植物性顧問公司  PSX Consultancy
創作年份：2014

PSX Consultancy全名為植物性顧問公司（Plant Sex Consultancy），主要任務在為植物解決生殖與性交上的問題。是一間由四位設計師所組成、強調以植物使用者角度出發的設計顧問公司。

有性生殖與性慾廣泛的發生在各種生命體中，是生命體在演化中所選汰出來的能力。儘管所有生命體都有這樣的能力，但是在不同生命體中的能力卻各異。

植物在有性生殖與無性生殖的發展上特別多樣化，更讓其他生物也參與它們的生殖過程，不介意自己為自己授粉，甚至時常大方的將自己的性器官（花）大幅度改造就為了吸引授粉者。

PSX Consultancy的任務便是接受植物的委託，為他們找出受自然與文化啟發的新設計來滿足在生殖與性慾上的需求。

在執行以植物為中心做設計，我們使用IDEO公佈的《Human-Centered Design Toolkit》作為我們設計上的指引，但是將對象從人類轉換成植物，以期待得到盡可能的植物為第一人稱視角。在《Human-Centered Design Toolkit》中強調要以訪問使用者為最重要的資訊與設計發想來源，並隨時回饋使用者的想法來修改設計。儘管我們無法直接訪問植物，但是我們使用《Science Fiction Prototyping》的方式將人類研究植物的論文轉化成植物為第一人稱的自述來反饋到我們的設計中。

我們經由這樣的過程提出對於人類將自己想法投射到自然現象上的質疑，並且質問設計師可以揣測另一個獨立的個體的思考到什麼程度，反而質疑在設計中使用者為中心的思考那個介於投射與真正深入理解的灰色地帶。這個作品也同時嘗試反映近年來哲學上對於其他生物也應具有人權、具有生存權、應該被視為具有法律保障的個體、從人類中心主義移轉的範式轉換（paradigm shift）。

這個設計作品本身不是為了提出設計解法，而是一個哲學質疑的過程。

合作藝術家：
Špela Petrič
斯洛維尼亞人，1980年生。生物化學博士、跨領域媒體藝術碩士（LUCA, Brussels）。職業生涯開始於生物化學研究、後來進入藝術領域成為藝術研究者，從2011年開始作品大量使用生物體創作。創作領域跨越自然科學、新媒體藝術與表演。

Dimitrios Stamatis
希臘人，1983年生。產品與視覺設計設計師。曾經在雅典、倫敦、杭州工作，目前自由接案（leavenlab.com），探索設計可以如何成為推進正向改變的觸媒。

Jasmina Weiss
斯洛維尼亞人，1963年生。室內設計師與建築師。工作領域橫跨設計、建築與藝術。

Credits:
此計畫在BIO50 - 2014年斯洛維尼亞設計雙年展的Designing Life組執行。由斯洛維尼亞建築與設計博物館、斯洛維尼亞文化部、中華民國文化部、國藝會贊助。

The PSX Consultancy project conceives augmentations for vegetal species to enhance the given client’s natural reproductive processes. In other words, we make sex toys for plants.

Misleadingly quirky, the PSX Consultancy is a project investigating the changing paradigm of the human/non-human relationship. Incorporating cultural frameworks through which we as humans understand ourselves and our environment—science, design and art—we improvise design tools that challenge our anthropocentric vantage point to think on the plants’ behalf. The concepts produced by the interdisciplinary team of designers, artists and scientists are science-based, design-driven, irony-infused and playfully delivered.

As the plant clients are silent about their necessities, we have relied on scientific knowledge of plant biology as well as design methodologies in the pursuit of thought-provoking, intelligible augmentations. What happens when artistic motivation appropriates human-centered design for use on plant clients?

The result of the interdisciplinary approach is critically discursive objects posing as sex toys, inherently paradoxical and absurd, yet manifesting our “all means possible” attempt to truly understand the non-human. Through the hybrid exploration of the parallelism between plant and human reproductive strategies, we uncover the realm of bio-logic whilst provoking the ethical discourse connected to post-anthropocentrism. The motivation, client biology/requirements and bio-logic of the particular “sex toys” is explained in the attached booklet.

The installation of 3D-printed proposals alongside the plant clients is only one of the outcomes of this process-based project. Equally important is the hands-on engagement of the public in the form of workshops and discussions across different cultural traditions, leading to an ever-expanding collection of plants and their sex toys while inviting the audience to explore the non-human experiences in their mind.

Collaborators:
Špela Petrič
Špela Petrič (SI), born in 1980, BSc, MA started her professional career as a scientific researcher in the field of biochemistry. Her interest in the context of knowledge production and its cultural impact motivated her to obtain a degree in transmedia at LUCA, Brussels. She has been working with living systems as an artist-researcher since 2011. Her artistic practice combines natural sciences, new media and performance.

Dimitrios Stamatis
Dimitrios Stamatis (GR), born in 1983, is a designer with a formal background in product / graphic design. He has worked in Athens, London and Hangzhou designing products for a range of industries. Currently he works freelance (leavenlab.com), exploring how design can contribute as a catalyst for positive change.

Jasmina Weiss
Jasmina Weiss (SI), born in 1963, is an interior designer and designer with formal background in architecture / design. She has worked in different fields connected with design, architecture and art. She has long been interested in different fields of science, culture, psychology, biology, ecology and environment.

Credits:
A collaborative project developed within the Designing Life topic at BIO50, the Biennial of Industrial Design 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Supported by: MAO, the Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana; the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia; the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, ROC; National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan, ROC