plants

Meditative Symbiosis

Jean Danton Laffert (CL), Karin Astudillo (CL), Camilo Gouet (CL)

Meditative Symbiosis is a trans-disciplinary project that explores the interdependence of a living organism and an electronic system. Composed of containers with plants and sensors inside, a cycle of mutual dependence is created between the growing process of the plants and the dynamic adaptation of the system, the sum of which generates an evolutionary, bio-electronic aesthetic.

Institute for Inconspicuous Languages: Reading Lips

Špela Petrič (SI)

The Institute for Inconspicuous Languages presents an attempt at comprehending plant life by employing both artificial and natural intelligence to interpret the utterances of thousands of microscopic mouthlets speckled on the underside of each plant leaf. Experience the premonition of an interspecies communication to come.

Probing the Planthroposcene: Excerpts from a Dis-service Society

Alexandra Toland (US/DE)

Can “ecosystem services” and disservices provided by plants be seen as phyto-technologies of multi-species societies? How are spaces of creative dissonance, resilience, and resistance created by outliers: pests, parasites, invasive species, and allergens? What moral agency do humans have in determining the assets and liabilities of plants during the environmental strains of the Anthropocene? These questions are explored through an assemblage of objects, images, and recordings featuring plants as protagonists in natural habitats along roadsides, probing what Natasha Myers (2016) has dubbed the “Planthroposcene.”

Rhizomes

Freya Probst (DE/UK)

These grown gowns are the outcome of a series of experiments and playful interactions with plants and the observation of their roots through photography or time-lapse video. Experiments with pearls, small gears, or the positioning of seeds lead to different plant responses. The outcome was eventually applied to larger surface areas in the shape of cutting patterns reminiscent of fine woven textiles. The exhibits show a subterranean, hidden aesthetic of a natural structure that cannot be copied by humans.

Confronting Vegetal Otherness: Phytoteratology

Špela Petrič (SI)

Špela Petrič received an award for her three-part series Confronting Vegetal Otherness in which she deals with different forms of exchange between humans and plants. Her project Phytoteratology is a molecular performance in which plant embryos are grown in artificial wombs in lieu of seeds.

Biosignal_Cybernation

Y2K – Chiao-Chi Chou (TW), You-Yang Hu (CN)

Biosignal_Cybernation is an apparatus that controls plant growth. By using both phototropism and apogeotropism, plants can be shaped by humans.