Plants

We have decided to build on recent scientific findings regarding plant sound emissions. By sound emissions, we do not mean the rustle of leaves in the wind and the cracking of branches under pressure, but rather undetectable ultrasonic sounds that can be detected from a distance. These noises are produced more frequently when the plant is stressed, such as during a drought.

For our project, we want to make these inaudible sounds audible to people, and we want to see how that impacts how people choose to interact with the plants. To observe the change in the sounds that our plants emit, we will allow for any sort of interaction to let the audience experiment with the sound emitted by the plants. The audience is allowed to touch, water, or even harm the plants by (e.g.) cutting stems or leaves. The reaction of the plants can then be observed by manually ‘listening in’ using a hand-held ultrasonic sensor.