Cognition boils down to the firings of neurons in our brains. That theory goes by names like “cognitivism,” “computationalism,” or “representational theory of mind.” It says, in short, the mind is in the head. It’s easy to dismiss such claims because they fly in the face of our leading theory of cognitive science. I was, according to Paco Calvo, guilty of “plant blindness.” Calvo, who runs the Minimal Intelligence Lab at the University of Murcia in Spain where he studies plant behavior, says that to be plant blind is to fail to see plants for what they really are: cognitive organisms endowed with memories, perceptions, and feelings, capable of learning from the past and anticipating the future, able to sense and experience the world. To understand how human minds work, he started with plants.
But what never occurred to me, not even once, was to wonder what the plants were thinking. Bushwhacking through my apartment, I worried whether the plants were getting enough water, or too much water, or the right kind of light-or, in the case of a giant carnivorous pitcher plant hanging from the ceiling, whether I was leaving enough fish food in its traps. When the pandemic hit, I brought more of them home, just to add some life to the place, and then there were more, and more still, until the ratio of plants to household surfaces bordered on deranged. During the day, its leaves would splay flat, sunbathing, but at night they’d clamber over one another to stand at attention, their stems steadily rising as the leaves turned vertical, like hands in prayer. Had something scurried? A mouse? Three jumpy nights passed before I realized what was happening: The plant was moving. The night I brought it home I heard a rustling in my room. The project uses L-ISA (Immersive Sound Art) technology to deliver highly realistic, spatialised sound, like in nature itself.I was never into house plants until I bought one on a whim-a prayer plant, it was called, a lush, leafy thing with painterly green spots and ribs of bright red veins. Salmo salar – The Three Realms by Chris Watson was commissioned by Serpentine Galleries and L-Acoustics on the occasion of The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish,, EartH London (part of the Serpentine’s General Ecology project). With additional support from Instituto Inclusartiz and Delfina Foundation In partnership with the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni and with the support of Fluxus Art Projects. The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish with Plants was curated by Lucia Pietroiusti (Curator, General Ecology, Serpentine) and writer and editor Filipa Ramos, with Holly Shuttleworth (Producer, Live Programmes, Serpentine) and Kostas Stasinopoulos (Assistant Curator, Live Programmes, Serpentine). Mal Journal Issue 3: PLANTSEX was on sale during the event. This is Watson’s first time working with L-ISA technology.Īs a prelude to The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish with Plants, an evening of screenings, talks and performances, titled PLANTSEX took place on 12 April at the Institut Français. Salmo salar was specially composed on this occasion for EartH Hackney’s unique 25.1 surround sound configuration, using L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology from L-Acoustics. The event marked the premiere of sound recordist Chris Watson’s new, multichannel diffusion piece Salmo salar – The Three Realms, which traces the Atlantic salmon run from the sea ice edge of the Barents Sea to their spawning grounds by the source of the River Coquet in Northumberland, recording along the way the sounds of vegetation from the ‘three realms’ of saltwater, freshwater and air. Vivian Caccuri, The New World Syrup & The Fever HandĬhris Watson, Salmo salar – The Three Realms, 45’, sound, commissioned by Serpentine Galleries and L-Acoustics on the occasion of The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish with Plants. Panel with Elvia Wilk, Amy Hollywood, Filipa Ramos and Lucia Pietroiusti
Panel with Michael Marder, Teresa Castro, Filipa Ramos and Lucia PietroiustiĪntoine Bertin, The Edge of the Forest (Yamaguchi ATGC), March 2019 – NTS RadioĮlvia Wilk, Death by Landscape: The Weird OutsideĪmy Hollywood, “The ecstasy define–“: Emily Dickinson’s Mystic Poetic Botany Teresa Castro, Plant Agency: A Filmic Anthology
Michael Marder, On Vegetal Movements in Politics * Natasha Myers, Rooting in the Planthroposcene Panel with Chris Watson, Carlos Magdalena and Hans Ulrich Obrist Saelia Aparicio, green shoots, 2019, animation Kapwani Kiwanga, Miranda Lowe, Kim Walker, Toxic agentsįilipa Ramos and Lucia Pietroiusti, Introduction Tabita Rezaire, Lubricate Coil Engine – Decolonial Supplication, offering, 2019
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