:: what is the connection mobile phone + seed?
There are two kinds of connections. One is more poetic and another one is more practical.

The poetic one is how I see the phone, the seed and the user together in a metaphoric way. The metaphor is related to how some plants (angiosperms) ingeniously developed a way to spread out their species. They provide attractive fruits to animals that eat them but, at the same time, these animals transport the internal seed(s) to farther places, increasing the planted area and the chances of new genetic combinations. The mobile phone represents the fruit, the enticement of the technology. The fruit seduces the user who in turn buys it. But inside this phone there is a seed that contains an ideology, which can spread with the help of the user. Hopefully it can increase the amount of people that engage in this ideology and also stimulate new solutions.

The concept was inspired in a common mechanics used by nature to spread out a seed. The consumer is seduced by a good and consciously decide to buy it. Later on, to plant the phone or not is another conscious decision. But, as consequence of the planting, intentionally or not, the consumer does a benefit for the collective and helps to spread out another kind of seed.

The practical one is more related with social implications. A mobile phone is a connection device. The added seed is just an extension in this connection property. The mobile phone is associated with be connected with the rest of the world in an instantaneous way. Distance and time don’t matter, you are free to move and still keep in touch whoever you want. But in reality, you are in touch but mediated by a device. Our connections with people and sometimes with a remote place reach us by digital means. Everybody understands that this is part of a revolution, most for good. But, ironically, information and communication technologies are ‘disconnecting’ us from the same things that they connect.

This detachment in experiencing concrete people and real places makes it more difficult for people to respect the world that surrounds us, including the people that live in it, because the change in our perception of significance.

In addition, we see people demanding faster access to information and demanding stimulus at an increasing rate and intensity. This could reflect in immediatism and in exaggerated individualism, stimulated behaviors that are of no help for the collective. The seed is, by its own nature, a counter balance in these behaviors. Someone who plants a seed knows that its results are not immediate. It is not enough to pour water and watch what happens next. One must to some extent re-connect to nature to succeed. The care and attention for a certain period is inherent to this process. And the reward is not glamorous, but beautifully real and still frail.

This approach is better than alarming and scaring people about the possible detriments of consumer society. It is better to encourage people to see with their own eyes these slow and small changes. The mobile-seed is a communication of a possible future that unites the acquired technological benefits of digital connection with the old benefits of staying connected with nature.

 

:: why biodegradable?
A biodegradable material returns to nature as nourishment to plants and microorganisms, decomposed in simpler and non-toxic substances. For Mobile.seed, there would not exist a direct flow from these decomposed substances to the production cycle of a new product. But in a broader view, the flow of minerals, gases and organic matter would happen on a global scale.

A prototype made with biodegradable biopolymer made from starch. The roots of the flower nourishes from the decomposition of the material.

More important than thinking about the details of the ecological cycle of the Mobile.seed is understanding its aims in the project communication.

The purpose of a fully biodegradable phone is also about bringing the abstract concept behind the seed and the planting to a physical expression, embodied in the object. Biopolymers and other biodegradable materials have inherently different aesthetics that can be used in a positive way to motivate consumers. It must have an appealing design. In order to use such a device, people must feel socially secure or even ‘cool’ using the device. Different colors, textures, transparency and flexibility differ slightly from common plastics. To use biodegradable materials and a real seed in the Mobile.seed is about accessing the meaning anchored in a material object.

In summary, the industrial design of the product must be as good as that of the high-quality mobile phones we find on the market today. However, this is not the focus of this project communication. I am not an industrial designer and decided to use a common and neutral mobile phone design as physical representation, and focus on the communication of the interaction and of the relationship with the object.

 

:: isn't this idea innocent?
No. But the intention is to make it seems like yes. The apparent innocence was a desired quality for a counterpoint to the current way that we relate with electronic objects. The flower care and the simple mechanics of discard/recycling aim to evidence the contrasting values with the usual view of technology. And instead of put them as incompatible, the project tries to propose how a merge could happen. I believe that innocence can be a desirable state in which the eye can see beauty in an uncensored way.

This project gives a great value to innocence, but as a mind state, not as a limited condition. Innocence is seen as a state in which the eye can see beauty in an uncensored way.

There is a tendency to dismiss something that looks naïve. The naïve is considered to not have an understanding of the complexity of the relations or of the contexts in its manifestation. It is considered to have a lack of sophistication and critical judgment. It can be said that our western culture praises the fast pace, the individual pleasure, the ephemeral consumption and the artificial perfection. The naïve does not fit well in this environment, often competitive, cynical and very manipulated. The natural imperfections and the pace of a plant are in somehow annoying to this kind of culture.

Beyond the innocent façade, there is an elaborated manipulation mechanics. A marketing strategy to sell a product that would be ecologically sustainable but uses the motivation present in the consumer society as the main stimulus. To look like naïve in this context helps to make this method more efficient and at the same time contains an implicit critical judgment. But it is important to make clear that it is not an abuse of the quality of innocence in the way advertising does, as an appropriation used to add value to something meaningless. It is about understanding the current context and play on the rules. In addition, if the familiar contains the seed of change, it is easier to be accepted and become reality, smoother.

 

:: Is it the best solution for the mobile phone e-waste?

No. I believe that products as service would be a better solution for this problem of e-waste. It makes recycling a responsibility of the companies that offer the services and makes easier the return of materials for reuse, even if in another product. But the Mobile.Seed is not just a possible solution for this problem. It also deals with the motivation of the users to engage and support the sustainable approach for the economical development, what is not so emotional in the product as a service solution.