Paper short abstract:

Flora Luma is a plant controlled installation, co-developed by the author. It utilises bioelectrical signals, to drive color-animation of self-illuminating objects. 

Paper long abstract:

Flora Luma is a plant controlled installation co-developed by the author. It utilises bioelectrical signals, to drive color-animation of self-illuminating objects. 

Electrical signalling constitutes a part of plant vocabulary, employed for intra- and interspecies communication. Recent findings ascertain plants to be much more perceptive of their environment, than previously thought [1,2]. Terms like plant behaviour and plant intelligence, are entering scholarly discourse and have been the subject of both major articles in respected media [3,4] and artistic exploration [5]. Yet, the public is largely unaware of the richness of plant life and communication. 

Flora Luma is designed to provide an insight into the inner working of plant life.

An organic structure fashioned from optical fibres and cotton, provides the substrate on which the plant's signals are displayed. The fibre-optics are illuminated by color-sequencing RGB LEDs, the velocity controlled by the frequency of the emitted signal. As the plants react to touch, the spectator can directly interact with the plant and receive visible feed-back in real-time. Plant and human become hybrid agents jointly creating unique artistic reality. 

This interaction changes the relationship dynamics between human and plant, from anthropocentric/hierarchical and acted-upon, to one of equal and active partnership, as the plant is revealed as a responsive actant [6]. The installation therefore lends itself to scrutiny and discussion from an ANT perspective exploring the notion of collective being [7] .

Flora Luma will première at the Luminale16 in Frankfurt in March, during which data on the human-plant interaction will be collected.