PLANTS research update

Hi TML,

Very happy to see ongoing explorations of the EV building's rich entanglements with photosynthesizing things!! As Xin Wei mentioned, I'm working on an MSc in the UK right now, but I'm at your service to the extent that it's possible. I'll be going to do field work in a month, and will be far away from the web, so if you need my support with PLANTS, best to get in touch soon. 
love,

Laura


On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 9:01 PM, Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu> wrote:
Dear TMLabbers,

Hurrah for this fresh sprout!

I’d like to point to people who played key roles in earlier generations of plant studies
(this is incomplete — I’m missing at least one

Flower Lunn
Tim Sutton
Josée-Anne Drolet
Katie Jung
Michal Seta
Jane Tingley
Tobias Glidden
Laura Boyd-Clowes
Morgan Sutherland
Carina (Gaspar?)
Alex Gaskin
Nina Bouchard

I’d like to especially recognize the people who actually cared for the plants continuously over the months and years, treating them as living beings rather than objects, with whom there developed a continuous dynamically constituting material relation.   These few people gave the work some ethical credibility.  (Thank you.)  Starting with Flower’s art during her MFA, Josee-Anne nursed 8 generations plant to seed, which gave us some diachronic as well as technical credibility.    After Flower, Laura Boyd-Clowes probably has gone the furthest of us all in her practice and her thinking about vegetal experience, ranging from her leadership in our Spinoza seminar, the reading of Goethe’s Metamorphosis of Plants (1790), to her Philosophy senior thesis, and now her MSc. graduate studies in ethnobotany at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

I also point to our friend and partner : Prof. Natasha Myers, and her grad students in the Plant Studies Collaboratory at York University.   TML and PSC have exchanged ambassadors : Morgan Sutherland and Laura ours :)

With affection and esteem,
Xin Wei



http://vegetal.posthaven.com



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Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering • Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts / Director • Synthesis Center / ASU
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab / topologicalmedialab.net/  /  skype: shaxinwei / +1-650-815-9962
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On Mar 19, 2014, at 10:50 AM, topological media <topologicalmedia@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear all,

Following last weeks' campfire, were the PLANTS research arose a great interest, we explored some external venues for growing our plants and came to the conclusion it is better for us and them to co-habite in the TML lab (at least before September). Therefore, we will need to design and build a platform for "growing vegetal life forms in the lab along with a technological apparatus for sensing, recording and re-manifesting vegetal activities/forces" (Navid).

Since many of us are interested in the project and there is plenty to do, we decided to create several working-research groups to handle the different immediate practical tasks. We are also interested in organizing discussions with past and future TML affiliates who have experience or interest in the project. The meetings and presentations will be organized by TML, through Nina and Lauren, in a collaboration with the ASU Synthesis Center research with the theme PLACE and ATMOSPHERE, directed by Xin Wei.

The first working research groups will take place in the following days:

Wednesday March 19th, 12-1pm TML lab
first meeting of the GROWING & GROOMING team.

Thursday March 20th, 12-2pm TML lab
first meeting of the SENSING team.

Monday morning March 24nd, TBD, Jean-Talon Market
G&G field trip.

The general meeting of the PLANTS research group, including all working groups was fixed for Tuesdays 3:30-4:00pm (just before campfire, but not during campfire :). Modifications to this schedule will be announced if needed.

Some of you already manifested your choice for a specific working-research group (Lauren, Nina, Elysha, Navid and Oana for G&G; Navid, Julian and Oana for SENSING), but those who didn't please join and let us include you in the group closer to your interest.  

hope to see you all soon,

Oana




-- 

Michael Marder Plant-Thinking : A Philosophy of the Vegetal

Here in the desert paradise, some of us at ASU are laying ground work for the second research theme to be added to the Synthesis Center’s masthead: 
PLACE and ATMOSPHERE.   We’re beginning an internal grant proposal.  It may be smart to coordinate both the discussion, seed experiments (so-to-speak), and some target funding for this work.

Background:

Current reading: 
Michael Marder Plant-Thinking : A Philosophy of the Vegetal (Columbia, 2013)



vegetally, atmospherically yours

vegetal life : Maja Kuzmanovic, How do we rehearse an uncertain future? (2013)

Let's invite Maja Kuzmanovic for the Place and Atmosphere stream in 2015-2016 ?  - xw

Maja Kuzmanovic – ‘How do we rehearse an uncertain future?’

IMPROVING REALITY 2013 FILMS - Session Two
BRIGHTON DIGITAL FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 5 2013 
STUDIO THEATRE, BRIGHTON

The process of reimagining requires being aware of what is, what has gone before and attempts to answer the tricky questions of “what if…” Maja will talk about how FoAM create real life labs to explore these questions using methods such as ‘future pre-enactments’ and alternate reality narratives, attempting to transform speculative fiction into embodied foresight. As the loops between imagination and reality can be either tightened or unwound, reimagining becomes a heuristic process of perpetually walking into a swarm of possible futures, immersing ourselves in what might be and finding ways to thrive in conditions of uncertainty.


Ghent


Keep in mind Isabel Stengers’ & Pignarre’s proposal in the final chapter of Capitaiist Sorcery?

make an experimental plan

Dear Plant People:
Nina, Julian, Nikos.

Yes -- Nikos cites an excellent research strategy: prioritize research over tool making :)  However, I believe the PLSS / SAF fund ran out already, so the only way would be if some students adopt this project as well as the strategy of buying a solution for data acquisition rather than making yet another one themselves.

Maybe it'd be worth writing up a very small, informal experimental plan:
goal
apparatus
budget
timeline

That way, we can move on to the real fun and potentially fresh contribution, which is mapping and entanglement of human and plant expression!

Enthusiastically,
Xin Wei

On Nov 19, 2012, at 11:40 AM, Nikolaos Chandolias wrote:

Yes, I didn't mean to use it as it is though. Although it might be funny having a plant to tweet you "I am thirsty, come and water me" :), but I understand that is not in the purposes of the lab. 

My suggestion was mostly for having a system implemented that can give us all this kind of data, such as humidity, light and temperature and then use this data for non-human, vegetal centric implementation to the TML's theatrical scene/ environment. However, there might be different ways to do so than the system I aforementioned, but as I understand so far with our current Arduino system the information we are taking is relevant only to the plants soil humidity. It might be of our purposes to implement also other kinds of data that are relevant to the plants vitality.

Cheers,
Nikos

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 11:03 AM, Sha Xin Wei <shaxinwei@gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, thanks for that.

However I think the TML  could go a different route and NOT vector through human semiotics (obvious crutches like language, tweets, and "social media"  -- hence topological media :)

Shall someone talk with Elio as a follow-on to Elysha's initiative, to look for non-human, vegetal-centric signal analysis.  (Also email Prof. Natasha York for botanical references.)

Also at OCAD Toronto, Prof.  in the DFI program
Kate Hartman, co-creator of Botanicalls, a system that lets thirsty plants place phone calls for human help  

Kate Hartman is an artist, technologist, and educator whose work spans the fields of physical computing, wearable electronics, and conceptual art. She is the co-creator of Botanicalls, a system that lets thirsty plants place phone calls for human help, and the Lilypad XBee, a sewable radio transceiver that enables your clothing to communicate. Her work has been exhibited internationally and featured by the New York Times, BBC, CBC, and NPR. Hartman recently moved to Toronto to join the Digital Futures Initiative at OCAD University where she is the Assistant Professor of Wearable & Mobile Technology.


Kate is was a nice person in the PLSS network.  She   came to visit TML a couple of years ago (or so)

Xin Wei
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Canada Research Chair • Associate Professor • Design and Computation Arts • Concordia University
Director, Topological Media Lab (EV7.725) • topologicalmedialab.net/  •  skype: shaxinwei •

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On Nov 19, 2012, at 10:40 AM, Nikolaos Chandolias wrote:

Hello everybody,

A friend of mine today forwarded me a really interesting system of Hans Crijns. He developed GrowGuard - a wireless monitoring system for plants - because he grew tired of not knowing why his plants were withering away. GrowGuard is a networked system made to tweet or text you about your plants’ desires for humidity, light, and temperature.

I think that we can might  use this kind of system in parallel to the existing one and get all this other information that might be proved valuable!

Regards,
Nikos

On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 1:16 PM, Sha Xin Wei <shaxinwei@gmail.com> wrote:
Regarding sloooowwwwww plant changes to sound  Adrian sent me a paper to review last year about mapping plant data to something that dancers could work with.  I'd like to track that down!

On a different note :

Brian Eno, January 07003: Bell Studies for The Clock of The Long Now
1st-14th January 07003, Hard Bells, Hillis Algorithm



Enjoy!
Xin Wei

__________________________________________________________________________
____
____
Canada Research Chair • Associate Professor • Design and Computation Arts • Concordia University
Director, Topological Media Lab (EV7.725) • topologicalmedialab.net/  •  skype: shaxinwei •

+1-
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Botanicalls, yet another anthropocentric conceit

Yes, thanks for that.

Also at OCAD Toronto, Prof.  in the DFI program
Kate Hartman, co-creator of Botanicalls, a system that lets thirsty plants place phone calls for human help  .

Kate Hartman is an artist, technologist, and educator whose work spans the fields of physical computing, wearable electronics, and conceptual art. She is the co-creator of Botanicalls, a system that lets thirsty plants place phone calls for human help, and the Lilypad XBee, a sewable radio transceiver that enables your clothing to communicate. Her work has been exhibited internationally and featured by the New York Times, BBC, CBC, and NPR. Hartman recently moved to Toronto to join the Digital Futures Initiative at OCAD University where she is the Assistant Professor of Wearable & Mobile Technology.

Kate is was a nice person in the PLSS network.  She   came to visit TML a couple of years ago (or so)

HOWEVER, I think the TML could go a different route and NOT vector through human semiotics (obvious crutches like language, tweets, and "social media") ... That's why we're called the topological media lab :)

Shall someone talk with Elio as a follow-on to Elysha's initiative, to look for non-human, vegetal-centric signal analysis.  (Also email Prof. Natasha Meyers, at York University for botanical references.)

On Nov 19, 2012, at 10:40 AM, Nikolaos Chandolias wrote:

Hello everybody,
A friend of mine today forwarded me a really interesting system of Hans Crijns. He developed GrowGuard - a wireless monitoring system for plants - because he grew tired of not knowing why his plants were withering away. GrowGuard is a networked system made to tweet or text you about your plants’ desires for humidity, light, and temperature.
I think that we can might  use this kind of system in parallel to the existing one and get all this other information that might be proved valuable!
Regards,
Nikos

On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 1:16 PM, Sha Xin Wei <shaxinwei@gmail.com> wrote:
Regarding sloooowwwwww plant changes to sound  Adrian sent me a paper to review last year about mapping plant data to something that dancers could work with.  I'd like to track that down!

On a different note :

Brian Eno, January 07003: Bell Studies for The Clock of The Long Now
1st-14th January 07003, Hard Bells, Hillis Algorithm

Enjoy!
Xin Wei

Brian Eno, Bell Studies for The Clock of The Long Now

Regarding sloooowwwwww plant changes to sound  Adrian sent me a paper to review last year about mapping plant data to something that dancers could work with.  I'd like to track that down!

On a different note :

Brian Eno, January 07003: Bell Studies for The Clock of The Long Now
1st-14th January 07003, Hard Bells, Hillis Algorithm


Enjoy!
Xin Wei

__________________________________________________________________________
____
____
Canada Research Chair • Associate Professor • Design and Computation Arts • Concordia University
Director, Topological Media Lab (EV7.725) • topologicalmedialab.net/  •  skype: shaxinwei •

+1-
650-815-9962
__________________________________________________________________________
____
____


[Vegetal] PLSS meeting DOODLE

Hi Katie and fellow Vegetals :)

I included Elio because I think he'd be a great person to involve artistically as well as technically.

Speaking of more artistic thought, I also cc. Elysha & Laura because they have vital and thoughtful interests in the vegetal, and are welcome to attend whenever possible :)

Cheers,
Xin Wei

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http://vimeo.com/tml/plss


Begin forwarded message:

From: katie Jung <topologicalmedia@gmail.com>
Date: November 7, 2012 12:50:05 PM EST
To: x s <shaxinwei@gmail.com>, nina bouchard <nina.bouchard@gmail.com>, Julian Stein <julian.stein@gmail.com>, Jason Hendrik <darkjohnnies@gmail.com>, Alex Gaskin <alexandergaskin@gmail.com>, Elizaveta Solomonova <liza.solomonova@gmail.com>, Nikolaos Chandolias <nikos.chandolias@gmail.com>, Josee-Anne Drolet <joseeanne@gmail.com>
Subject: PLSS meeting DOODLE

HIHI! 

It's time for PLSS to meet! 

Here is a link to a doodle so we can find a time when everyone can come! (if i've missed anyone crucial to the conversation please let me know) 


FoAM: invitation to Diuloz - Inner Garden

From our friends in FoAM, an autonomous art group based in Brussels, the much fairer sibling to the TML...
Xin Wei

Begin forwarded message:

From: FoAM <info@fo.am>
Date: October 23, 2012 10:28:53 AM EDT
Subject: [ o O. [ foam ] .O o. ] invitation to Diuloz - Inner Garden 


Diuloz - Inner Garden 28 October 2012, 9:00–17:30 Plantentuin, Victoriakas K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35 9000 Gent From the verdant greenhouses of the Botanic Gardens in Gent, Stevie Wishart and the Garden Voices invite you to an ode to viriditas ("greenness"), the term Hildegard von Bingen coined as a metaphor for the life-force she found in plants. From sunrise to sunset the Victoriakas is filled with sonic musings, a playful "garden of voices" sung in Hildegard's invented language, Lingua Ignota, celebrating the greening force of nature in its continuous cycles of growth and decay. The performances take place on the canonical hours of the monastic orders: 9, 12, 15 and 17. Composed by Stevie Wishart in collaboration with the Garden Voices Concept: FoAM and Stevie Wishart Soloist: Penelope Turner Garden Voices: Rasa Alksnyte, Bartaku, Alkan Chipperfield, Cocky Eek, Eva De Groote, Pieter De Wel, Nik Gaffney, Maja Kuzmanovic, Kathleen Melis, Barbara Raes, Imogen Semmler, Christina Stadlbauer, Gerlinde Vanbergen, Lies Vanborm With special thanks to Maja Kuzmanovic, Osbert Farnaby, Penelope Turner, Eva de Groote and Chantal du Gardin. http://fo.am/inner-garden/ http://www.steviewishart.net/ http://vooruit.be/nl/serie/70 With the support of the Culture Programme (2007–2013) of the European Union (project PARN, Borrowed Scenery). Inner Garden is a part of the Electrified project of Vooruit and SMAK. Supported by the Flemish Authorities.


[ o O. [ foam ] .O o. ] summer update 02012

Mayan Long count = 12.19.19.9.9; tzolkin = 2 Muluc; haab = 12 Tzec

The summer season is a time for us at FoAM to take a few steps back from our busy routines to engage in uninterrupted creative endeavours, including some revitalising fieldwork. Two broad and eclectic questions will be taking centre stage in the coming months: how do we prepare for uncertain futures, and what would a plant-inspired culture look like?

In the Future Preparedness case study we explore how to re-imagine and rehearse life in a variety of futures. Our aim is to find deeply playful and probing techniques from which possible futures can emerge as artistic experiments. In these experiments we look to how arts and culture adapt to turbulent environmental, economic and political conditions and ask what does it mean for a culture to be resilient.To this end, we're sending Dougald Hine on an artist-journeyman's quest to find some answers.

Cultural mobility is one of the aspects of contemporary culture that might prove fragile in a world without cheap fossil fuels. What will happen to globetrotting digerati as today's cheap travel becomes prohibitively expensive? Adopting the artist's time-honoured trial-and-error approach, we're joining the Resilients on expeditions where modes of transport become artworks in their own right: from recycled boats powered by sun, wind or rockets to refitted bicycles and unmanned aerial vehicles. With such experiments we combine the capacity both to adapt and envision. Developing these two abilities hand-in-hand, we can imagine desirable futures while at the same time adapting our imaginations to whatever the future might hold.

In this vein, Borrowed Scenery envisages what it would be like if plants became active participants in shaping human society. Here, nature is imbued with a voice, and culture incorporates non-human, planetary 'others'. Curious about what a city would look like from the plant's point of view, together with Wilfried Houjebek we embarked on plant-guided psychogeographic drifts. To discover the consequences of plants having legal rights in an anthropocentric legal system, we invited Heath Bunting and An Mertens to set up a temporary Identity Bureau for trees. Taking this a step further, we sought to infuse urban spaces of the present with a taste of a world in which human-plant interaction permeates artistic and social life.

Our muse in this was Viriditas, the infinite greenness described by mystic and herbalist Hildegard von Bingen. We're working with Stevie Wishart to compose an ode to Viriditas uniting vegetal and human voices in a musical Inner Garden. In another experiment, Bartaku and Christian Thornton are exploring the symbiotic relationship between an agave and a glass sculpture, growing and dying together over a span of decades. In the digital realm we have continued to experiment with plant games and foraging aids to extend their reach into the uncharted territories of patabotany.

We invite you to keep your eyes peeled for this motley crew of fieldworkers, wanderers, cultural pilgrims and patabotanists as they meander between the human and vegetal realms. You'll find us on mountains and islands, in cities, and traversing a route determined by a random crease in a map. We wish you all the best on your inner and outer journeys, and hope to meet you along the way.

Bon voyage!

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