Anaïs Tsai
Puzzling Plants: An Interactive Story
Project Description
As a young child, Ana grew up surrounded by the wild flora and fauna of rural Texas. At school, each student would tend to an assortment of peas, carrots, and leafy greens in their own small garden plot. As the seasons changed, she watched the plants grow from seeds to sprouts to flowering and fruiting plants. She swore it was magic.
As Ana grew older, she moved to California with her family and drifted away from plants. But then she learned that a simple temperature increase could snuff out the magic of the very plants we eat. Without very specific temperatures, many of the plants she remembered growing when she was younger would not know when or how to produce fruit. This realization coincided with her interest in improving food security and food access.
Combining these interests, Ana started this project, Puzzling Plants, to help communicate these fun but also very serious plant facts. Just as she connected to plants through hands-on learning experiences, she aimed to create an interactive art installation of a developing plant in the form of a larger-than-life puzzle. A handmade chest containing zines about plant growth and development as well as actual pea seeds both accompany the puzzle and provide the audience all the “instructions” for plant growth and development. Her project invites participants to “build” a plant and dig a little deeper into plant science, regardless of age!
About the Artist
Anaïs Tsai, more commonly known as Ana, is a senior majoring in Biology with interdisciplinary Honors in the Arts. Growing up in Stockton, CA, where new scientific discoveries are often treated as fake news and swarmed with conspiracy theories (explained more in this podcast by NPR), Ana ardently believes that science only makes a difference when it is accessible to everyone. Thus, her work focuses on creating a welcoming environment in the sciences and fun, hands on methods of science communication. In her free time, she can be found learning how to make new crafts, reading whatever she can get her hands on, and making herself lots of garlic bread. More often than she’d like to admit, she can also be found losing track of time watching Tiktoks!
Speaking of Tiktoks, Ana also has her own Tiktok account that focuses on communicating the discoveries of women scientists who did not receive credit for their work. The QR code to the right links to this page.
After she graduates, Ana will be attending MIT’s PhD program in Biology in hopes of creating more welcoming and inclusive scientific spaces for people of all backgrounds! She plans to continue making art in support of this endeavor!
Explore Ana's project online
Download Ana's Puzzling Plants Zines
