Office Plant as a mediating technology of organization

Abstract

This chapter is dedicated to the office plant. The office plant takes on different roles: as environmental medium, it transforms offices into natural habitats. As medium of organization, it shapes everyday work life and its social relations. Based on artistic documentations (of office plants) and a history of knowledge of indoor plants and their cultivation, the office plant’s career is retraced and reconstructed—from a seemingly inconsequential prop of office organization to an agential medium that retains its efficacy even (or especially) under conditions of digitalization and virtualization.

Weeds: Classification, Organization, and Wilding

“…The potted plant in the modern office is an emblematic example of the domestication of the wild. If soil is spilled, or leaves fall, they are vacuumed from the carpet tiles and placed in the bin next to the desk, or the interior landscaping company will take away the dead and replace the living as part of their monthly service visit (Rieger, 2020). The eradication of the appearance of disorganization is also central to most contemporary high pesticide "agrilogistics" (Morton, 2015).…”