Plant System
A simulation of root-system kinship between plants. The work reveals plant sociality and the blurred line between self and not-self — and asks how invasive species reshape the dynamics of an entire ecosystem.
Inspired by recent biological research showing plants can recognize kin through root chemistry, the installation translates this invisible negotiation into something audible, visible, and felt. Five monitors arranged across a room each show the root network of one plant; when one plant detects a neighbor, lines of light begin to weave between displays.
Visitors walk through the installation as if walking through an underground forest. Their proximity is sensed by capacitive antennas in the floor, and the plants respond — withdrawing, reaching out, or maintaining distance based on patterns drawn from real soil-microbiome data.
The piece is a meditation on what philosopher Donna Haraway calls "making kin" — the ethical practice of recognizing other species as relatives, not resources. By making kin recognition visible, the work proposes plants as social beings worth listening to.