Altering Perceptions II

still life: n. 1. a picture consisting predominantly of inanimate objects;
2. the category of graphic arts concerned with inanimate subject matter.

– Webster’s Dictionary

101 Tropisms is a modern artistic montage composed of raw data from a study of phototropism, the movement of plants in response to light. Within the geometric arrangement of film clips, seedlings move occasionally and unpredictably, calling into question our everyday perception of plants. These seedlings are overlaid by data and mathematical descriptions of the phototropic response, which drift occasionally across the screen.

101 Tropisms, Roger Hangarter and Dennis DeHart,
time-lapse movie montage, mouse-eared cress (Arabidopsis thaliana).
Data from Whippo, C.W., and Hangarter, R.P., (2003) Plant Physiology,
132:1449-1507.

While scientific observations lead to elegant descriptions of the underlying mechanisms of plant movement, they cannot explain our fascination with observing plant motion. As you watch, a stem bends here and there. Did you really see one of the plants move? If you wait, will you see it again? Do you have time?