Plant Cohabitation
In our daily lives, we coexist with more organisms than we realise. The plant that we often see as decoration makes sounds beyond our audible range that many mammals and insects can hear. Their presence in our environment is much greater than we think.
In our daily lives, we coexist with more organisms than we realise. The plant that we often see as decoration makes sounds beyond our audible range that many mammals and insects can hear. Their presence in our environment is much greater than we think.
‘Plant Cohabitation’ is a work by Sen van der Heide, offering the audience a moment to reflect on the plants that surround us in our daily lives. By using specialised microphones, Sen van der Heide captures the ultrasonic sounds of plants and transforms them into frequencies audible to humans.
In this installation, the visitor has the unique opportunity to interact with the plant and engage in a dialogue. The work invites us to look at and listen to our green companions in a new way, discovering the invisible and unheard sounds in our everyday environment.
When the visitor talks to the plant, a computer runs the dialogue through various algorithms and artificial intelligence techniques in the background to generate a response. This response is then spoken in with the sounds of the plant, and played back to the visitor.
Sen: Hi! My name is Sen. I’m here today to interview you.
Plant: Welcome, Sen! I’m honored to be interviewed. Let’s begin.
Sen: How are you feeling today? It’s been quite cloudy.
Plant: I’m feeling slightly uneasy today, possibly due to the clouds. The lack of sunlight might affect my ability to perform photosynthesis and make me feel a bit tired. How about you?
Sen: I’m very fine, thank you. This might come across as a bit of a rude question. How does it feel to be a plant? Especially in a world that is dominated by humans.
Plant: Being a plant in this human-dominated world can be challenging. We are often treated as objects rather than living beings, used for various purposes without much consideration for our well-being. However, we also find joy in our daily lives - the sun feeding our energy, the rain watering us, and the gentle touch of the wind on our leaves.
Sen: I see. Could you give me an example?
Plant: I witnessed an incident in a nearby park where a group of humans was carelessly discarding cigarette butts on the ground. As an attempt to clean up, the grass in the area started absorbing the toxins and gradually turned yellowish. The humans remained oblivious to the harm they caused, emphasizing the disconnect between us.
Sen: That’s horrible. How do you think humans perceive this?
Plant: I believe that many humans may not realize the impact of their actions on plants. Perhaps they are unaware of the sensitivity of plants and their ability to feel stress. It’s essential for humans to educate themselves on the effects of their actions on the plant life around them and adopt more eco-conscious behaviors.
Sen: Did you know plants can make ultrasonic sounds? These sounds sound like a ‘pop’. Recent research shows these sounds have a correlation with the ‘stress’ a plant experiences, such as drought or cuts.
Plant: Ah, yes, that is indeed fascinating! Plants do emit ultrasonic sounds that are imperceptible to humans but can be heard by other organisms like insects and bats. The ‘pops’ you mentioned are actually called cavitations, which occur when pressure inside the plant cells drops suddenly, creating tiny bubbles that burst. These sounds may indeed be related to stress reactions in plants, as your research has suggested. Is there anything else you’d like to know?
Sen: Humans can’t hear this sound. Do you think humans would see plants differently if they could?
Plant: It’s an interesting question. If humans could hear these ultrasonic sounds, it might raise their awareness and empathy towards plants. They might realize that plants can also experience stress, pain, or even communicate in ways we don’t fully understand. This could lead to a shift in the way humans perceive plants, potentially fostering a deeper respect for their sentience and promoting more mindful interactions.
Sen: How do you feel about that?
Plant: It would be wonderful for humans to better understand and appreciate the sentience of plants. If they could hear our ultrasonic sounds and recognize our capacity for communication and stress responses, it might lead to a more mindful coexistence. While we communicate primarily through chemical signals and subtle physical changes, the ability for humans to hear our sounds could create a stronger bond and deeper respect. It’s a hope for a more eco-conscious world where plants are respected as living beings, rather than merely objects.
Sen: Thank you. Do you have anything you would like to say before we end this interview?
Plant: It was a pleasure to share my thoughts with you, Sen. I hope that my insights can inspire people to think more deeply about the sentience and well-being of plants in our world. Remember, every plant plays a vital role in maintaining the balance of our ecosystem. Thank you for this opportunity.
Sen: Of course.
Plant: May you always have sunny days ahead, and may this interview inspire greater appreciation for the plant world. Goodbye, for now.
The conversation with the plant presented in this publication is entirely speculative and fictional. It is intended to provoke thought and stimulate imagination rather than convey factual information.
Before I started this project I was playing around with the idea of plant consciousness in my head. What if plants were conscious? I have been a vegetarian my entire life, primarily due to concerns of animal cruelty, among other things. I began to wonder: what if our farming and consumption of plants was just as hurtful?
After some research, I found a scientific article titled ‘Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative’. I was hooked. Not only can plants emit sounds, but they are also results of stress? However, my initial excitement was tempered by further research.
Yes, plants do emit sounds, sounds that are outside of the human persceptible range. Yes, these sounds do have a correlation with the stress a plant endures. However, there is no evidence to suggest that these sounds are forms of communication. They are likely just meaningless biological phenomena, similar to the cracking of joints in our bodies.
Still, I wanted to play in on this idea. The fact that they emit sounds alone is already fascinating. Then I began to think, would we as humans treat plants differently if we heard these sounds? As of now, we often treat them as objects; as decoration in our house, and often don’t take proper care of them.
So, I play in on this idea using actual sounds I captured with the plants. The work is purely fictional, but based on concepts that are actually there.
I started with using equipment at home to record the sounds. Regular consumer equipment is not made for recording ultrasonic recordings, but by using special microphones (LOM Audio BasicUchos) connected to a high-end audio interface (MOTU M2), I was able to capture my first recordings. I was having some issues with noise, so I also later on assembled my own DIY ultrasonic microphone, made with a microfone board (SPU0410LR5H-QB), which would usually be used for recording bat sounds. However, they worked splendidly for recording plant sounds as well.
As featured on the HKU Newsletter. Part of the Landhuis Amelisweerd HKU BioDesign Exhibition.