chlorophylla.live was initiated as a platform to map phonetically the rhythmic rustle of the environment accompanying a worm breeds a dentrolite breeds a prototype – an exhibition by Anca Bucur, curated by quote_unquote.
Several long-range, low-power radios were inserted into and around a worm breeds a dentrolite breeds a prototype sculptures from the Botanical Garden of Bucharest in order to create an alternative ecological network that communicates (with) the environment. The information provided by the unearthed objects through their sensors is rendered in the plots below. Several sound recordings capturing both species and sculptures of an ill-edged anthropic geography are currently available on mixcloud. The platform opens up various research questions on the relations between factors such as air pollution, noise, atmospheric pressure, soil temperature or humidity and the sonic productions of the species co-habiting the area.
Sensor information has been released in a public repository and an executable notebook is available here.
a worm breeds a dendrolite breeds a prototype navigates a frontier landscape of multispecies entanglements and onto-epistemic frictions, unearthing the ecological dimensions of their mingled spacetimemattering organization. Resurfacing from beneath the soil, invertebrate molecular agents – vermes, parasites or arthropods – stretch their limbs, unfasten their mandibles and gape their gonopods to pair and entwin their abreast greener kindreds for a more vivid naturecultural scenario to manifest and shimmer. If oaks and elms and cypress would grow backwards, if rinds and mosses would wrap inwards, if all these roots could stem the heights in circles and birds not seal their eyes, lowlifes would softly run riot. Whilst examining the nature of difference between these living forms, Anca Bucur’s sculptures and interventions within the Botanical Garden chart an understanding of matter not only as a product of interrelated semiotic practices, but also as an already composite factor in its iterative aggregations and vital materializations. Soft bodied organisms, smooth skins and spontaneous relics are oozing into visibility to reshape the landscape, manufacturing the soil as both their habitat and their end-product. Vermicular intelligence returns open an ecology of the living soil, annexing its limbless embodiment to conjure a multispecies community of biota, aerating the land and burrowing new life into it.
