The Plants Sense

The Plants Sense is an installation that explores new forms of relationship between humans and plants through technologies capable of making perceptible signals that normally remain beyond the reach of our senses. The project brings together art, science, and technology to approach other forms of perception and sensitivity present in the plant world.

The work takes the form of an interactive garden in which a series of sensors record in real time the electrical variations occurring within plants in response to changes in their environment, such as the presence of other living beings or variations in environmental conditions. This information is processed and translated into vibrations, movements, and low-frequency sounds, generating a system in which the plants themselves activate and modulate the different elements of the installation.

The data collected from the different plants are processed together using a Kohonen Self-Organizing Map (SOM), allowing the garden to function as a single interconnected system. The resulting information determines the behavior of a series of robotic plants, soft interfaces, and a body interface integrated into the installation.

Through these devices, visitors can experience plant activity through different modes of perception. The soft interfaces make it possible to feel their variations through touch and vibration, while the body interface translates these signals directly onto the body through vibrations and low-frequency sounds.

The Plants Sense thus approaches technology as an extension of our perception: a tool for mediation capable of translating and transmitting plant signals that, due to the limitations of our sensory system, we cannot perceive directly. The installation proposes a space of encounter between different forms of life, opening up new possibilities for observing, sensing, and interpreting plant activity.