DesmodiumTime

DesmodiumTime examines the divergence of time perception between plants and humans. The piece consists of a series of time lapse videos taken of my dancing plant (Desmodium Gyrans) rotating its auxiliary leaflets in a photosynthetic dance. The original audio is preserved in the recordings at an increased speed, causing the sounds of human activity to morph into a polyphonic melody of clicks and whines. The implosion of human time into plant time highlights the sentience of plant beings and speaks to the possibilities of forging generative plant-human relationships through collective dreams of flourishing.

Desmodium gyrans was studied extensively by Charles Darwin in his book On the Movements Of Plants. Darwin was an early advocate for plant sentience and proposes that plant consciousness was situated in the root apex. Desmodium gyrans also possesses DMT in its root tissue, allowing for the harvesting of this compound for use in sonic ritual interfaces that unite agencies across taxonomic boundaries.

I ally myself with the dancing plant as a co-composer of further musical compositions, allowing the plant’s reactions to sonic stimuli to shape the trajectory of my soundscapes. This project operates on plant time, within the long term phytobiotic experience of a perennial displaced from its tropical origins, and inundated with the vibratory environment of New York City.

This plant also undergoes dramatic circadian rhythms, relaxing into sleep every day around 9:30pm (human time), and waking up about an hour before dawn at 5:40. This schedule may be a genetic remnant of evolution nearer to the equator, as the plant remains awake after the sun has set, illuminated only by the light pollution on East Houston Street.