The Leaves Whisperers

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About the ‘The Leaves Whisperers’, a radiophonic project at Le Labo

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The Leaves Whisperers

The Leaves Whisperers is a speculative radio project that presents a complex and overarching narrative through various interconnected audio pieces. These sound pieces are not designed as linear episodes but as individual works that pick up and integrate elements from other parts to form a cohesive whole. Inspired by the communication network of plants, known as the mycorrhizal network, the project explores the complex relationship between humans and plants. The mycorrhizal network serves as a structural model in this context. In nature, symbiotic connections between fungi and plant roots form extensive underground networks through which plants exchange experiences and information, even warning each other of dangers. Nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, and water are transferred from one plant to another, often in response to changing conditions and needs. Similarly, The Leaves Whisperers aims to function as a network of sound pieces that are interconnected through the exchange and integration of information.

Each segment of the project is created individually or collaboratively by the artists involved in Lovesongs for Plants / Owlet Vision in a Blinding Time at Espace Labo. The focus is on the complex relationship between humans and plants and on how we can understand our role in the interplay with non-human beings. The sound pieces emerge not only from thematic exchange but also through joint creative processes. The garden plays a central role and is considered both as a human-made space and as a metaphor. It serves as a model for cultivated nature and as a mental sandbox for exploring post-human conditions. The project investigates the entire spectrum, from the garden as a utopian dream world to the garden as an instrument of power created for specific needs and purposes.

The project highlights the often underestimated communicative and reactive abilities of plants. It addresses how plants communicate with each other and with other living beings through acoustic, chemical, and electrical signals. Despite initial scepticism in the scientific community, it is now acknowledged that plants possess complex problem-solving abilities and exhibit forms of communication that imply a recognition of self and other. In the reduction of a garden, the conditions and possibilities of communities become more apparent. The Leaves Whisperers  examines how plants interact, influence each other, and how these interactions can be transferred to human communities. It serves as a mental playground for exploring aspects of the post-human condition, focusing on the symbiosis between humans, technology, and nature.

Recent research sheds new light on plant intelligence, revealing that plants can perceive, communicate, and respond to their environment with a form of memory and adaptive behavior shaped by past experiences. Advances in artificial intelligence have expanded our definition of cognition, stirring renewed interest in plant intelligence. Yet, the tendency to anthropomorphise plants — interpreting their capabilities through a human lens — can hinder a true appreciation of their unique qualities.

Despite such challenges, anthropomorphizing plants may open pathways to empathy, bridging human and vegetal worlds. This perspective of plants as sentient beings with inherent rights, while scientifically controversial, can inspire greater reverence and responsibility for plant life.

The sound pieces vary in length and are published here in a rhizomatic form, supplemented by explanations, comments, and statements from the artists. These kaleidoscopic audio journeys are poetic and experimental, performative and musical, narrative and, in their own way, engaging or provocative. Music and soundscapes, noises and field recordings, as well as spoken parts are used to create experimental narrative scenarios. By combining various auditory elements, innovative and unconventional storytelling forms emerge.

The structure of the project is inspired by the mycorrhizal networks of plants. The artists work together in changing constellations and share selected information and sound materials. The network develops organically as participants can look at other parts for inspiration and develop their own pieces based on them, not only because the overall theme and given framework are the same, but also due to this interconnected approach. All participants are encouraged to contribute actively and to nurture the project like a garden, where the individual sound pieces bloom and develop alongside and with each other.

The Leaves Whisperers  extends the original project beyond the physical boundaries of the gallery and the garden, reaching a larger audience. Although it can be considered an independent work, it remains closely connected to the other parts of the project. It offers an immersive and thought-provoking sound-based or radiophonic experience that combines scientific insights with artistic perspectives. Through an in-depth exploration of the relationship between humans and plants, The Leaves Whisperers  invites listeners to broaden their perception of the natural world. It encourages them to discover the hidden communication pathways of plants and to reconsider their own connections to nature in a more holistic appreciation.

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The Leaves Whispers (60 min edit)

The project ‘The Leaves Whisperers’ has taken shape in various forms. As a subproject of ‘Lovesongs for Plants’, parts were developed during residencies at Espace Labo and performed live during the exhibition, while all were also made accessible at listening stations.

A compilation featuring originals, ad hoc reinterpretations, and remixes of the sound components was streamed and recorded in a longer live broadcast on laptopradiø.org at Espace Labo. This recording can be found below. Simultaneously, montages and mixes were compiled in a slightly shorter one-hour format. A selected piece can also be found here. The individual contributions from participating artists and some remixes can be found on the main page or in the list view. We sincerely thank everyone for the generous support granted for the entire project, which made this sound component and the entire ‘Lovesongs for Plants: An Arcane Evolution’ possible.

With support from the City of Geneva, the Republic and Canton of Geneva, the City of Bern, Swisslos and the Canton of Bern, the Pro Litteris Foundation, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, the Ernst and Olga Gubler-Hablützel Foundation, and the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation.

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‘The Leaves Whispers’ – An edit of 60min with partly shortened and reworked contributions by Karen Alphonso, Delmore FX and Caterina Montesi, Crowdpleaser x Claire van Lubeek, Celeste and Lorraine Baylac, Benjamin S. Elliot, Ariel Garcia, Hunter Longe, Becket MWN, Partout Partout Collectif, Nina Rieben and Simon Baumann, Monika Stalder, Vianney Fivel, the laptopradiø-team: Claire Megumi Masset, Sara Silva Santos, Bruno Schaub, Juli Sando, Vanessa Urben, The Gardeners of the Sixth Mass Extinction. With the voices of Karen Alphonso, Mia Bodenmüller, Ljubia Kohlbrenner and Gianluca Maruccio of Partout Partout Collectif, Benjamin S. Elliott, Becket MWN, Caterina Montesi, Nina Rieben, Monika Stalder, Claire Megumi Masset, Juli Sando, Laurent Schmid.

Ce montage de 60 minutes est une pièce radiophonique expérimentale collaborative qui évoque la bande sonore d’un film imaginaire. La combinaison de parole et de musique offre un principe d’organisation assez complexe, qui a permis d’explorer la nature énigmatique du langage et ses éléments contradictoires en français et en anglais. Le principe d’organisation s’articule autour des principaux blocs thématiques: les plantes et leur rôle au sein de systèmes plus vastes, la prière – ou l’espoir – et le langage, l’art et l’engagement envers la nature. La narration fragmentaire saute en avant et en arrière, tissant ensemble les voix et les sons de nombreux participants en un ensemble densément entrelacé, multicouche, surprenant et parfois obscur. Le principe du collage avec découpage, échantillonnage et citation devient alors la syntaxe même de cette œuvre ainsi qu’une partie de son sujet.

This 60-minute montage is a collaborative experimental radio piece that evokes the soundtrack of an imaginary film. The combination of speech and music offers a rather complex organisational principle, which enabled the exploration of language’s enigmatic nature and its contradictory elements in French and English. The organisational principle revolves around the main thematic blocks: plants and their role within larger systems, prayer – or hope – and language, art and commitment to nature. The fragmentary narration jumps forwards and backwards, weaving together the voices and sounds of numerous participants into a densely interwoven, multi-layered, surprising and sometimes obscure whole. The principle of collage with cutting, sampling and quoting then becomes the actual syntax of this work as well as part of its subject matter.

‘The Leaves Whispers’

The Leaves Whispers

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Broadcast ‘Sap And Signal’

15 November 2024 at Espace Labo with contributions by:
Delmore FX and Caterina Montesi, Crowdpleaser x Claire van Lubeek, Celeste and Lorraine Baylac, Benjamin S. Elliot, Ariel Garcia, Hunter Longe, Becket MWN, Partout Partout Collectif, Nina Rieben and Simon Baumann, Monika Stalder, Vianney Fivel, Karen Alphonso, the laptopradiø-team: Claire Megumi Masset, Sara Silva Santos, Bruno Schaub, Juli Sando, Vanessa Urben, The Gardeners of the 6th Mass Extinction and Laurent Schmid.

(For details you can check the playlist here: https://laptopradio.org/projects-and-podcasts/)

During the project, the laptopradiø collective carried out a longer live programme ‘SAP AND SIGNAL’ in the Espace Labo space. Besides the live performed parts, sound pieces of ‘The Leaves Whisperers’ were also streamed on laptopradio.org.

laptopradiø at Labo: Sap and Signal

Sap and Signal at Labo Geneva

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Find here more info about the project Lovesongs for Plants : An Arcane Evolution’.

“Lovesongs for Plants: An Arcane Evolution” explores themes such as the Anthropocene, post-humanism, environmental consciousness and the complex relationship between human and non-human entities.

As part of “Owlet Vision in a Blinding Time”, it considers the Labo gallery space as well as the outdoor area as a metaphorical garden where different life forms and dialogues take place.

• The Leaves Whisperers
• Lovesongs for Plants: An Arcane Evolution
• espacelabo.net/