GROWING is an interactive sculpture art piece created to help visualize collective action, meaning work done by many hands towards a common goal. So much of the world around us functions because of the conscious and unconscious collective efforts of many people, animals, plants, and other systems working together, yet it’s something we humans have difficulty visualizing. By substantiating this collective action, GROWING inspires participants to look for positive group opportunities in their own lives and to appreciate the value of overlooked opportunities they may already be a part of.

In GROWING participants are presented with plants that have grown because of their own efforts alongside the efforts of the many people before and after them. The piece periodically asks participants to water one of its many plant pods, taking a photo of its plants once they have been watered. These photos are immediately added to an ever-building timelapse that illustrates previous participants’ waterings and the plants’ growth up to this point. Through this timelapse participants see how the efforts of the folks before them helped the plants they see in person live and grow to where they are now and feel that they have added their contribution to that effort. The first version of GROWING further reinforced this idea by individually highlighting each person’s contribution such that participant could revisit the timelapse later on and see their watering among the many that came afterwards as well.

The first version of GROWING also featured a plastic pod where participants would be asked a questions such as “How many disposable plastic containers did you use today?”. In order to answer participants would place a single plastic pellet for each plastic container in an initially empty bowl in center of the pod. In the same way that the plant pods would capture the plants’ growth through participation the plastic pods would capture the growing pile of plastic after each person added their own. In this way participants were made to visualize and face a negative collective action and consider their participation in it.

GROWING physically takes the form of the tree stump of a giant fallen tree that appears to have new life growing on it. It is built almost entirely of reclaimed wood, old street lamps, and some old and new electronics. GROWING was made in collaboration with Keigo Fukugaki as part of the Rethink Haizai 2024 initiative. It first showed outdoors in the pedestrian walkways of Odaiba near Big Sight. It then was a part of the Well-Being for Human & Nature exhibition in the SusHi Tech Square near Tokyo Station where it was further adapted to having participants relax, take a load off, read, etc. while being in intimate proximity with the growing plants.

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