Become Pollinators
2024–Present
合作
Hammersmith Community Gardens Association (HCGA)
Phoenix Garden
Matilde Sofia Duarte Peixoto
Collaborated with the Phoenix Garden and the Hammersmith Community Gardens Association, this project comprises a series of community-based participatory workshops that integrate immersive multimedia experiences with a hands-on activity to engage participants in the world of urban pollinators, design and implement pollinator-friendly features as micro-ecosystems, thereby building connectivity in urban spaces for pollinators.
Starting Point
Urbanization and climate change have fragmented pollinator habitats, making their decline not only spatial but also perceptual and relational. In dense cities like London, this loss is often hidden in mono-functional landscapes.
Mainstream ecological initiatives often prioritize data-driven outcomes and anthropocentric benefits. Framed by technocratic logic and institutional efficiency, these approaches—while scientifically grounded—tend to excludes more relational, place-based, and affective forms of public engagement that are vital to cultivating lasting ecological care and responsibility.
Habitat Co-creation Experience, HCGA, 2025
Sensorial Experience Journey
Participants first drew pollinators to reflect on how they perceive them; then used VR to experience the city from a bee’s perspective; next, they felt bee vibrations through a sound-based floral sonification installation to understand pollination behaviour; and finally, they worked together to design real pollinator habitats for their personal spaces.
This process moved from sensory attunement to cognitive translation, then to spatial application, each stage reinforcing the next.
Virtual Reality Experience, HCGA, 2025
Virtual Reality Experience, Phoenix Garden, 2025
Virtual Reality Environmental Design
Habitat Co-creation Experience, HCGA, Phoenix Garden, 2025
Versions of the workshop were also exhibited at Mediaworks, BFI, BBC Television Center and London Breeze Film Festival to raise a broader awareness about pollinators.
Exhibition at Media Works, 2025