Ishan Bidaye

The Living Sun

Life in urban and city centres can alienate us physically and emotionally from the natural world. For many of us, living in a city means little or no access to the natural world and green spaces and our daily interactions with the natural world reduced to a few fleeting moments. We become alienated from the non-human worlds and ecosystems around us, make anthropocentric and biased decisions and actions that have an adverse effect on the environment and other species and beings. This thinking also promotes individualistic selfish human motives which has led to climate change, biodegradation, species extinction, and many more. The Living Sun is an interactive installation inspired by and an exploration of heliotropism (sunflowers’ attraction to the sun) in the natural world. The artwork mimics and recontextualises heliotropic movement in a responsive digital environment. We reverse the “natural” heliotropic relationship by making the audience the “sun” as their movements are tracked in real-time through body-tracking software. A field of digital sunflowers turn to face the participants as they move through space creating a sense of agency, connection, and reciprocity between the plants and human activity. Evoking a sense of responsibility by being a source of light, happiness, control and emotion among the audience. The Living Sun installation displays a virtual sunflower field to encourage people to explore how living systems connect and relate to one another. The Living Sun challenges us to discover new possibilities for coexistence with non-human elements by creating a space for reflection and participation.