Sonic Succulents: Plant Sounds and Vibrations at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Plant Listening
May 21 - Oct 27, 2019
"Close your eyes, prick your ears, and from the softest sound to the wildest noise, from the simplest tone to the highest harmony period from the most violent passionate scream to the gentlest words of sweet reason, it is by nature who speaks, revealing her being, her power, her life, and her relatedness so that a blind person, To whom the infinitely visible world is the knighted can grasp and infinite vitality and what can be heard." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A multi-seasonal solo exhibition in the heart of Brooklyn at the 52-acre Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Sonic Succulents: Plant Sounds and Vibrations is a multi-disciplinary investigation into the hidden voices of plants. The pieces utilize analog technology systems including specialized vibration sensors and amplifiers to liberate sounds that exist in the natural world. When the wind blows or when one physically touches a live plant, a unique multi-sensory interactive experience is created.
Corn Horns, 2019
The Corn Horns sound sculpture and installation in the discovery garden presented a vegetable bed with corn plants in the process of growing. The corn grew over the process of the six months during the exhibition and at the same time, the sounding horns amplified the sounds of the corn while it was growing. Over the course of the exhibition, the sounds changed according to the growth of the plant and the surrounding weather conditions. Additionally, corn plants were re-planted and the budding new plants were played the older plants’ growing sounds. Visitors were given flexibility on how they wanted to listen to the horns (sitting down, standing up, etc.), as the horns were placed at different heights.
Plant listening stations and Sonic Meditations, 2019
The plant listening stations were located around the garden at various designated points to give the visitor an opportunity to follow various instructions to observe and interact with a particular aspect on the environment in that location. The instructions guided the participant on a thoughtful meditation regarding sound and the plans in various environments around the garden.
The listening stations transformed 21 potted plants into musical instruments that release pops, crackles, beats and strums when touched by human hands. Familiar plants and cacti are amplified using handmade sensors so that visitors can make their own music by (carefully) “playing” their needles and leaves. The sensor amplifies both infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies that are produced by the plant that we are unable to hear with our ears. The plants are housed in CNC (Computer Numerical Control) carved foam that is a translation of the sound waves that the plants produce. The pieces seek to blur the line between what we see and hear, fostering an increasingly deeper companionship between humans and the plant world.
The wandering plant is a friend, a participant, an activator and collaborator. Visitors encountered the wandering plant being escorted around the garden at various times and were encouraged to interact and listen with it while exploring the garden on their own. This piece was created to explore the humor and challenge the ideas of companionship and domesticity when a plant is taken out of its normal context of “standing still”.
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Signage posted around Brooklyn Botanic Garden
This exhibition is inspired by natural forms and structures and addresses language and technology’s influence on our perception and sensory experiences of everyday life. By using sound to further activate the plant’s alive qualities, our relationship to them is heightened. Enabling one to hear what the plant is feeling upon its interaction with the outside world creates a new connection with something most are surrounded by on a daily basis and truly rethink our environment around us.