FOLLOW THE NAME

"Follow The Name”,
a captivating 3D video game that explores the deep connection between plants, places and people. The audience is invited to find their way out of a garden of camellias by listening to the sounds of people calling the camellias by their local names, reconnecting this plant with its place of origin.

Gardens have always been seen as a mirror of society, a microcosm of the evolution of the relationship between nature and culture. From the 18th, the garden was built more for pleasure and contemplation than for survival or production. People couldn’t get enough of these botanical status symbols as they tried to outdo one another by filling their gardens and glasshouses with unique plants. The garden became a symbol of secular power and politics. Therefore, plant collectors are sent around the world to discover new specimens, which would then be brought back, hybridised and taken to other parts of the world to be planted in the plantation system.  A plant that was brought to an institution such as Kew Gardens would be given a Latin name, and in the process, the local knowledge that existed about that plant would be extracted and the source of the knowledge erased. By supplanting the local name, the world in which that plant existed also disappeared.

However, plants are inseparable from their original places and people, as sources of food and nutrition, medicines, and technological materials - and central to ceremonial traditions, spiritual beliefs, narratives, and language. Therefore, I through the camellia created an immersive game to reconnect the plant with its place of origin.