Project Description

Our worldview is constructed around the human-centric perspective and praises it as the most desirable achievement. Ever since our species managed to overrule all other inhabiting elements on this planet, we construct the world around us according to our needs, comfort, economic growth, political popularity, and based on the idea that intelligent behaviour is not possible with the infinitely superior human brain. It is easy to dismiss the agenda of players lower in any hierarchical construct especially if they lack in articulation and dependent of advocate supporting their corse. Still bound together by a global ecosystem it might be of value to attempt means of translation and representation. Hoping for the day to come where ecological allegories render themselves obsolete as a vision of direct conversation with different qualities and forms of life and intelligence will be possible.

What ongoing research in “plant – neurobiology” shows is that plants, by means we do not yet fully understand, are capable of behaving like intelligent beings. They are capable of storing—and learning from—memories of what happens to them. Ideas about the “wood-wide-web” connected through mycorrhizal fungi that proven to help distribute nutrition between different species of trees within a forest setting, so they all benefit equally from their capacities. Messages about predators are passed along the same way. So plant intelligence – conceptualized and researched since the 70ties qualifies for an experiment.

“Make it big,” they said.

In paintings of medieval times and old Egypt hierarchies of importance are represented in size according to their status. Truthful representations of perspective and space dismissed over a depiction of significance. Hence – big is more important than small. Still a commonly used tool and basics of graphic design education. Within this experiment, I tried to randomly tap into plant intelligence – finding ways to allow for a representation of meaning through size on printed matter. A unique inc developed with the capacities to stretch and follow a growth process helped to see if a growth process would allow for “voicing” random statements from a plant perspective. Not being precise scientifically speaking but artistically contributing to a conversation that is waiting to happen for a long time.