This was the opening address by the materials co-presenting in a 'Conversation with Materials' at the Design Research Society Conference at Limmerick University Ireland in June 2018.

The Materials Opening Address At DRS 2018

This was the final summing up by the Materials of the 'Conversation With Materials' at the Design Research Society Conference in Limmerick Ireland June 2018.

Material Summing Up Of DRS Conversation With Materials

A group work of RTD 2019 Delft Conference workshop delegates collaborating with paper as a materials introduction.

Paper Jazz - Listening To Materials Group RTD 19 Delft

Raune & Caoimhe 'They Did Not Speak Eggplant' RTD 2019

Jaap & Michel 'Sound As Space'

Sound As Control JESSICA & NITHIKUL Sound Workshop

An Epigraph By Photocopy Paper for the Listening To Materials presentation by Dr Jane Norris at the London Conference in Critical Thought at Goldsmiths University 6th July 2019.  the sound was a collaboration between paper and the attendees, allowing the material to speak first in the presentation.

An Epigraph By Photocopy Paper for the Listening To Materials Presentation at LCCT by Dr Jane Norris

I started recording the sound of the plant on my desk – a Polyscias Scutellaria – (‘Poly‘) an everyday house plant I had bought from Ikea (a home furnishings store) who became my companion as I sat looking out of the window. Here is an early recordings with heightened tones at the beginning as I hold one of Poly’s leaves – you can hear her settle as the high tone drops.  

That was Poly playing the clarinet in lockdown. The sound is produced by bio-electrical pulses caused by the plant’s circulation drawing water up, which are picked up by audio pads attached to its leaves and connected to a Midi Sprout. The pulses are made present or hearable to us by re-laying them through a midi player - in this case Garage Band on my laptop.

Plant Audio - Polyscias Scutellaria

I faced the issue of what voice to give Poly, it is often looked down on when we anthropomorphise things. But as Edwardo Kohn observes in ‘How Forests Think’ - by calling something a thing not a being we make things killable. Not naming something is a form of pre-meditated violence. So, I gave Poly a Female Chamber Choir voice – this track is a duet between us - again you can hear the high tones when I hold her leaves, gradually lowering as she adjusts to this.

Plant Audio duet as a Female Chamber Choir

Plant Audio - Poly singing to herself

Sometimes I would leave her singing at night… 

So, listening can perhaps be a form of waiting with our ears, maybe ‘listening’ is the practice of waiting. Listening as an active form of waiting.

Plant Audio - Poly at night

Remapping our relationships with materials in a digital age. Speculative sound and fiction . Professor of digital culture- Richmond the American Uni in London

janenorris

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