Real-Time Plant Engineering is an interactive installation exhibited at the London Science Museum’s Future of Food Lates (Feb 2026). Through real-time silhouette capture, participants’ movements are translated into evolving speculative plant hybrids. I initiated the project independently, developing the concept, ideation, and pitch before expanding it into a small team. I led two collaborators, directing the overall vision while designing and building the full screen-based interactive system. I also guided the visual language and coordinated production, with my teammates developing supporting posters and 3D models to extend the experience.

For thousands of years, humans have shaped crops through selective breeding—favoring plants that were larger, sweeter, easier to store, or more resilient. In the 20th and 21st centuries, this process expanded into laboratory-based engineering, where genetic modification and gene-editing technologies allow traits to be directly altered at the DNA level.

Movement reshapes the generated forms, turning the body into a metaphor for how human intervention drives the evolution of food crops. Presented alongside research posters and 3D models, the installation translates selective breeding and genetic engineering into an embodied, playful experience for a public audience.

Using TouchDesigner running StreamDiffusion, I built a real-time pipeline where a camera captures the participant’s silhouette and extracts it from the background using MediaPipe. These body outlines are fed into an AI system that generates evolving plant forms on screen, continuously responding to live movement.