A new work by Found Electronics (Ziggy Campbell and Simon Kirby):
Appearing in the Palm House of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh from June 14th for at least two weeks, Three Pieces is a composition for plants, yangqin, bamboo robot and robotic chimes. It is designed as a collaboration between robots, traditional instruments, and living things. A traditional Chinese dulcimer is played by a robot with many bamboo fingers while the surrounding foliage hides an ensemble of robotic chimes. Despite being separate individuals, the robots communicate and perform together. The robot performers are conducted by all the living things in the Palm House. The moisture content of the soil changes slowly as the plants absorb water, while on a much faster timescale, the temperature changes in the building as animals, including humans, move about. The installation detects this living presence in the Palm House and the music changes accordingly. The robots react to humans, but their mood alters with the plants.
http://found-electronics.net/featured-project/three-pieces
Guto Nóbrega is a Brazilian artist and Ph.D. candidate at The Planetary Collegium programme at Plymouth University. He has made a number of works involving plants and other living organisms.
Equilibrium is part of an ecology of hybrid artefacts in development. It is a system in which a plant and an artificial mechanism share a mutual relationship. This hybrid system is composed of two small motors, solar cells, microchip, light sensors and a plant. The whole system is arranged in a form of a balance that is able to spin around its axes in a compass manner. The artificial system occupies one side of the balance and it is set to perform in a photovore (seeking light) behaviour by controlling two propellers which put the whole system to rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise. A small plant is located on the other side of the balance so that when the balance rotates in its axes the plant is posited towards the light. In turn, along with the plant two solar cells absorb light and feed the artificial system.
Leaves System is an aesthetic experiment but also a methodological tool for practical investigation. It seeks to explore how is possible to integrate new digital technologies and natural system in order to highlight subjective aspects of communication and interaction. It is also a way of inquiring whether or not it is possible to draw with the invisible lines that connect organisms to one another.
http://www.narrativasdigitais.eba.ufrj.br/Portifolio/Research.html
I guess this one is more the “making art for living systems” kind but the installation includes plants so here we go.
Animals, Tom Sach’s solo exhibition at Sperone Westwater in New York, includes a tower called “La Guardia,” was custom designed for the cat that slinks around Mr. Sachs’s studio. A litter box with revolving parts, to reduce cleaning tasks, is topped by a small McDonald’s that serves cat food; this rises to a Japanese Zen garden with a video of clouds and birds chirping, which graduates to a penthouse based on the control tower at La Guardia Airport, where the push of a paw produces catnip atomizing spray.
Via the new york times.