To follow up on the question 'what is an experiment':
In French the word for experiment is expérience, which could I think refer us back to an introspective, or radical empiricist approach (e.g. via William James), which makes experience both object and tool of analysis. Of course, experience is normally understood to be the property of the individual, but perhaps in this case it can be understood to be collective - or at least thoroughly dependent on collective processes (which will eventually include plants as well as machines). In fact, that could be a really interesting side question.... what is a collective experience/experiment? what is it good for?
Erin