Planted

We are planted here, now. What will we plant for present and future generations?¹ 

Planted is a multi-layered video composition of abstracted and naturalistic imagery and sound. It is influenced by plant data and Paul Fletcher's own data input, which simultaneously depicts multiple times or eras in a landscape. The video captures neither an objective or subjective view, instead the viewer is invited to contemplate and untangle intertwined, intersubjective, unfamiliar and imagined other-than human, perspectives.

The electronic orchestration draws on signals from a Yarrow pot plant. Shifts in electrical data from the plant are converted to midi-electronic music note pitches, timing and volume—it is a measure of chemical exchanges between cells in plants. The same data is also used to trigger alterations to one of the layers composed of visually synthesised shapes, patterns and textures. These are manually applied to footage shot around the Dookie region of bush reserves and other areas alongside an altered landscape of sheep grazing. The altered landscape was developed by combining abstracted video footage of sheep at Dookie with imagery of strands of wool leaf litter and other plant material filmed with the digital microscope in the Centre of Visual Art Dookie Lab.

A series of notes and visual explorations developed by Paul Fletcher during his May 2022 residency at Dookie can be explored through Fletcher's website: Micro, Macro, Interconnected, Views & Relations or Listening and feeling our way Through a Sensory Field