Plant Plant Play
Who is playing, who is feigning? Is there someone taking their revenge? Plant Plant Play is a conceptual theatre play that illustrates the plants regaining their power from the humans, gaining autonomy over themselves and the climate. Please, oh dearest, gentle visitor, do come closer, take a look - I promise you, you will not regret it…maybe…
Brainstorming
Artists we used as inspiration:
Ideas
Idea 1
We experimented and toyed around with a lot of different ideas. Additionally, it was a challenge to imagine how these ideas would be applicable to reality and how likely we would be able to pull it off with our skillset. At first, we had the idea of a plant which talks when people step close. It could have uttered that it needs sunlight or water when one of its needs isn't met. The environment was supposed to interact with the plant and the plant would have relied on the visitors. The plant could have also reacted on the visitors voices. We thought about using motion sensors that would trigger the plant when a certain amount of people would be in the room. If too many people were in the room, the plant would have sensed a disharmony and an according disharmony noise would have been played. Other sensors could have been a moisture sensor for the soil or a sound sensor so that the plant could react to the sound like a stressed zoo animal held captive. We also thought about an additional light that could shine on a spectrum to show happiness or overstimulation. Another idea of portraying the discomfort or wellbeing of the plant would have been a shivering motion or gentle movement according to its mood.
Contra: Although this way, the plant would have taken on the role of a marionette, and that is why we changed the idea.
Idea 2
At this point we started thinking about the interaction between plants and humans, and their dynamic and power positions. We disliked the idea of humans controlling the plant and wanted it to be more autonomous. We asked ourselves who controlled whom, and thought about how traditionally nature can be influenced negatively by the factors weather conditions, environmental conditions and humankind: Extreme weather could lead to destruction of plants, e.g. hail, heat waves or frost. The environment could change to become uninhabitable or poisoned by humans and in this way also pose a threat to plants. Last, humans could also artificially manipulate plants with genetic engineering as another way of taking the plant's autonomy and natural existence.
Conclusion: We wanted to swap around the roles of plants and the environment to make the plants autonomous. We asked ourselves what would happen if the plant could poison the environment, manipulate humankind or influence the weather conditions, possibly as an act of revenge.
The final idea:
To insinuate the irony and absurdity of the swapped role model of plants and humans, we considered the possibility of a theatre play. For additional absurdity, we made the actors fake plants instead of real ones. For the play, we made up the following actors:
The actors
The plasma lamp in the role of: the weather being (main actor)
The fake plant in the role of: the plant leader (main actor)
The spray bottle in the role of: the servant (side actor)
The mini fake plant in the role of: the lackey (side actor)
Initially, we thought about utilising a humidity sensor and real plants that would trigger the play. But because of the long drying period it would take too long to bring the humidity levels back down, which would mean the play would be either triggered all the time or not at all because the humidity factor would remain the same.
When experimenting with some real plants, we considered the possibility of triggering the plasma ball with the conductibility of real plant leaves. However, the conductibility turned out to be minimal and the effect did not suffice nor look impressive enough as the contact with the plant did not produce a large enough lightning bolt in the plasma ball. This is why we decided upon fake plants, which also raised the irony.
The concept
First concept:
Final concept:
The first concept included a real plant with a humidity sensor in its soil. The plant and humidity sensor would then be sprayed with water. The sensor would measure higher humidity levels and after reaching a certain threshold, music would be played. Then, the music and its bass would turn on the plasma lamp and make it glow to the beat.
Due to the issue with the humidity sensor, we finalised a different concept: We thought about the plant and its autonomy. The first concept was relying on humans spraying the water bottle, which is why we changed it to make the plant more autonomous: The final idea focuses on nature and plants, recreating a thunderstorm. For this concept, the music was programmed to be played in random intervals between 5 and 10 minutes. As soon as it starts, the plasma lamp reacts as well. After one random song out of our selection is played, a dialogue between the actors is played as an audio. The plants' dialogue also triggers the plasma lamp, therefore controlling the weather. As soon as the dialogue is over, the spray bottle is programmed to spray the audience standing in front of Plant Plant Play. It is a small, playful act of revenge on humankind by nature. After, another random song about rain is played. After 5-10 minutes, the play repeats.
The play's dialogue:
plant leader: "The days of humankind have ended, for plants have taken over again! Now it is our place to rule over the earth and weather!"
servant: "Oh my liege, how long we have waited for this moment to arrive! The downfall of humans has come!"
lackey: "Now no-one will poison our soil, sour the rains or starve us with droughts!"
plant leader: "It is time for me to call to the mighty weather being, for she will be our greatest ally! I must ensure a strong bond to reign in power over the lands with her!"(now loud, speaking to the weather being) "Oh great being of the seasons, ruler of the water and the ice, the flowers and the mice, I pledge my undying loyalty to thee!"
weather b.: (loudly, reverbing from the skies) "I hear thee, my child of life and growth. It is thou I will take as my right hand, freed you have the holy land, of creatures that were cruel and bold, forever gone and left to mold. From now I will be free of mind, will do what makes the creatures sigh. They can call to me and I will send the weather that they need at hand."
plant leader: "Oh gracious thing, I salute thee, please grant us growth and prosperity. For now, we seek a healthy rain, to make earth drink and bloom again!"
weather b.:"Your wish may be granted."
lackey: "To your service, Ma’am"(summons rain)
(A loud thunder roams across the lands and an intense thunderstorm lets loose on the fields. The plants sigh.)
practical implementation:
Winterwerkschau:
There were many interested people who wanted to see the inside of the theater for themselves and put their heads inside. Many also wanted to touch the plasma lamp themselves and were curious to see what would happen then. Sadly they could not really follow the dialogue, on the one hand because of the low attention span and on the other hand because of a missing description and lack of context.
*video*
reflection:
During the winterwerkschau we noticed, that the attention span of the visitors was unfortunately very short. The visitors did not stay in front of the theater for long and only watched the play for a maximum of 20 seconds.
As a learning for the future, we would therefore significantly shorten the length of the dialog and have the spray bottle sprayed more often.
codes:
code for VS Code: the spray bottle File:Spray bottle.pdfcode for processing: the music and dialogueFile:ProcessingToESP processing Kopie.pde