Electronic flora

Electronic flora

Although plants are sessile organisms, they continuously explore their surroundings. Plants consist of different internal and external networks that intertwine them with their environments. Artist duo Lerin/Hystad records electrical data from plants that are translated into sounds through sonification – the notes, melodies and rhythms of the music are determined by the plants themselves. Yet plants are nestled among countless other organisms, and when the duo places their sensors on the leaves to capture a moment’s electric activity, they do not just capture the plants but also all the threads from the ecological weave in which they are entangled.

This is the digital companion to Electronic flora, a publication by Lerin/Hystad released through Art & Theory Publishing. It documents the duo’s meetings with more than a hundred different plants through detailed graphite drawings and music. Through various residency programs, Electronic flora has taken the duo to Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and India, as well as several places in Sweden. In the publication Lerin/Hystad shares some of the experiences they have had through travelogues on their excursions. To further enrich the book, the duo has also invited ten artists, biologists, philosophers, art scholars and curators to give their unique perspectives on the duo’s artwork and vegetal being. Contributors include Giovanni Aloi, Nadia Bensbih, Emanuele Coccia, Suresh Jayaram, Mats Karström, Brandon LaBelle, Lars Lerin, Michael Marder, Timothy Morton and Elisabet Yanagisawa.

Artist duo Lerin/Hystad comprises Simon Torssell Lerin and Bettina Hvidevold Hystad. Since 2010, they have been working together in the borderlands between visual art and experimental music. For more information about Lerin/Hystad, please visit lerinhystad.com

For more information about the Electronic flora, publication please visit artandtheory.org Website by Konst & Teknik