Nature Cognita is an R&D project that integrates biological and digital ecosystems. In partnership with the Sovereign Nature Initiative Nature Cognita team, build installations that turn nature into a digital artist.

The project started as a series of science-art installations where plants in special ceramic pots were turned into batteries. One Nature Cognita installation produces enough electricity to power simple environmental sensors. This allows to harvest information about the plants' microclimate like temperature and moisture on different levels.

As a partner of Nature Cognita, we developed an algorithm that turned data collected from environmental sensors into an abstract 3D-model. For each new portion of the sensing data harvested by a human or by the plant itself — we call it "digital pollination" — an abstract 3D-model is generated.

Nature Cognita 2.0 series is a collection of abstract 3D-models of plants generated from harvested data. The algorithm communicates layers of information into a visual and spatial representation of the real plant. The artworks display the states of existence of digital plant through its morphings according to the sensor’s data variations. The acrylic prints are accompanied by an AR layer showing the digital model of each plant.

To learn more about the project, please go to: https://cognita.dev/