Monday, February 18, 2008

Hylozoic soil - mechanical earth.

Philip Beesley's “Hylozoic Soil” in Montreal – this stuff is unbelievable. I found it during my portfolio binge and didn’t have the energy to report it to all my devoted readers (hi mom!) but it relates to a project I was developing for my portfolio that didn’t make it in… Hylozoic Soil reacts to human presence, like some renaissance garden folly/fantasy, the very earth comes alive to meet your needs.
The prototype seems reacts to human presence, it seems designed to amaze and possibly terrify - it tries to touch you. !

what hylozoic means.


2 comments:

Kelley Carey MacDonald said...

Wait... are those big white stringy things SOIL? Well, I do believe in this theory that everything is connected, but soil that 'wants' to be near me is a l-i-t-t-l-e creepy, no?

Very, very cool.

conor said...

haha yeah, the white things are just an example - the idea is that something like that would be integrated into the ground & it wouldn't so much touch you as extend across a gap or form itself into stairs. I admit, as a demonstration of the idea, it's not perfectly clear...