NEW INC Y12 Creative Science: Designing with the Undesired: Giant Hogweed and Interspecies Futures

Abstract

Biological invasions are widely recognized as a major driver of anthropogenic global change, with documented ecological, economic, and regulatory impacts (Pyšek et al. 2020).Within invasion ecology, impact-based classification systems structure management strategies and biosecurity infrastructures (Blackburn et al. 2014).In the European Union, Heracleum mantegazzianum (Apiaceae), a robust monocarpic perennial herb reaching up to 16 ft in height and producing large compound umbels with high seed output, is listed as a species of Union concern under EU Regulation No 1143/2014 and subject to coordinated eradication measures (European Commission 2014).In the United States it is listed as a Federal Noxious Weed and managed through state-level control programs.This project approaches invasive classification not as botanical taxonomy, but as the regulatory designation of a species as "invasive" within environmental governance systems.It integrates field research, material experimentation, embodied selection, and spatial prototyping to examine whether biodesign methodologies can reconfigure how invasive designation shapes perception, governance response, and material value.Invasive status is treated as a manipulable design parameter rather than a fixed biological attribute.Fieldwork in Western Bohemia documents Hogweed populations persisting within eradication regimes, revealing tensions between ecological processes and administrative frameworks.Interviews with invasion biologist Petr Pyšek ground the project in contemporary invasion theory, while dialogues with sociologist Abigail Perez Aguilera extend the inquiry toward relational ontologies and governance.The methodology unfolds through three operations.First, dried Hogweed stems are selected in situ through aesthetic judgment, prioritizing monumental scale and structural integrity.Second, copper electrolysis stabilizes fragile biomass, transforming regulated plant tissue into a durable techno-biological composite.Third, the objects are installed across diverse environments -hospital campus (FN Motol), art institutions (NOD Prague, PS122 NYC), botanical garden (Yerevan), and symposium contexts (1014 Inc.NYC) -to examine how invasive designation shapes institutional and public response.At FN Motol (2022), the installation prompted a formal inquiry by the Regional Public Health Authority under Act No. 326/2004 Coll., despite the absence of viable propagules, reflecting heightened post-pandemic biosecurity sensitivity.In contrast, exhibition contexts generated aesthetic engagement and social media circulation, reframing the plant as a cultural object.In Yerevan, within the species' native range and outside invasive classification frameworks, the specimen was installed without institutional objection.The organism