SoilioS
Have you ever truly listened to the “voices” that come from the soil?
SOILIOS: Unheard Voices beneath Our Feet is a reflective exhibition featuring a set of speculative materials and interactive installation, where visitors embody the “more-than-human” entities on and within soil. The project focuses on soil degradation and its consequences for the environment and climate, while emphasizing the perspectives of soil entities and the connection between the “more-than-human body” and soil.
More-Than-Human Design
Speculative Interactive Installation
Tangible Interaction
Year
Time
Team
Role
2025
5 Months
5 People
Interaction Designer, AI Co-creator
CONTEXT
Soil Degradation and Climate Change
Soil is fundamental to ecological systems and climate stability, yet it is continuously degrading due to overexploitation, pollution, urbanization, and extreme weather. The loss of soil health weakens its ability to sequester carbon, accelerating global warming in a destructive feedback loop.
At the same time, the disruption of soil’s multi-species life network threatens food security, human health, and our long-term survival. Therefore, it is critical to re-recognize the interdependence between humans and soil, and rebuild a sustainable relationship with the living systems beneath our feet.
CHARACTER
The Soil Ecosystem Entities
Through field observation and research on soils with varying levels of health, we identified a wide range of organic and inorganic components. Among them, the most representative entities are turfgrass, invertebrate (earthworms), fungi, bacteria, and abiotic factor (heat, water, and air). Each of these plays a crucial role in maintaining the functioning of the soil ecosystem.
However, in today’s human-centered design practices, we often start from human needs and perspectives, treating soil as an inanimate matter unrelated to us. This leads to the neglect of soil’s importance and the dismissal of the expectations and needs of the many entities that make up its ecosystem.
But what if we can consider human also as a part of soil?
REFRAMING
The More Than Human Body
In response, we propose a renewed vision: humans should decenter themselves and form a more-than-human body together with the diverse entities of the soil ecosystem. Faced with the ongoing challenges of climate change, we aim to envision future pathways for this new collective body.
MESSAGE
Why Can’t We Realize and Emphasize?
We believe that humans tend to overlook climate issues because their impacts often feel distant and not directly affecting our own bodies.
This insight inspired us to make “embodiment” and “empathy” the core of the exhibition, as people usually only recognize the severity of a problem when it is experienced firsthand.
Therefore, this exhibition aims to evoke a sense of urgency by allowing visitors to physically feel the consequences of soil degradation through their own embodied experience.
EXHIBITION
Narrative Map
The exhibition is structured around four touchpoints. The first three guide visitors to learn about, observe, and empathize with soil through different media and formats. The fourth touchpoint enables them to physically interact with the installation and experience how external forces impact the soil ecosystem.
TOUCHPOINT 1
Contextualize Climate Issues
The first touch point is called UNHEARD VOICES BENEATH OUR FEET, which is two six-fold brochures that speak in the position of soil, the narrative builds around how soil perceives the impact that climate events have on it, and in turn, what impact does soil undergoing these challenges have on our climate and environment.
Here we aim to provide an initial understanding of what soil is experiencing and we want to decenter visitor’s human perspective from soil’s own narrative.
TOUCHPOINT 2
Identify Soil Degradation
This touchpoint, titled WHEN I’M SICK, presents two contrasting soil samples: one healthy and one degraded. By observing their color, texture, and smell, visitors can learn to identify the symptoms of soil degradation.
This simple yet powerful comparison fosters awareness of soil health, encouraging visitors to pay closer attention to the changes in their environment. The goal here is to make soil degradation visible and tangible, emphasizing the need for daily observation and care for our soil.
TOUCHPOINT 3
Discover Carbon Cycle
This touchpoint, titled FOUNDATION OF LIFE, introduces a video that reveals the critical role of the more-than-human body (MTHB) in soil’s carbon cycle.
Visitors learn how entities like water, microbes, plants, and air work together to sequester carbon, showcasing their invisible yet essential contributions.
By highlighting these roles it fosters a deeper understanding of soil as a living, interconnected network. The goal is to inspire visitors to recognize their responsibility in protecting soil health and its vital role in mitigating climate change.”
TOUCHPOINT 4
Provoke through Enactment
In the last touchpoint, RAVAGE ME AS YOU’VE ALWAYS DONE, we aim to immerse visitors in the daily experience of soil’s exploitation and resilience.
The installation invites visitors to physically interact with a soil-like structure: pressing and compressing it from the outside symbolizes human and environmental pressures on soil, while those entering the structure embody the life within soil, feeling the weight of external forces and responding to it.
This dual perspective amplifies sensations of oppression, vulnerability, and resistance. By decentering the human perspective and enabling a direct, embodied encounter with soil’s suffering, the work provokes empathy for this often-overlooked ecosystem and underscores soil’s vital role in sustaining life.
Behind the Prototype
To recreate the sensation of soil being compressed, we built two inflatable walls that visitors can push from both sides. Covered in rough dark fabric, the structure mimics the texture and darkness of soil. Vibration sensors, LEDs, and speakers respond to pressure with rumbling sounds and subtle light leaks, suggesting what soil might feel beneath the surface.
