Selfie in Green by Kristin McIver

Selfie in Green is an artistic educational workshop which combines nature, data and recycled materials. It translates students’ face recognition data (generated by computers to identify faces in digital photographs), into a combined abstract portrait, to be represented as a vertical garden.

Each row of the garden represents one participant’s unique ‘Faceprint’ data (Eg: 344707b2690ae8962007612495619a). Each data string is used as a formula to sequence the order of planting, from a palette of 16 plant species.

Participants at the MS136 middle school, including ESL and special needs children, learn to grow plants from seed, which are then transferred outside as a vertical garden onto the facade of the school, to produce a harvest of colorful flowers.

Throughout the process, participants learn about social media and privacy, nutrition, recycling, sustainability and the history of portraiture from classical paintings through to ‘Selfies’.