JACOB JUHL – Interview With a Houseplant

TIME & PLACE See the full program for Performing Landscapes here
WHAT Performance/workshop

What Do Plants Have to Tell Us?
“Welcome to this week’s edition of the talk show ‘As You Shout in the Forest, So Shall You Be Answered.’ This week’s guest is a houseplant.”

What would plants say to us if they could speak—or if we understood their language of scents and electrical impulses? We are about to find out, as we have been given the opportunity to borrow a plant from Aarhus University, specifically from the Institute for Bio-Electric Communication.

For six years, researchers have been teaching a plant to understand Danish by detecting the vibrations of our voices in the air. At the same time, they have taught the plant to speak: using newly developed scientific methods, the researchers have succeeded in translating the plant’s signals into a language we can immediately comprehend. The vibrations of its leaves, micro-voltages in its roots, and airborne chemicals are converted into words and sentences using an advanced algorithm based on artificial intelligence.

Now, the popular talk show ‘As You Shout in the Forest, So Shall You Be Answered’ has been granted permission to interview the plant live on the radio. What will the plant tell us? Will it ask us questions? Can we even grasp how a plant exists in the world, how it senses, and how it interacts with other living beings? Do plants have thoughts? Desires? Are they intelligent? Do they possess consciousness, emotions, or even a sense of humor?

The plant has voluntarily agreed to participate in the talk show—on the condition of a small friendly favor. 

ABOUT JACOB JUHL
JACOB JUHL is a visual artist and writer, primarily working with installation art, photography, and text. He seeks to blur the boundaries between what we perceive as “natural” and “artificial” by integrating contemporary scientific research and philosophical questions into his practice.
https://www.jacobjuhl.dk/

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Duration: approx. 30 minutes
Participants:
Age: 12+
Language: Danish