Cyber (-netik) Forest

About the Work

The work examines the perception of plants, especially trees, and questions their relationship to time, intelligence and adaptability. Plants move in temporal dimensions that are largely inaccessible to human perception. The work takes up this asynchronicity and shifts it experimentally: What happens when a tree is attributed with extended sensory and motor abilities that enable it to react more quickly to external influences?

At the center is the speculative investigation of how the perception, 'thinking' and actions of a tree could change if reactions no longer take place over years or decades, but within humanly experienceable time periods. The work asks about possibilities for independent, flexible adaptation of plants to their environment – up to the idea of a 'part-time forest' that adapts to human usage times and places.

At the same time, the focus is on humans: How does our relationship with nature change when we perceive plants not as passive organisms, but as independently acting, intelligent actors? The work moves at the intersection of nature, technology and imagination and invites us to critically question established attributions of intelligence, control and use.

Funding

Cyber(-netik) Forest, Work Grant from Stiftung Kulturwerk, 2022/23.

Exhibitions

2023, Solo exhibition Bath in the Part-time Forest, White Hall of the Eisfabrik, Hannover, curated by Dagmar Brand, funded by the Cultural Office of the State Capital Hannover.