Now it is possible to hear if a plant is doing well or bad. The Swedish speaker manufacturer Audio Pro has participated in an artistic, interactive exhibition, which captured the sound of plants telling you if they are stressed, dehydrated or in balance, and the visitor was able to hear this sound playing through speakers. The aim was to create a better understanding of nature's ecosystem and show the connections between humans and nature.
At the art gallery Kulturhotellet in Helsingborg, Sweden, an artistic exhibition called Nature's Harmony has just been displayed. Behind the project are Kulturhotellet's founder Peter Eriksson and Paul Khadra, who is a music designer and sound artist. The aim of the project is to give the visitors a greater understanding of nature and climate issues, as well as provide an insight into how we as people could act differently and thus create a better interaction with nature than we have today.
"Our exhibition shows our connection to nature, and how we are part of the same ecosystem." explains Peter Eriksson, founder of Kulturhotellet. "Man and nature have common challenges and share the same place. And it is important that we increase our understanding of this, which in today's politics may not be completely so. With this exhibition, we try to answer the question of how to achieve a more optimal future, so that we all start working to create a better future together.
In the exhibition Nature's Harmony, 14 artists have collaborated to create a multidisciplinary exhibition, where sound, light, video projections, sculptures and interactive elements meet in a joint event. As for the interactive part, this is strongly connected to sound, and therefore Peter Eriksson contacted the Swedish speaker manufacturer Audio Pro to get them to help with this part. Audio Pro's speakers have been used to both assist in a sound installation, which reproduces recorded sounds from several different nature reserves in the surroundings, but also in the interactive part where the visitor gets the chance to experience how plants emit different sounds depending on how they feel.
Jens Henriksen, CCO at Audio Pro, comments, "Of course, we became very interested in being able to participate in an exhibition that displays something that we didn't even know was doable, that is, that plants create sounds, and that these sounds are possible to both capture and use to learn more about how plants are doing. We find it important to learn more about the environment and what we can do to improve it, and also, it is very interesting to learn more about something that sounds a bit like science fiction. Incredibly exciting, we think.”
"It may sound incredible, but it turns out that plants emit different sounds depending on whether they are stressed, dehydrated or in balance. Recent studies on plant communication show that they respond to acoustic stimuli, for example plants emit clicking sounds through their root tips. In the exhibition, the visitor was able to create sound with the help of sensors placed on trees and plants. Here we have been able to capture the plants' pulses using the same technology that is used in lie detectors and play these sounds via Audio Pro's speakers. The aim of the exhibition has been to highlight the importance of nature, the environment and climate issues in a soft and artistic way." concludes Peter Eriksson.
