Sonic Succulents at Second Home, London

Plant Listening

September - October 2015
Second Home, London, UK

Sonic Succulents is a series of sound objects, comprised of living plants and handmade sensors that allow people to investigate and interact with the sound pieces themselves. This project was conceived from an interest in exploring the relationship people have with sound in the everyday world and how technologies new and old inform and in turn affect their behavior. Instead of creating an object/sculpture where the artist is fully in control of what the viewer/participant listens to, this piece provides an opportunity to the viewer to control and explore the plant-produced sound themselves in order to have a more intimate and investigatory experience. By animating the plant with sound, it creates a new connection with something most people live with and are surrounded by on a daily basis. Through this interaction with the vibrations, one is able to hear what the plant feels.

This work is about the subconscious energy plants bring - whether one consciously acknowledges it or not, the plant’s presence is affecting and changing one’s relationship to the environment. A handmade sensor was created for this project that translates the touching of a plant into hearing what it is physically feeling on the inside, rather than what we usually hear when we hear leaves rustle in the wind for example.