Bits and Blooms - An E-Waste Garden

Bits and Blooms

Introducing “Bits & Blooms”, an interactive art piece challenging the intrusion of disposable technology into the realm of nature. With CDs mimicking flowers and old landline phones taking the form of rocky terrain, it asks the viewer the age-old question of whether or not our digital age has invaded too much of the natural spaces around us.

Video Walkthrough

Project Statement

In this current generation, we see more and more new forms of technology appear each day, alongside the decline of nature. E-waste dumps overflowing with trash are no rare sight to see, with no sign of the steady growth decreasing.

Project Purpose

We aim to bring awareness to how the line separating nature and technology is slowly starting to diminish bit by bit, alongside promoting the idea of repurposing old electronic items instead of just throwing them away.

Idea & Concept

Our interactive piece, “Bits & Blooms” challenges the intrusion of disposable technology into the realm of nature. The piece prompts the viewer to contemplate whether our digital age has encroached upon the serene spaces of nature. How dull have our senses become at differentiating the both?

"Bits and Blooms" induces reflection on technology's impact on nature, urging second chances for e-waste, fostering a harmonious coexistence between both technology and nature.

With E-waste as our main source of material, we broke apart common household items such as landline phones, TVs and CDs (all recycled, of course) and used their building blocks as the foundation for our piece.

Project Timeline

Visual Sketches

To help us better visualize the composition and overall look of the installation, we created various sketches.

Layout Plan & Design

Design Components

Mushroom

Materials: Buttons

- Sticking them onto the foam balls to create a bumpy appearance

Materials: Silicon rubber keypad

- Cutting them into pieces and layering them

Materials: Phones’ cords

- Turning them into braids and using them as decoration pieces

Flowers

Materials: Ribbon wire

- Folded into small pieces and stuck together

Materials: Phone cords

- Curled them to resemble doodle style flowers

Materials: CD

- Melting CDs and bending edges to form petals

- Laser cut CDs and blowing petals to stick together

Crystals

Materials: Circuit boards

- Break the circuit board and stuck them together

TV

Materials: Circuit boards + Old TV

- Settling layers of circuit boards inside the TV frame

Sections

Piano

Mainly using Arduino, our main forms of interactivity include:

LEDs surrounding the CD flowers that change from a simple, yellow glow to interweaving purple and yellow light runs whenever a person approaches the site.

A seemingly broken TV in the middle with light beaming through layers of circuit boards with a simple click of a button.

A piano covered with CD flowers and crystals made of circuit boards that glow like gems whenever the keys are pressed down, hauntingly beautiful notes accompanying it.

Wiring

Exhibition Set-up

There were a few unexpected circumstances that popped up, so we didn't exactly follow the original plan. Instead of drilling them into walls, we managed to have them suspended from metal rods and bars using metal wires and hooks.

Best Pictures

Introducing, Team GluGlu!

We are a group of six artists exploring expression through feeling and flow :)

Thanks for reading!