Relationship Between Life Systems and Music [Technology]
The image from above is Tuftroot (Dieffenbachia Maculata) a plant that contributes not only to clean air, but also degradates pollution. It is an indoor plant that needs indirect light and benefits a lot from humidity as being a tropical plant. She is my new instrument for my Botanika live performance.
In this post I would like to talk about the challenges I faced preparing my Live Performance and how the preparation brought connections to other possibilities outside the traditional artistic practice . The whole concept behind BOTANIKA is the connection between life systems and music. Yet music is only one single output from the interaction with life systems, based on encoded information in the form of action potential (voltage) . If we are able to understand and deepen in the way plants communicate or function, ¿how does a better understanding of nature can change the way we relate to our environment and so, change the way life systems and technology interact today. One example is the work being done in Russia where scientist are already using the action potential of plants, so themselves can trigger machines that regulate :
Light
Water
Wind / Air
Temperature / Humidity
This means that growing process can be autonomous if plants themselves can control the elements that directly influence their growth. What if by establishing communication and observation through music, ¿are we able to communicate with plants? ¿What are the effects of self generated music by plants on plants themselves? on others? We go back again to the topic about the plants consciousness and the ability to learn and feel. In the following video we are able to see a new symbiotic association with plants that show potential uses between nature and technology (Cyborg Botany). A device that transforms the action potential not into MIDI but to trigger movement functions.
We already know that plants have all our senses (they can see, hear, smell, touch, taste) yet based on their behavior with other plants and living organisms and taking into account that when they have the available technology, they react (The cyborg plant that moves), then :
¿Can plants then take decisions, show preferences? have emotions? Can they solve problems? Can they communicate?
Stefano Mancuso is an authority in the field of neurobiology in the world and founder of the International Society for Plant Signaling and Behavior. Based in Florence, where he is also a lecturer in the same University, he presents a new paradigm in our understanding of Botany Realm.
As a hard fact 99.7% of the biomass on earth is made by plants, while humans + animals only represent 0.3%.
First he speaks about how our brain is filtering the plant realm constantly just not to be overwhelmed about such mystery and amount of information. This concept is referred as “Plant Blindness”. Based on this experimentation he ensures that plants can:
Process information.
Sleep.
Have memory and can remember over 40 days, when the memory of an insect is 24 hours.
They can solve problems, make calculations (Venus Fly Trap).
They are intelligent and aware.
We are clearly underestimating the skills and abilities of plants, yet we still don’t know completely how they operate / work.
Plants are evolved beings. Without them a breathable atmosphere was never to be developed. These beings do not have organs for a specific function, like we humans do. It would be too dangerous, they have evolved due to predation as they are sessile, and their majority has passive movement. This way if they have been attacked, they are able to regenerate, while us organ dependant to a particular function, cannot entirely recover from predation.
As they evolved not having organs, this doesn’t mean they don’t have functions. They see without eyes, hear without ears, able to taste, smell and breathe.
Based on this information, ¿Can we say the plants are intelligent? If we agree on the fact that they are able to solve problems then we could state they are intelligent.
Now, can we state that plants re ¿Conscious? Meaning, ¿are they aware of their position regarding their environment?. According to Mancuso the problem is to agree on the right definition about consciousness, so in order to make this a bit easier I will quote Michio Kaku, famous physicist and author of “The future of the mind”.
"The number of feedback loops required to create a model of your position in space, with relationship to other organisms and finally a relationship to time”.
— Michio Kaku
It is also proven that plans are much more sensitive than animals. They can perceive more than 20 different chemical and physical parameters which we cannot perceive nor animals. This is the case of Electrical gradient, chemical gradient, magnetic fields, pathongents, etc, while still being important improve the air quality and transform CO2 into O2, necessary for life on planet.
One of the new discoveries is that plants sense also vibration, by conducting experiments where the roots of the plants would grow towards the sound source. While roots are growing there is also presence of sound for a short period of time. The signal is low so needs to be amplified, yet this may be a sort of location for the roots apex to have a sense of space and distribution in the growth process.
This and many other concepts illustrate the research of Stefano Mancuso, Director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, that from his point of view and I quote:
“Intelligence and Consciousness are real biological phenomenons.So they can be studied as real, they need to be studied as real biological phenomenons”.
— Stefano Mancuso
Taking into consideration the research from Stefano I am very intrigued yet also a bit scared about the negative use of technology on these life systems. Interfacing plants with robots can mean tremendous new innovations, like powering our electronics naturally, yet ¿at which cost? ¿Are plants a source of power or a Living creature that deserves the same respect as you and I or any animal. It’s hard to believe for me that discoveries will only satisfy themselves on understanding, without having ambition. For the sake of ourselves and the planet I hope not.