(2018)

Consciousness in the time of Kairos​, ​Kurant​, Tromsø, NO

(2020)

Meta.Morf X – Digital Wild, Gråmølna Trondheim Kunstmuseum, NO

In 2015 I started off an artistic collaboration with a houseplant. The plant, an ordinary baby rubber plant (P. obtusifolia) happened to sit on my desk when I asked What is life?

I started simply by spending time with the houseplant. This grew a bodily connection. I discovered that we have another commonality in the biosignals going through our bodies. By amplifying the electrical signals via electrodes on my scalp and on the plant’s leaves, we could listen to each other’s vibrations.

During the experiments on the plant’s electrophysiology, I wondered if the plant could be taught to move a robotic prosthesis. It would help the collaboration tremendously if we could be on the same time scale. After a lot of work with programmers, data scientists, and electrical engineers we managed to give the plant a prosthesis that reacted to its bio-signals with the help of machine learning.

(2019)

Galleri Hans, Ørland, NO

Photo documentation from visiting Galleri Hans

Over the past year, I’ve been researching how six houseplants interact with each other and the things around them. They have robotic prostheses as a tool for me to see their reactions immediately instead of weeks later.

This resulted in a journal with observations and reflections around the life of the houseplants:

(2018)

Atelier Nord, Oslo, NO

With contributions from Renate Synnes Handal, Inger-Reidun Olsen, Sara Rönnbäck, Robert Printa & Dvd Kumlin/Emil Jessen.

For the exhibition, I invited artists that in their own ways deals with collaborations with plants and other non-humans.

In the exhibition, I had three plants with robotic prostheses that used their own biosignals to move the prostheses.

Monologue about the collaboration (3:30 minutes, in Norwegian)
http://bit.ly/KjennePlante

For the exhibition, I invited Robert Printa to work auditory with the plant signals, and Emil Jessen worked on the signals with video synthesizers.

Audio documentation of performance at the opening: http://bit.ly/PlantsPrinta

Review “The Plants’ Internet” at http://www.kunstkritikk.no/kritikk/plantenes-internett/ (in Norwegian)

(2017)

The National Art Exhibition, Oslo, NO

From left
H15 x W40 x L40 cm
Unburned clay

H60 x W20 x L20 cm
Plaster

H50 x W60 x L140 cm
Styrofoam

H7 x W20 x L20 cm
Air-drying clay

Sculptures done in collaboration with a houseplant, based on intuitive dialogues with the plant.

(2017)

Gallery Ask, Åsgårdstrand, NO

Variable height x W40 x L40 cm
Unburned clay, plaster, soil

Sculptures done in collaboration with a houseplant, based on intuitive dialogues with the plant.

(2020)

Photo documentation from the exhibition at Oppland Art Center, Lillehammer, NO

Ceramics, wood, stone, plant fiber, steel wire, spruce shoots, soil, roots, PVC pipes

(In collaboration with Sara Rönnbäck)

(2019)

Aldea Center for Contemporary Art, Bergen, NO
Borealis Festival for Experimental Music, Bergen

Conversation between Bodies is a collaboration between Daniel Slåttnes and Sara Rönnbäck that has been going on since 2015.

In the project, we investigate ways of communication and the limits of understanding the materials as radical non-humans, and each other as fundamentally estranged by nature.

In a performance we wear masks, which also functions as EEG devices. The devices record electrical signals created by our brains and translate it into sound.

The sculptures carry similar devices that act as amplifiers for the materials’ electromagnetic fields, which also are translated to sound.

In the overall sound, we imagine a super-organism together with the materials and the space.

(2017)

Locus Publishing

H20 x W6 x L25 cm, 15 pages, 13 editions
Artist book in collaboration with Sara Rönnbäck

The book deals with a meeting with three trees and a litter of rabbits on our small farm. The book consists of seven handmade pages with associated texts. The texts describe experiences and thoughts on working with the trees and rabbits. On the left page is an amplifier and speaker for a tree. The bottom right page shows a conversation between three trees. The book is part of Concerning the Spiritual in Art, curated by Locus and LATERNA, and presented at among others the Norwegian Institute in Athens during the opening week of Documenta 14, at the Cosmocow International Art Fair 2017 and Bergen Art Book Fair.

(2019)

The breath that leaves me, stay inside, Corporum, Aarhus, DK

Variable Dimensions
Carved and painted pieces of aspen wood

I carved portraits of tree logs and tried to let the wood pieces steer my knife while working on them. I wanted to let the tree influence me before I overruled with a form of expression.