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Paper short abstract

With the aim of problematising and situating the ideas of plant agency and more-than-human collaboration in contemporary art, I analyse works created by two contemporary Brazilian artists who work with plants in an intimate dialogue with the field of plant electrophysiology.

Paper long abstract

In this paper, I discuss some intersections between art, science, and technology in the context of climate change and environmental crisis, and I explore the idea of more-than-human collaboration being developed by artists and theorists. To do so, I analyse works created by two contemporary Brazilian artists who work with plants: Guto Nóbrega and Ivan Henriques. More specifically, I focus on these two artists' experiments with the vegetal world—experiments mediated by technological devices that give life to hybrid beings produced through the hybridisation of plants with robotic systems—and the dialogues they establish with the field of Plant Electrophysiology. Through both convergences and divergences, I compare the plant considered as a sensor in a symbiotic relationship between artist, work, and spectator, a position defended by Nóbrega, with the empowerment of plant species proposed by Henriques, which allows plants to acquire additional abilities, such as using a machine that enables them to move in space. I argue that the intersection of art, science, and technology not only helps to produce responses to current crises by offering new perspectives, but also questions, problematizes, and situate the ideas of plant agency and more-than-human collaboration in contemporary artistic practices.