MULTISENSORY
Chemical Calls of Care II is the second version of the Chemical Calls of Care project, acquired by the New Art Foundation. It is a multidisciplinary installation that explores the possibility of audio-olfactory communication with plants through a speculative technological system, aiming to build horizontal relationships with the biosphere. It invites the public to engage with chemical communication, a non-verbal language we don’t fully understand. It proposes care as a radical alternative to the heavy-heartedness the actual poly-crisis provokes, fostering mutual care through a horizontal, interspecies language founded on reciprocity and empathy with the natural environment.
The setup consists of a central unit featuring multiple live plants, connected via a network of tubing to two distinct terminals: an emitter and a receiver.
The emitter terminal counts with a series of flasks containing plant-derived chemical extracts to be sent to the central unit. Integrated fans at the plant station facilitate the transport of these airborne compounds toward the receiver terminal via controlled airflow, where the olfactory signals can be perceived.
In addition, gas sensors continuously monitor the composition of the surrounding air. This data is processed and translated into haptic sound, which can be physically felt through platforms located at both terminals.
We live in a context saturated not only by multiple conflicts among human beings such as the brutal genocide in Gaza, but also by the climate crisis, contradictions, and overwhelming complexities.
This panorama has been generated and is governed by white, masculine, heterosexual subjectivities, genetically rigid and techno-driven by advanced capitalism.
With this work, I deeply wish to stimulate imagination to collectively envision other possible ways of cohabiting with other humans, other species, and other forms of existence on a gravely damaged planet.