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Bonself

Yixuan Song

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Yixuan Song is a visual Biodesigner artist whose recent work explores the ethical tensions within the art of bonsai, using algae as a living medium to re-imagine plant-based art as a space for a more equal and balanced reciprocal relationship between humans and nature - inviting us to rethink how we can mutually benefit and coexist with nature.
Yixuan Song is a visual Biodesigner artist whose recent work explores the ethical tensions within th...

Bonself is an “Algae-based” art experiment grounded in ecological philosophy and ethical design. It aims to critique the traditional art of bonsai, which achieves formal beauty through the domestication and manipulation of plants. This anthropocentric aesthetic practice stands in conflict with contemporary values of sustainability and respect for life.  

Bonself seeks to break away from this aesthetic logic by rethinking the human–nature relationship through the lens of Eastern philosophical traditions and decentralized ecological thought. Using algae as a living medium, the project offers a new form of plant art that integrates the principles of “Dao follows Nature” and the Doctrine of the Mean—not striving for extreme intervention or total abandonment but pursuing a dynamic balance of symbiotic coexistence. 

Final work

Bonself

A rethinking of the relationship between humans and nature. An alternative perspective — one that is softer, more respectful, and more alive in bonsai form.

  • The main value lies in not shaping the plants, but creating conditions that allow them to grow freely from the beginning.
  • Bonself uses algae as the main material and combines water, light, and containers to create a different kind of bonsai.
  • Algae bonsai recycling system.
  • Transfer “special water tree species” into the container.
  • Peristaltic pump transfer cultures test.
  • Common Algae.
  • The selection of different species in Bonself.
  • Six different "water tree species".

Research and process

  • Mix algae and culture medium solution.
  • Algae grow in certain patterns.
  • Observation under a microscope.
  • Ethical issues in traditional bonsai.
  • Cultivation instructions.

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Bonself

Bonself is an “Algae-based” art experiment grounded in ecological philosophy and ethical design. It aims to critique the traditional art of bonsai, which achieves formal beauty through the domestication and manipulation of plants. This anthropocentric aesthetic practice stands...

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