Domestic cultures of plant care: a moss terrarium probe
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Binyamini Ben-Meir, Nirit
Healy, Patrick GT
Deterding, Sebastian
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Houseplants are increasingly being used as part of interactive sys- tems that aim to foster pro-environmental concern and awareness of more-than-human life. Yet such interventions rely on conflicting and untested assumptions about how people relate to houseplants. We therefore studied domestic plant care in 11 purposefully sampled households, applying a sensor-equipped moss terrarium as a living ‘thing ethnography’ probe, supplemented with semi-structured in- terviews. We find that social and intergenerational cultures of plant care inform people’s individual concern and accountability through constituents and mechanisms like gift-giving, signalling, knowledge transfer, or joint practical care. We identify five domestic cultures of plant care in our sample, each of which frames plants differently and leads to different practical approaches to plant care. We propose design considerations that emphasise enculturation and shared care over individual behaviour change and reframe houseplants from decorative objects into living household members.
Date Acceptance
2025-05-09
Citation
Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25)
Publisher
ACM
Journal / Book Title
Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25)
Copyright Statement
Subject to copyright. This paper is embargoed until publication. Once published the Version of Record (VoR) will be available on immediate open access.
License URL
Source
Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25)
Subjects
Houseplants
human-computer plant interaction
more than human interaction
Place of Publication
New York, New York
Publication Status
Accepted
Start Date
2025-07-09
Coverage Spatial
Funchal, Portugal
Date Publish Online
2025-07-09