‘Plants’ was created for an exhibition in Siauliai, Lithuania in 2008. The theme of the exhibition was ‘Sensation’, and I wanted to further explore my ideas about nature and technology.

 

It is easy to think of plants as being part of the ‘background’ - as static and unresponsive - and so in this project I decided to make the plants’ activity more noticeable.

 

The plants are connected by crocodile clips to an amplifier chip and a binary counter, which in turn connect to a small motor. Changes in the plant’s behaviour and environment alter its conductive properties, and cause the motor to pulse at different speeds and intensities.

 

The aim was to illustrate the way in which electricity, as an elemental force, connects things we traditionally divide into the separate categories of ‘nature’ and ‘technology’.