Lovely Sunday New York Times article about Botanicalls and plants underlying native communication methods by Diane Ackerman. It includes what we believe to be the first published use in lower case of “botanicalling.” Maybe this signals our entry into the American lexicon?

Here’s some memories from along the way:

the original brainstorm-ing whiteboard

plants making phone calls

the first kit from Adafruit

the Botanicalls crew, Maker Faire 2007

We’re green with anticipation! The Botanicalls project is featured in MoMA’s upcoming “Talk to Me” Exhibition, opening July 24th in New York on the third floor of the Museum of Modern Art. The show will continue through November 7th, 2011. Here’s the official description:

Talk to Me explores the communication between people and things. The exhibition focuses on objects that involve a direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, visualization design, and communication devices, and on projects that establish an emotional, sensual, or intellectual connection with their users. Examples range from a few iconic products of the late 1960s to several projects currently in development—including computer and machine interfaces, websites, video games, devices and tools, furniture and physical products, and extending to installations and whole environments.

Botanicalls is first in the list of Wired Magazine’s “21 Awesome DIY Projects” this month! It’s part of a terriifc article that features our friend Limor Fried talking about making stuff. Thanks to Christina Bonnington for including the Botanicalls kits!

Botanicalls is back with a brand new leaf kit from SparkFun Electronics! Solder it together and you’ll have your plant tweeting in no time. This new kit even comes pre-programmed to connect to a Botanicalls Twitter test site so your plant can feel the joy right away. The only things you need to provide after the kit is built are a plant, a wired network connection and an electrical outlet. Full assembly instructions are online.

When you’re ready, you can customize Botanicalls to post to your own site and tweet your plant’s own personalized messages.

We’re delighted to be working with our friends at SparkFun and look forward to making this kit available via more online retailers soon. Ready to show your leafy buddy some love? Get started here.

The Botanicalls team is putting the final touches on our latest kit, available in the next few weeks. This kit will be manufactured commercially, so we’ll be able to keep it more reliably in stock. It will also be fully compatible with the current version of Twitter, and come with brand new code and libraries. Our new Botanicalls program is be even easier to use, modify and hack. We welcome your genius!

We’ll be doing some renovations online to prepare for the new kit. Keep an eye here for news about availability, retailers and the official release date.

The Ignite Show just posted episode 2, Kati’s Botanicalls Ignite NYC talk from back in September 2008 during Web 2.0 Expo. You may want to skip past the intro…and start at 1:33.

The Botanicalls system and applications use networked open source hardware and software to allow plants to communicate with people on people’s terms – using the telephone, text messages or twitter.

Botanicalls was featured in the Winstom-Salem Journal‘s Living Section on February 26th and in the Home Section of the Baltimore Sun on January 27, 2009 and The Hong Kong Standard on February 17, 2009.