concert for plants by plants

durations variable

2012-2017

concert for Plants by plants is a series of live performances for audiences of invited houseplants, mediated by the world wide web and its human technicians. The piece was first performed on April 26, 2012, when Prunus avium, a cherry tree in western Massachusetts, delivered a live concert to an audience of invited houseplants in Chicago. Attached to the tree was a piezo sensor, which measured the tree’s vibrations. These were uploaded to the world wide web, and in Chicago the data pulsed through transducers attached to ceramic dishes, used as seating platforms for audience plants. During the concert, Chicago houseplants experienced the vibrations of Prunus avium in real time. The piece was re-enacted in 2017.

Exhibits

2017-19, Ambiguous Territory, University of Michigan Taubman Gallery; University of Virginia; Pratt University

2014, Displaced Forest, TRITRIANGLE, Chicago IL

2012, The Expanded Field, Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection, Chicago IL

Publication

"Plant Media and Practices of Receptivity.” Ambiguous Territory, David Salomon, Kathy Velikov, Chris Perry, Cathryn Dwyre, eds. (Actar, forthcoming 2018)

“Object Intermediaries: How New-Media Artists Translate the Language of Things.” Kayla Anderson, Leonardo, Volume 47, August 2014.

“Does Arduino dream of playing a tree?” Andrea Reali, Arduino Blog. May 11, 2012.