How can we understand vegetative life on its own terms, not that which is “brain-less”, “movement-less”…?
How can one ‘translate’ plant movement, which is alien to us, using primarily, but not exclusively cinematic tools? How can this ‘translation’ be made to convey an understanding of vegetal life in its own terms ?
In this research-creation project I study plant intelligence, and vegetal agency in order to reveal a non-anthropocentric way of being. To generate novel insight my encounter with plant life calls for a re-evaluation of the notion of ‘vegetal’ and ‘vegetatif’ which relegates plants on the lower rungs of evolution, and calls for an ethical consideration of non-humans together with humans.
Intertwining this conceptual exploration with empirical work, my research-creation project proposes the building of vegetal “lenses” and “apparatuses for sites of encounter” that would make legible the activity of plants respecting the complexity of plant behavior in their environment. To be clear, although my project is informed by botany I do not aim to explain how plants move the way they do -- the province of science -- by why, aiming at a true “cross-cultural” approach between humans and plants.
