presence, emphasizing connection as something that requires attention and care.
By merging biological growth, digital fabrication, and collective participation, Unrooted reimagines belonging as dynamic, relational, and continuously formed.
Final Project | #biomaterials #parametric design #electronics.