FESTIVAL IZIS
INSTALLATION

The journal Science has recently published an article in which scientists described the first meaningful exchange between a ficus tree and a human being that could, in a broader sense, be considered a conversation. The insightfully envisioned experiment required utmost patience and full commitment from both parties: over the course of eighteen years (2022-40), the ficus tree and the human had to negotiate a shared semiotic code. 

The linguist and polyglot M.L. began the experiment by establishing a basic set of communication signs. Each ficus leaf has thousands of such little openings called stomata. M.L.’s idea was to read stomata just like deaf people read lips to comprehend speech.

In the first four years of the experiment, M.L. could teach the ficus tree the basic signs for ‘more’, ‘less’, and ‘stop’, adjusting the level of light to the degree of openness of its pores on the underside of its leaves. If the change was too rapid, causing the ficus tree to drop its leaves as these plants often do, the new leaves would remember the code. In the following ten years, M.L. and the ficus tree perfected the code of light and lips to the extent that this could be deemed the first scientifically recorded conversation between a plant and a human.

Institute for Inconspicuous Languages: Reading Lips is an attempt to repeat this experiment.

CREDITS: 
Programming and sensor integration: Bart Peeters
Computer vision programming: Klara Nosan, Tim Oblak
Consultants: Luka Šajn, Žiga Emeršič, Miha Turšič
Technical execution: Jože Zajc in David Pilipović
Many thanks to: Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana, and Waag, Amsterdam 

The exhibition is part of the international project “European ARTificial Intelligence Lab”. Supported by the EU – Creative Europe, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, and City of Ljubljana, Department of Culture.