TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

Light, its amount and qualities are essential signals for plants (Szabo et al., 2020; Müller-Xing, Xing and Goodrich, 2014). Scientists still explore the comprehensive role of light in plant life, yet this is no secret. But what if plants receive information about their surroundings in ways we have not supposed?

Our work is based on recent insights regarding Boquila trifoliolata mimicry. This South American vine imitates support plant leaves, and there is no consensus on the mechanism behind this phenomenon (Gianoli and Carrasco-Urra, 2014). One of the probable hypotheses, recently proposed based on experiments with artificial plants, suggests that B. trifoliolata can even mimic plastic leaves (White and Yamashita, 2022). The presumed nature of this sense may be physical and, possibly, optical. While this remains a hypothesis, it has already caused discussion not only about the plant sensory systems but also about the image of a plant among humanity. Plant blindness, a statistically proven phenomenon, describes the tendency to overlook plants, treating them as mere objects rather than living organisms (Hershey, 2002). This bias even skews conservation funding in favour of animals (Jose, Wu and Kamoun, 2019). Also, plants are often seen as “blind” themselves, perceived as receiving information through a narrow range of modalities. 

Our project, Plantoverse, is a media sculpture that illustrates how leaf epidermal cells transform images considering their optical properties (Haberlandt, 1905; Wager, 1909). Current research offers multiple explanations for the role of the leaf epidermis in light perception, along with its ecological and physiological implications (Poulson and Vogelmann, 1990; Bone, Lee and Norman, 1985). In our sculpture, image from built-in cameras is captured and processed through a mathematical model based on our data on epidermal cell optics. The resulting image becomes part of the artwork, symbolising how external perceptions shape identity and drive responses. Ultimately, this can define the quality of interaction between the parties.