[-empyre-] Welcome to our June topic on -empyre: Plant Art and New Media

[m. jaeckel]

Hi ....

I know you have no time .. and so do I basically .. but then even more 
thanks for the reply.
You are right with the performative ,... but sometimes reading or even 
writing an email liike that one to you clears up sth ... or it may only 
allow me to order my thoughts on something ... or express it in own 
words .. etc .. sure you are familiar with this.
Thus hanks a lot for reading and replying!!!

Then .. I havent been reading much on emprye recently .. but this guy's 
project sounded interesting (read his description belwo) .. also 
reminded me a bit to the sound project in haus.0 .. except it is done 
here woith a different background ....

http://www.josimalaya.com/singing-plants.html

also this link is nice .. calmer ... but also very telling!

http://studioforlandscapeculture.com/The-Language-of-Plants

Good progress with your texts etc !!
:-)

mo + lee 1f431-microsoft-windows

On 06.06.2015 19:58, jsa wrote:
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>
>
> Happy June, everyone!  Thanks for starting off the discussion.  My 
> apologies for joining later in the week.  I started corresponding 
> yesterday with Murat on another thread, I'm now sharing on this thread.
>
> I am an interdisciplinary artist who works with community stories, 
> interactive installations and soundscapes.  My ongoing project, 
> "Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory" involves three living banana leaf 
> plants.  I grew up in the Philippines and I remember these plants as 
> towering over me in my Lola's garden.  The ones I use in the 
> installation are about 3" tall and housed in individual pots.Â
>
> The three plants can represent the traditional Western narrative of a 
> story: the beginning, middle, and ending. They are also holders of 
> cultural and body memory.Â
> Each plant has ruptures in the leaves created by a metal bottlecap to 
> represent "soul wounds" or missing parts of the narrative. Much of 
> Philippine history has been written by colonizers.  I am interested 
> in revisiting family and community stories as as step towards 
> decolonization and reindigenization.Â
>
> In my installation, I suture the leaves with conductive thread that is 
> connected to an electronic grid with touch sensors. Â Â
>
> When people reach out towards the plants, the electricity in our 
> bodies trigger the sensors and the plants sing, tell a story, or 
> project images.Â
>
> The living plants act as in intermediary between the human being and 
> the technology.  This has generated some interesting results:Â
>
> 1. The plants seem sensitive different people's energy. Some people 
> need to actually touch the plant to make a connection; some can just 
> hover above the plant; some can just enter the room and the plants 
> immediately start to sing.Â
>
> 2. There have been times when no people are present and the plants 
> trigger each other to sing. This seems to indicate an ongoing 
> "communication" between plants that the sensors make "audible" to 
> people.Â
>
> 3. The code I've written for the electronic grid is simple: touch = 
> ON, release = OFF.  However, the plants sometimes reverse the code.  
> They may spontaneously start singing without pause, and require touch 
> to stop.  Perhaps this is a way to draw people's attention?Â
>
> 4. When I water the plants with the sensors attached.  They all 
> sing.  I sing back.  It feels like a mutual exchange.Â
>
> That is just a short introduction to my project and some 
> observations.  Thank you for posting questions for us. I will 
> respond soon.Â
>
> Thanks,Â
> JoÂ

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