Plants organize themselves without a central nervous system.

Since they are bound to one location for life, they actively develop and adapt their morphology in order to be able to respond to the conditions of their environment. Plants form optimum forms that have been adapted over the years developing different, individual characteristics, this is referred to as phenotypic plasticity.

The production of knowledge through research is still strongly linked to imaging technologies. New possibilities of observation and analysis bring new insights. Thus images themselves become the basis for discoveries. Despite the objective scientific approach, images deal with the level of interpretation. Their design comes into play. How do we document and observe and what is it that we want to find out? We 3D scanned plants to create three dimensional stop motion animations that capture leaf movement and growth direction. 

From hand drawings to microCT scans, images remain the most important tool for analyzing plants.

Natural processes often exhibit combinations of self-organization and self-assembly.

In the cell interior, for example, dynamic components self-organize, while others assemble precisely at predetermined sites. Self-assembly describes the orientation toward equilibrium structures. Self-assembly evolves into symmetric structures under a uniform supply of energy.