At the frontier of science and para-science, Diffractions Transmutatoires reveals, in one of its modules, the secret life of a plant and its subtle interactions with the surrounding world. This installation, the fruit of work carried out since 2006 by artists Horia Cosmin Samoïla and
Marie-Christine Driesen, revisits the notion of « primary perception » developed by Cleve Baxter in the 1960s.
Process
Three distinct yet complementary modules articulate subtle communication through a permutation of spaces. Together, these modules prefigure a global spectral panorama, acting as beacons.
The first module refers to « non-local » telepathic communications between biological or psychic systems.
It questions the hypothesis of a reality parallel to the entropic electromagnetic spectrum, and suggests an operating mode that frees itself from it.
A plant translates its biological or emotional variations into colored light by means of a system for capturing its electrical fluctuations.
fluctuations. These colors are then transformed back into sound. A screen on the wall reveals what’s going on inside the structure,
a space of transition, where the transformation of light into sound takes place. The second module raises the question of the interweaving of the natural electromagnetic environment and the man-made electromagnetic environment. A solar panel powers a monitor. Depending on the degree of sunlight, this screen lets a mist of light appear through its liquid crystals. A constellation of electromagnets on the back of the monitor remotely captures internal interference when capacitors and components are not working properly.
electronic components charge up or allow energy to flow. In turn, this « interference », initially generated by solar activity, contributes to the overall sound diffusion.
The third module is placed in a dark antechamber, a space similar to that in Shrodinger’s experiment. It corresponds to the first space and to the street space. It contains a radionuclide detection device and a stroboscope. With each atomic disintegration
in this space, the device transforms the disintegration into a blinding flash of light. This element questions the current civil and military use of nuclear energy. It also questions matter and energy on a metaphysical level. In this way, the unstable atom, because it is over-
materialized, collapses in on itself, falls and is transformed into a dazzling light. The random flashes of light, in turn, interfere with the plant’s photonic perception and the observer’s pineal gland.