Just as we interact with natural elements in the physical world, I envision a metaverse where we can engage with virtual, technology-driven elements of nature. This would transcend the stereotype of the metaverse as a purely commercial space for transactions, transforming it into a realm where we can live, interact, and have experiences that enhance our quality of life and our relationship with the natural world.
Gan'Eden is a project that features an encyclopedic collection of self-generated plants, the product of advanced machine learning techniques. It is a digital archive composed of botanical cards with infographics describing digitally native nature, also available as collectible cards. Each plant, in this case flowers, represents a unique and unrepeatable digital asset like an NFT, contextualized in one of the metaverses of the contemporary digital age.
How can designers today become mediators between humans and nature, demonstrating the value of new technologies as allies? Through curious experimentation and conscious, respectful use of the new tools that will inevitably continue to be part of our daily lives. The freedom achieved in the Web of Things, the absence of blockchain intermediaries, and increasingly powerful software: these innovations should stir the interest of designers, making them active interpreters of an increasingly virtual reality in which we are losing touch with tangible nature.
I believe that we can reconnect with nature by exploring the promising possibilities of new technologies that emphasize empathy-driven experiences, stimulate creative vision, and ensure continuous interconnection.
The project stems from an experimental process that culminates in the creation of a digital container and a printed product. A collection of plants for the metaverse, the fruit of technology. Using GAN networks (one of the latest frontiers of machine learning), the machine reinterprets a dataset of real plants to populate the virtual parallel universe and thus create a digital garden where it is possible to discover a new form of nature, free from the constraints of the real, extravagant, digitally native. The resulting imagery is a speculative nature that brings renewed interest to the concrete natural element.
In light of the experimentation, I firmly believe in the potential of new technologies, as long as they are subject to proper governance.
