Light Resonances. Sonifying Plant–Light Interaction Data

Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, in collaboration with Krista Dintere

Six different 3D-scanned flowering plants gradually transform from their natural RGB appearance into spectral forms envisioning non-human perspectives on plant–light interactions. Their soundscapes evolve accordingly, shifting from recognizable field recording-based compositions to more complex, synthetic data sonification in the spectral fields. Sonic patterns derived from photosynthetic activity (light absorption), color saturation (reflected light), and light exposure (sunlight and shadow) reveal each plant’s unique resonance with light.

Symbiotic Futures: Prototyping Ecological Imagination

SensUs Studio / Artists from Baltic–Nordic SensUs Art Network

Co-created by Baltic and Nordic artists, Symbiotic Futures is an immersive augmented reality (AR) prototype exploring ecological imagination through co-creation and slow travel as sustainable artistic fieldwork. Images and field recordings gathered, selected, and shared by network artists locally and along the Baltic and Nordic Routes form the basis of eight virtual locations, each identified by a country code and GPS coordinates. At each location, a continuous stream of drifting virtual stones carries changing photographic textures of local marine and terrestrial environments. As viewers move between locations, spatial soundscapes shift and overlap, connecting distant ecosystems with their immediate physical surroundings.

 Contributing artists: Kristin Bergaust, Rūta Grùma, Lelde Gūtmane, Tūla Kristina, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Mari-Liis Rebane, Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits, Tuomo Tammenpää, Line Thastum, Sissel Thastum, Timo Toots, Taavi Varm.

Vegetable Kingdom, Vegetable Anarchy

Anna Manankina

The AI-generated plant species is a speculative artwork created using images from the Museum of Natural History. The new plant is a result of a continuous mutation, which has evolved to a stage after which humans aren’t needed anymore as any plant can take the shape of a human.

Pond Creatures: Becoming One, Being Plural

Jung Eun Lee

The 3D artwork reflects the ever-changing social world and its relationship with nature and the environment. It draws associative parallels between the biological nature and social existence of non-humans (pond creatures) and humans (observers). The artwork is based on the artist's study of the "pond creatures" living in her own aquariums (glass jars) and their unique symbiotic lifestyle.

Mush/room: Transient Bodies

Isabella Münnich

The photogrammetric object is part of the Mash/room: Growing Together series of translucent 3D digital sculptures created digitally capturing mushrooms growing on the tree trunks. Transient Bodies is a 'forest coral' like object whose light porous and fragile structure is more reminiscent of a castle ruin. Meanwhile, the mushroom body, which has already decayed, crumbled, and blended with moss, keeps providing a shelter and food for insects and other living organisms.

Mush/room: Liminal Matters

Isabella Münnich

During her daily walks in the forest around Karlsruhe, the artist observed mushrooms growing on fallen trees, their cycle of growth and decay. The artist has created digitally captured 3D object of a mushroom who changes after their decay, becoming a part of the forest ecosystem. Viewers are invited to take a closer look or enter inside the Liminal Matters object, engaging in the mushroom's own created interactive landscape.

Soil Mate

Sabīne Šnē

Soil is covering our planet's surface and it has a vital role for sustaining life processes. There is a contemporary theory proposing that the Earth is a unified and conscious self-regulating system, consisting of numerous subsystems, in which all organisms and their inorganic surroundings are closely integrated, maintaining conditions for life on the planet. This is the theory of Gaia, named after the Greek goddess who symbolises Earth, which suggests that the planet itself is alive. Soil Mate explores the relationship between art, mythology and science. Inspired by the aesthetics of Stone Age's Venus figures, the virtual 3D sculpture represents the contemporary version of Gaia. It is covered with the texture generated using various soil samples found in the Esplanade Park, where the sculpture is virtually located.

Cultivation of Domestication

Jurģis Peters

The contrarian hypothesis by the historian J.N. Harari suggests that the first "domesticated" cereals - wheat - which contributed to the agrarian revolution and rise of hierarchical societies, actually domesticated us, not the other way around. The artwork is an allegorical interpretation of the God-like power of wheat to change the course of human history and influence us to this day. Using a combination of AI sketches and 3D sculpting techniques, ancient wheat gods that never were but could have been are brought to life in Augmented Reality.

Mežs / Forest

Rihards Vītols

The AI generated 3D artwork is a utopian, speculative vision of a new, more resilient tree species. The artwork explores futurological palaeontology - a hypothetical field of science that studies, analyses and interprets organisms that have not yet evolved, showing the potential of science to explore the unknown life forms on Earth in future. The artist's created collection of trees is an unimaginable, abstract and unimaginable simulation of nature in the future.

Omnisence

Zane Zelmene

Five 360-degree virtual photographic spheres visualises an artistic reconstruction of the changing landscape of the Esplanade Park in Riga at different historical periods, from the prehistoric time to the 20th century. We experience the world around us with our five senses. However, metaphysical perspective recognises also the sixth sense, an extrasensory perception which allows to feel time and space from an entirely different point of view. Today, this natural ability has been transformed and augmented by contemporary science and smart technologies. The Augmented Reality technologies offers new experiences of the space and time by combining various scenes of the past with the present.