Wildflower
Ex-voto
 Category: object
Domain: spirituality, ecology
Material: water-soluble organic material, 
mix of wildflower seeds and vermiculite
Application: directly to the soil 
the object

 Wildflower is an object that investigates the concept of devotion at times that are better described as “spiritual, but not religious”, while also addressing a concrete problem of the extinction of wildflower fields and its destruction or damage through human mistreatment. Inspired by an ex-voto, a votive offering to a saint or a divinity, this object is the result of reflections on design that is capable of promoting a healthy and reverent attitude towards nature through a symbolic act of devotion that does not rely, however, on any religious belief, and is based on a conscious understanding of how nature provides us home, favourable conditions, and also unpredictable events.
the problem

 The problem is revealed in the observation of a behavioural paradox, where the same self-proclaimed eco-conscious individuals and mindfulness enthusiasts manifest a profound ignorance about the subject with documented acts of violence against the natural ecosystems. With the arrival of spring, hundreds of visitors flock to the wildflower hotspots from Umbria to California, with the only goal of producing an “Instagram-perfect” image, while stepping in the fields, plucking the flowers and mindlessly threatening the local ecosystem with ever less available natural habitats to many living species. This attention-seeking and destructive behavior induced by “social media experience” may reveal a deeper problem, such as unavailability or uneasy access to relevant knowledge, on the one hand, and the lack of a deeper spiritual experience capable of providing a sense of fulfilment and connection to the bigger world.



The object is designed with dissolvable organic materials in mind, that can be directly applied to the soil. With sufficient watering, the cover dissolves, releasing the seeds and nutrients. The size of the object may vary depending on the application. The proposed variant is specifically suited for home or private gardening. The wildflower spot design suggests a possibility of respectful co-living with the ecosystem that also provides an intimate space for self-reflection, mediation, and why not, an Instagram-perfect image with no harm to other species.



the theory

The vision is based on the Gaia theory and systemic approach that provide a worldview with a set of interdependencies and principles from which a new, objective (as experienced equally by all participants) ethics and spirituality can be derived without reliance on the existence of the supernatural. 
This worldview is based on the conception of life as an emergent property within a system of interdependent elements that at the same time create and rely on the shared environment, as in the theory suggested by James Lovelock in the early 1970s. To quote Lovelock (1995): “Living organisms and their material environment are tightly coupled. The coupled system is a superorganism, and as it evolves there emerges a new property, the ability to self-regulate climate and chemistry.”
The concept of interdependency can be illustrated through the ecosystem of a wildflower itself:
  1. Green plants, algae, and many bacteria make photosynthesis: they capture water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and transform them into carbohydrates and oxygen (O2) using sunlight energy. 
  2. The root system of a plant interacts with the soil and its microbial communities by changing the physico-chemical properties of the soil and improving the availability and mobility of certain nutrients. They can also influence the diversity of microorganisms able to interact with the plant. A group of chemical compounds secreted by the plant into the soil stimulate the germination of spores of a phylum of fungi, while the molecules produced by the fungus in turn promote the initiation of root processes that allow the establishment of a symbiosis between the plant and the fungus. By improving water and nutrient acquisition by roots, beneficial soil microorganisms contribute to better plant growth, which can translate into better agronomic crop yields.
  3. Nectar, the sugary liquid secreted by flowers, is a primary energy source for pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, which, in return, enables pollination by carrying seeds and pollen and providing fertilization and subsequent seed production. Insects and other terrestrial arthropods comprise the world’s most diverse group of animals. With an estimated 5.5 million species, they are critically important to most of the world’s environments. 

The life of a plant, thus, is not an isolated and meaningless event, but a continuous process embedded in a delicate, self-regulating system of interdependent elements.



the natural balance

 Spiritual reading here can be found in the idea of a natural balance and the things that we – as active participants – set in motion. When a 100-year-old oak tree dies it is preyed upon by insects and molds that “feed” on lignin. After a few years, all the wood will have been decomposed by breathing organisms, whose breathing will absorb the same amount of oxygen (O2) released by the tree during its lifetime, and in turn, will release the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that this oak had absorbed to make its mass of wood. The total balance is returned to zero, where zero, in this reading, is not nothingness, but a result of a complete cycle where enough varied forces antagonize and complement each other to balance out the final result. When the smallest part goes missing, or the contrary - in excess, the whole system shifts to stabilize a new configuration for the balance in some way, often with painful and long-lasting intermediate states.

This concept also asks to recognize that although in possession of consciousness and free will, humans are equally subject to the effects of these shifts, where every emergent behaviour is a reaction to something either missing or being in excess.


Ref: 
National Geographic on wildflowers 
on the ecosystem of the roots
on the problem in Umbria and California
on the Biosphere and the concept of zero balance
on the Gaia hypothesis

Reading:
The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision
Book by 
Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi



RO