Current research in Sonobotanics has shown that it is exceedingly difficult to study the behaviour and characteristics of these plants, as they are extremely sensitive to their environment. This is yet another proof of their intelligence and their emotional nature: they obviously dislike being employed as guinea pigs for human science. Recently, this has led to the birth of a very different approach in Sonobotanics research: the new domain of Predictive Sonobotanics. This scientific discipline attempts to create models of the plants, using all the knowledge gained thus far about them, and implementing in a simulation certain behaviours of interest that the plants are suspected to have. By doing so, the behaviour of the models can be compared to the observed behaviour of the real plants in their natural surroundings, and further understanding of these complex beings can be gained.
The models shown in this exhibition have been created by the Institute for Predictive Sonobotanics (IPSO, which is part of the Foundation for Auralisation and Computation of Transient Objects, also known as FACTO) using modern technology: sensors measure environmental characteristics, such as light, temperature, humidity and sound; these data are used in computational models, implemented in the sonic programming language SuperCollider; the result of these is then auralised via the loudspeakers inside the physical model. As the domain of Sonobotanics, and even more so Predictive Sonobotanics, is still considered controversial in some academic circles (questioning its validity as a "true" science), the researchers have chosen to use their contacts in the art world to bring the plants into contact with a larger audience, in order to expose their models to realistic environments.
Some sound examples from the Periperceptoida Dendriformis Sensibilis models (in Ogg/Vorbis format):