An interview with Philip Beesley on his project for the 12th Biennale Exhibition. The ‘Hylozoic Ground’ is an immersive, interactive architectural installation fitted with arrays of sensors and kinetic devices. Lightweight interlinking systems are interwoven with chemistry and respond to their environment.
Very interesting video showing how a lotus leaf reacts to liquid. Notice how even honey slides off the leaf like water. Research is being done on material with a Lotus-like property, also known as superhydrophobicity.
Below is an image from a scientific paper published in 2008 titled Laser structuring of water-repellent biomimetic surfaces and fully available here. The image shows a comparison between the microscopic texture of a leaf and a surface shaped with a laser. The artificial lotus shows very similar behaviour (and appearance) to the real leaf. A group in Germany called “Lotus-Effect” is also working on the reproducing the magic and has published great documentaries on their website.
