A campaign to help human beings better connect to nature and start thinking more holistically about their relationship with other beings.
A campaign to help human beings better connect to nature and start thinking more holistically about their relationship with other beings.
To ‘Think Like A Tree’ is an explorative activity to better understand the way trees exist alongside other beings, support symbiotic relationships, and how as humans we can experience and learn from them.
Human beings are becoming increasingly disconnected from nature. How might humans reconnect with local green spaces?
Double diamonds, RIDL, messy squiggles. Few design processes seem to capture the free flowing nature of creative exploration.
This project went on a wonderful journey of creative endeavour, exploring multiple mediums, challenging design conventions and questioning the way designers respond to design briefs.
Similar to the life of a jellyfish, this design process is made up of investigation, exploration and resurgence.
In response to the deep disconnection outlined by RSPB in the State of Nature report, I investigated several limiting factors that prevent humans from connecting with local green spaces.
To gather a wide range of initial ideas, brainstorming and evergreen note taking was used. Brainstorming was helpful for serendipitous thought journeys, whereas evergreen note taking was useful to link the thinking from research and ideation. These ideas were evaluated in response to impact and speculation.
An audio sanctuary that highlights and isolates individual bird song to inform a better understanding of bird ecology.
A way for humans to connected their senses to a tree and understand how a tree interacts with its environment.
What happens when humans cause the extinction of crucial species? Here, humans take the role of animals they’ve pushed to extinction.
Physically connecting to trees and local woodland was explored in greater depth, as an investigation into how human senses could better understand the ecology of trees. A sci-fi fungus helmet and projected light show ended up creating over-defined experiences, an inherent problem of designed objects.
Eventually, a more imaginative response was employed, where humans engage in a thought process, taking the time to better understand how a tree is connected with its environment.
To start tackling environmental problems such as the biodiversity crisis, ocean and atmospheric pollution, we should start thinking like trees. Trees care for the overall health of an ecosystem, where biodiversity matters for survival. Trees can teach us how to be regenerative, how to embrace inter-species relationships, how to create environments for living organisms to flourish. Most importantly they provide valuable insights on how to rewild our planet.
This project respects a planetary first mindset, which highlights the beauty and experience of existing alongside the living. When an activity or experience is defined by the ecology of a place, the designers intention of the activity should not interfere. The following user experience journey map is intentionally open and interpretive, organic and free flowing. Undefined, it lets nature and the living decide on the flow of experience and understanding.
A campaign to help human beings better connect to nature and start thinking more holistically about their relationship with other beings. The campaign consists of a street mural, short film and posters.
Street art designed to demonstrate the mycorrhizal networks that support multi-species relationships.
A short film exploring how humans might begin to think like trees.
Poster boards designed for hopeful protests.
Winner of the UoB Product Design Ambitious Project Award 2021.
