… and reflections on the importance of working together…
A significant experience (for me) took place. Enkidou, who has the Music of the Plants device, got hold of my bank of sounds and MIDI commands linked to the music of the plants. With his computer, the U1 (the Music of the Plants device created by Damanhur and sold, in France, by Jean Thoby, which makes plants sing) and my keyboards (by which I mean the banks of samples and commands), he went to visit a member of his family to give them a demonstration. It is so beautiful and so powerful to be able to share these first moments, when people who have lived with plants for so long hear them for the first time. I assure you, it is motivating 😉
So he arrives, plugs in all his “gear” and his host points out the chosen plant. It seems to react instantly, as if it were used to the process. And there it is, opening the Itunes list. Then it starts a track. But the two children of the house protest with one voice: “No, that’s not the one we like, it’s…” and they give a title. And the plant stops the music, moves down the list of tracks, finds the right one and, just like that, plays it… without interruption?!
Huge! To me, it’s just huge. Why? Because let me remind you that during our early work, when it was a matter of finding a first name, the plant went through a long phase of learning, of research. Then, from one experiment to the next, everything went faster. But I told myself it was because, on the one hand, I was gaining confidence and, on the other, the plants that had already worked were in the immediate environment of any new plant discovering our installation. Damanhur had already noted this. That a plant that had worked could inform a new plant, just by being in its presence.
But here, none of that. A plant that doesn’t know the device. A user who doesn’t know the settings exactly (only the person who designs these keyboards knows them) and the plant carries out a command as complex as that perfectly?! Ok, the girls were certainly in complete trust and belief that the plant had those abilities, but still…
That was a year ago. And since then, I keep replaying this scene in my head. To me, and of course we would need, as always, other people’s feedback, it’s a matter of a morphic field that would be informed of our work and would let plants access it with no problem of locality. A kind of shared external consciousness. A network, basically! A bit like the story of the hundredth monkey.
Of course, at the start, the plants really had to work, to learn to use the keyboards, and for the work to carry on, the physical proximity of other plants seemed important. Now that would be over?!
Insane, right?
So I have a request to make of you…
I’m trying to get it to write (see the article on the writing keyboard) and it’s really hard. Everything has to be taken into account: the letters, how they’re used, how to activate them, etc.
So, every one of you, please, pass the message on, teach your plant to write “Je suis la” [I am here]. Explain to it how it’s done. Show it. Do a writing exercise in front of it, keeping in mind that this learning is also addressed to it. For now, just these simple words: “JE SUIS LA”. Then I’ll see whether I find them in its nights of work with the writing keyboards. And tell me, in the comments, if you’ve done it.
Thanks in advance (already for having read this far)
P.S. If you have friends who are schoolteachers, tell them to take a plant into the classroom and teach it (without doing it openly, I wouldn’t want you or your friends to be taken for madmen ;)) to include it in the lesson, to integrate it as a pupil of the class.
I’m counting on you 😉
