[-empyre-] Scenocosme : interactive plants and other hybridization with

Fri Jun 26 08:11:16 AEST 2015

Dear Florian 

Here is our answsers to your questions

About your first question
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Our plants are rarelly harmed during the interaction.
Sometime some people are a "bit crazy" and hurt the plants but it's not a common reaction.
Our plants continue to grow during our long exhibitions period and they don't die.

In our interactive artwork Akousmaflore the majority of the people smile, or are glad to hear and also feel this sonorous relation with the plant.

We work since several years on hybridization with natural element (not only the plants) and technology and visual and sonorous interaction.

Our works, focused on technology and natural elements, question our relationship to the environment, both natural and social. For us, the question of interactivity passes through a 

particular attention to interaction, where the concept of behaviour comes into play within a defined dramaturgy that stimulates the exchanges and meetings between the spectators.
Our works are forms of small intimate staging that favour meetings around extraordinary sensory experiences

With Akousmaflore for instance, we have composed a vegetal language. Each plant reacts to the contact of the human body through a sound, a voice. They stand for a character, a particular 

sound identity and a behaviour having a feedback, an influence on the reaction, the emotion and the approach of the spectator. 

The installation Lights Contacts ( http://www.scenocosme.com/contacts_installation_en.htm ) extended this reflection as lights and sounds are generated by the contact between human bodies. 

We offer a sensory experience by which we make our energy contacts (electrostatic) with others audible and luminous. This friendly space generates a time of exchanges, of shared and extraordinary meetings. The light and sound vibrations subsequently appear fragile; they depend only on the electrostatic exchanges of the contacts between the spectators. Sound textures truly evolve depending on the approach and the energetic intensity of the body. We are interested as well in the way in which a sound can influence the relationship between the spectators.

We explore its power of feedback in apprehending the other and in touching him/her: from the caress to the sensation of playing the body as, for example, a musical instrument. We often associate technology and natural elements, which is the case, for example, for Akousmaflore (plants), Kymapetra (stones), Fluides (water), Matieres sensibles(wood). We divert the technology in order to extract a gesture, a poetic fibre. What we are interested in is to discover the unpredictability of a work. It becomes interesting when it is not under our control,when it lives by itself, augmented by technology. In addition to the sensitive interrelations that we propose to the spectators, our works take also their own augmented directions in living by themselves, with the technology, and with the reactions that are voluntarily beyond our control.

The technology allows us to increase our senses and to feel the living where it is less expected. There is an attention on the invisible exchanges that we have with the environment and the living beings. By confronting the spectators with the natural elements, we wonder about their relationship to the environment and the living beings.  

About your second question
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In our interactive artworks Akousmaflore our plants do the sound when the human touch the plant or when they are very close to the leafs.
The pitch of the sound increase according to the quality of the touch from the people with the plant.  
For exemple the pitch become low when they are close to the plant, and become high when the touch it strongly , etc...
We have also different kind of other sonorous modulation according to the different sonorous character given to each plants
When nobody touch  the plants they stop to sing.
It's impossible to do or simulate the same delicate and sensitive interaction artwork with a "random software"
You can look at the video on our website if you want to hear and see that
http://www.scenocosme.com/akousmaflore_en.htm
http://www.scenocosme.com/phonofolium_e.htm
http://www.scenocosme.com/lumifolia_oeuvre_e.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dPvLpnT3WQ

The plants sometime and rarely do other sound when they feel the light from the sun or the energetic influences of the building and wall around.

And yes off course the device should be perfectly calibrate for each exhibition for that according to each kind of exhibition space.
And yes off course we have find the way to do it.
We have solve this problem since 2007.
But we are sorry we are not here to reveal how we do it.
We built our own electronic device and software for doing our artwork

The plants are not a random data generator if you know how analyse the majority of this data.
In our artwork there is no random or simulation.

You speak about "noise" but it's not really a noise.. this is a "lot of information" that we can feel whith our technology in connection with the plants.
We receive a lot of information and datas and we use the technology for analyse this information.
The technology help us to automatically and decide in real time wich datas are the best to keep for play the artwork.
The treatment and trigger of the sound is made in relation to this analyses.
Also we use the plant as a living sensor.

Best regards 

Scenocosme : Grégory Lasserre & Anaïs met den Ancxt 
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web : http://www.scenocosme.com/index_e.htm 

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Florian Weil
PostPosted: Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:28 am    Post subject: Scenocosme : interactive plants and other hybridization with
Dear Gregory Lasserre & Anais, 

thank you very much for the introduction of your artworks. I have two questions: 

Johannes Birringer already asked several times what are the extraordinary characteristics of Plant Art in relation to New Media. During my research on Artistic Human Plant Interfaces (http://blog.derhess.de/human-plant-interfaces/) and in particular for the research on Biosensing with plant (http://blog.derhess.de/2014/06/14/biosensing-for-human-computer-interactions/), I receive quite often the critiques that I and the other projects just use/utilize plants. Some people even argue that plants get harmed during the interactions. What are your experiences in that context? How do you deal with the caused emotions by the participants? What is your motivation to to work with plants as interactive material? and what makes plants for you so extraordinary for art projects? 

My second comprehensive question is more about technical issues. During my research on biosensing methods, I figured out that the device has to be callibrate frequently. The signal differences is kinda a problem when you want to get reliable data for interpreting the signal. Also in real life, I experienced during a workshop with Leslie Garcia (http://lessnullvoid.cc/pulsum/) and in a short conversation with Philipp Schlössler (http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/botanicus-interacticus-interactive-plant-technology/) this kinda fundamental problem. The environmental and the plant lifecycle parameter causes a big noise, which I would provokingly describe as random. How do you deal with this problem in your installations? Do you would say the plant is nothing more than a random data generator? 

Thank you very much in advance and I am looking forward to your reply. 

Best regards 
Florian 

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Dear member of the list 

Natasha Myers have invited us to present our interactive artwork with sonorous plants on this list. 

Also here it is. 

We are the artists : Scenocosme : Gregory Lasserre & Anais met den Ancxt 

In our interactive artwork installation we mix technology and natural element like plants, water, wood, stone, human body etc.. 

Here is the link to more information about our best sensitive artworks with natural element 

Akousmaflore : Sensitive and interactive musical plants 
http://www.scenocosme.com/akousmaflore_en.htm 

Phonofolium : interactive and sonorous tree 
http://www.scenocosme.com/phonofolium_e.htm 

Matière sensible 
Sound Sculpture on wood 
http://www.scenocosme.com/matiere_e.htm 

Lights contacts, interactive installation with human body 
http://www.scenocosme.com/contacts_installation_en.htm 

Fluides : interactive installation with water 
http://www.scenocosme.com/fluides_e.htm 

Kymapetra, mineral interactive installation 
http://www.scenocosme.com/kimapetra_en.htm 

Akousmaflore : our artwork with interactive musical plants is one of our most famous one 
Since 2007 we have exhibited this installation in several digital art festival and contemporary art museum in different country. 
http://www.scenocosme.com/akousmaflore_en.htm 

In fact in this kind of artwork we are quite interested by the influences of the human body : The electrostatic influences of the body. 

We also invite you to look at our PDF publication about our artworks and artistic approach here 

Hybrid and sensory Interactive Artworks / Scenocosme 
PDF : http://www.scenocosme.com/PDF/Scenocosme_hybrid_and_sensory_artworks.pdf 

Bio + book 
PDF : http://www.scenocosme.com/PDF/scenocosme_BOOK_EN.pdf 

web : http://www.scenocosme.com/index_e.htm 

wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%A9gory_Lasserre_%26_Ana%C3%AFs_met_den_Ancxt 

Thanks for your attention 

Best regards 

Scenocosme : Grégory Lasserre & Anaïs met den Ancxt 
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web : http://www.scenocosme.com/index_e.htm