erne murphy · 2026
This plant is signaling.
This is how to listen.
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What is happening
"What drives life is... a little current, kept up by the sunshine."
— Albert Szent-Györgyi
We have more in common with plants than we might think. Electric signals within both human and plant bodies coordinate responses to our environment and to each other.
The plant senses
A device called the Biotron reads the plant's bioelectrical field: changes in resistance and capacitance caused by ongoing internal processes and your proximity.
The plant signals
Those electrical changes are translated into MIDI, a musical language, in real time.
You witness
What you hear and see on screen is a translation of the plant's actual electrical activity. The artist's voice, recorded, transformed, and set loose, responds to the plant's signals in real time. Interact with the plant and you become the conductor of something that is neither fully living nor fully machine.
"I really want everybody, especially kids, to understand that plants are very sensitive. Please be gentle to all the plants outside."
Listen for the "too close" sound and watch for the flash — that's the plant saying back off.
How to interact
...approach slowly from a distance?
Walk slowly toward the plant from about 4 feet away. Notice if the sound or image shifts as you get closer. At what distance does the plant seem to sense you?
...hold your hand near a leaf without touching?
Stand with some space between your body and the plant. Hold your palm out about a foot away. Slowly move your hand closer, inch by inch. Where do the most interesting changes occur?
...touch a leaf very gently?
Try touching near the tip of a leaf, then closer to the stem. The plant responds differently depending on where you make contact. If the sound becomes intense, give it a little space.
Reflect
What changes in sound or image do you notice?
Is there a relationship between how you move and what you hear?
What do you think is happening within the plant?
What would it mean to share a language with something that isn't human?
Tonight's collaboration will be recorded and woven into a new piece of music. The plant is performing. So are we, together with it.
This is Interspecial Signal, an ongoing installation exploring what it means to listen across species. Your presence here is part of it.
erne murphy
ernemurphy.com