Plant Intelligence-A New Theory on Species
植物智能—物种新论
Date: 2023.11.24-12.22
Location: Guanshanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
Curator: Jo WEI & LIU Muyi
Artists：Jin Lipeng, Long Pan, Su Yongjian + Ba Ruiyun, Wang Lingjie + Hao Jingfang, Zhang Tianyi, Zhou Zhiyuan
日期：2023年11月24日-12月22日
地点：关山月美术馆，深圳，中国
艺术家： 靳立鹏、龙盼、苏永健+巴瑞云、王令杰+郝经芳、张天怡、周知远
策展人：魏颖、刘慕仪
Short Curatorial Text | 展览前言
Taking a series of questions such as, “How intelligence is defined, who possesses it, and whether plants are intelligent or not?” as points of departure, we explore the notion of "intelligence" in the invitational section of the exhibition. Botanist Stefano Mancuso has advocated the concept of "Plant Intelligence" since 2005. Mancuso "views plants as organic systems of information processing that communicate in complex ways through individual plants[1]". Starting from the term "Plant Intelligence," we continue to reflect on the notion of "species" and the human position in the scheme of all sentient beings. Aristotle's view that humanity has long placed itself at the top of the pyramid of species, visualized in an illustration in the Liber de Sapiente (The Book of Wisdom) published in 1509: arranging worldly species in the ascending order of rocks, plants, animals, and man – which corresponds to the term intelligit, a unique quality possessed by humans.
With increasing attention paid to Artificial Intelligence, we need to consider the broader origins of intelligence. According to Mancuso, if intelligence is defined as the ability to solve problems, it opens up many more possibilities.[2] Intelligence comes from human beings and nature, microorganisms, minerals, the sun and moon, bodies of water, and other abstract "things." Being equal to objects demonstrates an attitude by revisiting ancient wisdom such as "Qiwu"(equalizing things) or using modern technology to add diverse perspectives. The artists invited to the exhibition present works that have adopted the "non-anthropocentrism" position, with concerted inspiration from science, technology, and art. The emphasis on biodiversity, the relationship between humans and the environment, and the climate crisis in the works is also the focus of this exhibition.
Zhang Tianyi's The Plant Intelligence Plan opens the seal of nature, reminding us to adopt a perspective that transcends human limitations in thinking about interspecies relationships. In her botanical ecology, plants and insects help each other to withstand crises, a balancing intelligence that existed long before the human invention of pesticides. Jin Lipeng's The Seeds Project traces the network of collecting and revitalizing endangered seeds globally; the artist visited seed scientists and breeders and thus reconsidered the concept of "ecological cultivation." Meanwhile, the artist and curator highlight the importance of Wu Qijun, China's first botanist to name "Zhiwu”(plant) and compiled the book “Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao“（Illustrated Book on Plants） based on the Dongshu Botanical Gardens by Gushi, and reconnected this genealogy with the history of traditional Chinese technology. On the other hand, Long Pan's Wind-bell reflects the tangible relationship between people, plants, and the environment. Through phytomining (recovering metals from metal-rich plants), the artist extracts copper from plants in areas polluted by e-waste and turns it into a small wind-bell, suggesting that the traces left by humans on the land will last much longer.
Artist Zhou Zhiyuan intervenes in the life of microorganisms. In Spores and Erops, Zhou seals the penicillium colony, a critical discovery in the history of medicine, and makes the colony dormant, with bubbles being the last trace of air exhaled by the dormant lifeforms. Artists Hao Jingfang and Wang Lingjie's Sun Drawing consider the sun to be an artist and record the traces of its painting in a week through a homemade device, akin to a sundial without the instrumentality. Artists Su Yongjian and Ba Ruiyun's Breathing as Language treats humans as one of the many species on earth. Once removing human’s unique command of language, they are as equals to all other species, and through which the artists re-examine the most common yet crucial object of communication between individuals in a primordial way.
[1] http://www.linv.org/about-us/
[2] Verde brillante : Sensibilità e intelligenza del mondo vegetale. Trans., Sun Chaoqun, Xinxing Press, 2017, p.114
如何定义智能、谁拥有智能、植物是否具有智能，以这一系列问题作为切入点，我们试图在展览的邀请单元，去触及“智能”这一概念本身。植物学家斯特凡诺·曼库索（Stefano Mancuso）从2005年起一直提倡“植物智能”这个概念，“将植物（复数）视为通过个体植物进行复杂交流的信息处理有机体系”。从“植物智能”一词入手，我们继续思考“物种”这一概念，以及人类在万物之中的位置。人类长久以来将自己置于物种的金字塔顶端的观点，从1509年出版的《智慧之书》（Liber de sapiente）的一幅插图中可以直观看到，亚里士多德这一观念有了图像化的呈现：世间物种处于一个金字塔般的排列，最底端是岩石，往上是植物，再往上是动物，最高端则是人类——所对应的词即是智能（Intelligit），这被认为人类所具有的特质。
当下，对人工智能的关注如火如荼之时，我们也需思考“智能”更为广泛的来源。曼库索认为，如果将智能定义为解决问题的能力，将会产生更多的可能性。智能不仅仅来源于人类更来自于自然本身，也可以是微生物、矿物、日月、水体等更为抽象的“物”。与物平等，是一种心态；通过回溯“齐物”等古老智慧，或者借助现代技术，都能帮助我们增加更为多元的视角，展览所邀请的艺术家们正是反映了这种“非人类中心主义”思潮所带来的、在科学技术和艺术共同加成下所激发的创作灵感。而作品中对于生物多样性、人类与环境的关系、气候危机的重视，亦是本次展览的关注点。
张天怡《植物智能计划》打开了自然之印，提醒我们用超越人类本身局限的视角来思考物种关系，在她所创制的植物生态中，植物和昆虫相互帮助来抵御危机，这种互相平衡的智慧远远出现在人类发明杀虫剂之前；靳立鹏的《种子计划》则追溯了全球濒危种子的收集与活化这一网络，拜访种子科学家和育种者们，并由此重思“生态种植”这一概念；同时，艺术家与策展人对于吴其濬——中国第一位命名“植物”一词的博物学家（植物学家）的重访——他在固始的东墅植物园编撰《植物名实图考》，也将这一脉络与中国传统技术史进行了重新的勾连；龙盼的《风铃》则从另一个侧面体现了人、植物与环境的真实关系，艺术家通过植物采矿(从富集金属的植物里回收金属)从电子垃圾污染地区的植物中提取铜，并将其制作成一颗小风铃，提示人类在土地所留下的痕迹将远远长于人类本身。
艺术家周知远介入了微生物的生活，在作品《孢子》和《子孢》中，他将与人类医学史息息相关的青霉菌群落封印，使菌群处于休眠状态，气泡正是休眠前的生命体呼出的最后一丝空气；艺术家郝经芳和王令杰的《太阳画》则将太阳视为艺术家，通过自制的装置，在一周之中记录下其画作痕迹，这与日晷有异曲同工之妙，却跳脱了工具性；艺术家苏永健和巴瑞云的作品《当呼吸可以言语》则将人视为地球中芸芸物种中的一员，在去除语言这一人类特有的工具后，回到平等的物种视角，用最为原初的方式来重新审视个体间沟通这一最为平常不过却又至关重要的对象。(撰文:魏颖)
更多信息，请见关山月美术馆官网发布：展览回顾 | 植物智能-物种新论
Artworks | 作品
Photos of Scene | 现场
Publication | 出版物
展览信息| Information
Artists & Artworks
1 The Plant Intelligence Plan
With ecological relationships as the breakthrough point and based on plant intelligence research, the Plant Intelligence Plan recognizes the initiative and rights of plants. The plan uses biotechnology tools and materials to restore the ecological relationship between commercially bred crops and animals, which human beings have alienated. Ecological Art often discusses and thinks about ecological problems through the artistic practice of ecological restoration (restoration of the physical ecological environment). This work advocates the world view and value of deep ecology and advocates non-anthropocentrism, which is another characteristic of the work.
Zhang Tianyi is a Chinese Beijing-based artist, currently a PhD in Art and Technology research at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Her creative and research interests are mainly in Ecological Art and BioArt. Her ecological artworks use interdisciplinary research as a creative method and regard technology as an important opportunity for ecological restoration. She is keen to explore new ecological restoration methods by combining machines and ecology, as well as new languages of Ecological Art. Based on the above Ecological Art practice, she discusses the relationship between humans and ecology in the latest scientific and technological context and the equal ecological relationship of non-anthropocentrism.
2 Wind bell
The artist extracted copper from plants in e-waste-contaminated areas through plant mining (Metal recovery from metal-rich plants) and used the extract to make a small wind bell. Under the wind, the sound of metal collision is different from the sound of plants rubbing, which is a symbol of environmental alienation. The stability of heavy metals suggests that they existed beyond the Anthropocene, so after that, the extensive traces of heavy metals in geological layers will be an inscription left by us.
Long Pan (born in 1991 in Jiangxi, now lives and works in China). She is a social practice artist working in art, research, technology, and community. She collaborates around issues of bioremediation and biopolitics using digital and biological material such as fungi, plants, pollutants, electronics, minerals, etc. She is interested in the human footprint in the environment, and the biological response to environmental change, especially in China's struggle between ecological embarrassment and technological exuberance. She is also focus on making invisible changes in the environment visible through biotechnologies such as "phytometallurgy" and "fungal degradation". Exploring and presenting the 'secret correspondence' of the whole network of life in which human beings live. Her art mediums include but are not limited to bio-sculpture, ceramics, installation, video, photography, etc.
3 The Seeds Project
Climate crisis is making immense impacts on agriculture, food security and our lives. Industrial agriculture is destroying biological and seeds diversity, leaving behind an increasingly homogenized world. From the early 20th century, 93% of seed varieties has vanished worldwide. Yet, biodiversity is fundamental to future sustainability. Inspired by these efforts, Seeds Project integrates art, science, and public engagement, taking actions on saving seeds diversity and empowering community, and uncovering the secret of future sustainability embedded in the time capsules of life, a result of human-nature interactions for tens of thousands of years.
Lipeng Jin holds a PhD in fine art at Lanscter University(UK). Currently, he is an associate professor at Experimental Art School at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (SCFAI), teaching and doing socially and ecologically engaged art. He is also the Tutor of Ecological Art Studio at SCFAI and the director of the Centre of Community Composting and Ecoart. He is a member of The Ecoartist-list, an international ecoartist group. He initiated the Healing Garden, a community-based ecoart and educational project. He has published a book entitled Ecological Art and showcased his works both nationally and internationally, such as solo exhibitions at Lancaster University, the Museum of Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, and Ningbo Fine Art Museum. He also curated ecological art events in Chongqing such as “Future Garden: International Ecological Art Festival”（2019）, Chongqing Ecological Art Festival (2020）and ecoart exhibition, “Emergence: Eco-art Actions on the Climate Crisis”(2023).
4 Sun Drawing
The sun is invited by the artist to draw everyday by a device made up of a pedestal, a magnifying glass and heat-sensitive paper. During the daytime, the light of sun passes through the magnifying glass, being focused into a point of light, which in turn leaves its mark on the heat-sensitive paper. The sun’s motion, in the course of the day, does not leave a stain, but rather a line made up of a series of marks on the paper, according to the sun’s trajectory and the environmental conditions.
Jingfang Hao & Lingjie Wang, both studied industrial design at same university where they got to know each other. And then, they studied art in France together. Since 2009, their works have been exhibited in the Biennale de Lyon, Palais de Tokyo (Palace of Tokyo) in Paris, Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges-Pompidou (Georges-Pompidou National Center of Art and Culture), other art museums, different galleries and art institutions in Germany and Switzerland, etc. Jingfang HAO currently reside in France,Linjie Wang in shanghai.their works are often related to the minor changes in the natural world in a technic way, which is called 'art and tech' generation. Their main media include installations, videos, etc.
5 Breathing as Language
The work creates a field of interaction, attempting to strip away our existing, extremely efficient language system, by using breath to trigger the oscillation of the tentacles on the top of the head to make sounds, reverting animal communication way to human beings in order to create new face-to-face relationships. Here, people's previous experience of speech is suspended, and all the symbols of existing language are reduced to signals, which tend to be impoverished and animal-like. The work attempts to ask: As a member of nature, how do we redefine the relationship of connection with each other?
Yongjian Su studied at Central Academy of Fine Arts(CAFA) for undergraduate, master degrees, and currently studying for a PhD student in Art and Technology. During the study, he exchanged study abroad at HfG Karlsruhe (ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe) in Germany. His works have been exhibited in important exhibitions many times around China, Switzerland, and Germany.
Ruiyun Ba is an interdisciplinary artist based in Beijing, who mainly works with performance, video, and public intervention. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art in furniture design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. She majored in sculptors for her masters at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her childhood experience in the countryside has strongly influenced her current work. Her projects consider the changes in modern social identities against the gradual loss of intimate social relationships.
6 Spore & Erops
The artist seals the colony of Penicillium to make it dormant, and the air bubbles in the work are the last breath of air exhaled by the dormant life form. The artist briefly intervenes in the cycle of life in nature, contrary to the human inability to determine the laws of life and death, blocking the biological function of the fungus as a decomposer in nature, using the commonly used medical means of magnetic resonance imaging to frame the colony layer by layer, and synthesizing the imaging of spore works by scientific and techZnological means, to form a seemingly real and phantom image of the life group, and echoing the state of the fungus sealed in a state of dormancy.
Zhou Zhiyuan was born in Hunan in 1976. He now lives in Shenzhen and has worked as a physician in the Intensive Care Unit of the Shenzhen People’s Hospital for 19 years, facing life and death on a daily basis. Zhou Zhiyuan's works have always revolved around "life". He observes the subtleties of life from a unique perspective and uses a variety of media and digital methods to endow perception with rational records and beautiful discoveries. Zhiyuan’s art works break the boundaries of "life" and "death" and affect the viewer's attitude towards her or his own life. In 2022, his work "Spore" was exhibited at the 5th Asian Art Biennale held in Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, and won the highest award.
Curators
Jo Wei is a curator and researcher, and is also the founder of the Pan Bio-art Studio(PBS). Her recent research interests include Bio Art, EcoArt, and the crossover of art/science/technology, etc. Among the list of her many curations are Bamboo as Method(2021), Quasi-Nature: Bio Art, Borderline, Laboratory(2019), Ars Electronica in Shenzhen(2019). She is also an International Adviser for the European Commission’s STARTS Prize, and the member of the International Program Committee of ISEA(2020, 2023), as well as an editorial board member of Annual of Contemporary Art of China.
Liu Muyi works as a Curatorial Coordinator in the Digital Development at Guan Shanyue Art Museum（Shenzhen）. She has curated National Youth Creative Talents Training Program funded by the National Art Foundation, INFINITE: Digital Humanties Researh of Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Digital Era and the Future of Art Museums academic forum, Youth Koans: Guan Shuanyue Museum of Art Youth Brush Painting Exhibition, etc.
艺术家及艺术作品
1 植物智能计划 张天怡
《植物智能计划》以“生态关系”为切入点，基于植物智能研究，承认植物的能动性和权利，利用生物科技手段和材料，修复商业育种作物丧失的与动物之间的生态联系，这是对植物和动物间被人类异化的“生态关系”的修复。本作品主张“深层生态学”的世界观和价值观，而非传统的基于“人类中心主义”的生态价值判断。
张天怡 ，现工作与生活于北京。现为中央美术学院（中国北京）艺术与科技研究方向的博士生，曾在法国北加莱公立高等美术学院学习。她的创作和研究兴趣主要集中于生态艺术和生物艺术等领域，她的生态艺术作品以跨学科交叉的研究作为创作方法，将科技视作修复生态的重要机遇，有着浓厚兴趣去将“机器”与“生态”结合去探索修复生态的新方法和探索生态艺术的新语言，探讨⾮“⼈类中⼼主义”的平等⽣态关系。
2 风铃 龙盼
艺术家通过植物采矿(从富集金属的植物里回收金属)从电子垃圾污染地区的植物中提取铜，并将其制作成一颗小风铃。在风的吹拂下，金属碰撞的声音不同于植物摩擦的“窸窣”声音。重金属的稳定性表明它们的存在于远远超越人类时代。在人类世之后，地质层中广泛的重金属痕迹将成为我们留下的一个铭文。
龙盼，现生活与工作于中国。她是位工作于艺术、调研、技术和社群的社会实践艺术家，她使用数码和生物材料，例如真菌、植物、污染物、电子元件、矿物等，媒介包含但不限于生物雕塑、装置、影像、摄影等，围绕生物修复和生物政治学问题进行合作。她对环境中的人类足迹，以及生物对环境变化的反应感兴趣，并通过 "植物冶金学 "和 "真菌降解 “等生物技术，使环境不可见的变化变得可见。
3 种子计划 靳立鹏
作品《种子计划》针对气候危机正在给农业、食物安全与我们每个人的生活带来巨大冲击。以化石能源为基础的现代工业农业在持续摧毁生物与种子的多样性，形成越来越同质化的世界。计划旨在整合艺术、科学与社群参与，以多维度方式进行拯救多样性与社区赋能的行动，呈现这些承载植物、人类与环境交互作用的“生命时间胶囊”如何揭示未来可持续的秘密。
靳立鹏，现工作和生活于中国重庆。博士毕业于英国兰卡斯特大学，现任四川美术学院实验艺术学院副教授，也是国际生态艺术家目录（The Ecoartist-list）成员。全球生态教育联盟顾问，出版专著有《生态艺术》。他曾在英国兰卡斯特大学当代艺术学院、天津美术学院美术馆和宁波美术馆等地举办个展，并合作策划2019年“未来·世界·花园”重庆南川黎香湖生态艺术季，2020年重庆生态艺术季，2023“涌现”国际生态艺术展览活动等项目。
4 太阳画 郝经芳&王令杰
艺术家每天邀请太阳来作一幅画。依靠一台由透镜和热敏纸等组成的装置，阳光穿过透镜，聚焦在热敏纸上，并以自己的能量在热敏纸上记录在天上划过的痕迹。同时，吹过的风，飘过的云朵，以及经过的路人等随机因素也一起参与到太阳在每天所创作的“太阳画“”之中。
郝经芳&王令杰，现工作生活于法国米卢斯和中国上海。其创作关注自然界的细微变化，以及人们对其发生的感知，主要媒介包括装置和影像。运用材料科学及工程学原理创作的作品呈现了对认知、情感与自然之间关系的探索，传达了一种交织着理性与感性色彩的形而上的思考。作品经常呈现于国际艺术机构和画廊，其中包括：第十四届里昂双年展、法国巴黎东京宫、蓬皮杜艺术和文化中心、尤伦斯沙丘美术馆、上海当代艺术博物馆等。
5 当呼吸可以言语 苏永健&巴瑞云
作品营造了一个交互场域，试图剥离我们现有的、极其高效的语言体系，借由呼吸引发头顶的触角摆动发声，将动物的交流方式复归于人类身上以制造新的面对面关系。在此，人们以往惯用的言说经验被以悬置，现有语言的一切符号被简化为信号，趋于贫瘠化、类动物化。艺术家尝试提出问题：作为自然的一员，我们该如何重新定义彼此间的联结关系？
苏永健，现工作和生活于北京，现为中央美术学院艺术与科技方向博士，他有多件作品被中央美术学院美术馆等机构收藏，所获重要奖项还包括流明奖（The Lumen Prize）提名、LIFE GEEK等。并曾于全国各地，瑞士、德国及威尼斯重要展览展出。
巴瑞云，现生活工作于北京，现为中央美术学院科技艺术方向博士生。她工作涉及表演、影像、公共参与等多方面实践性内容，作品主要围绕重构当代语境下身体的感知等问题展开讨论，试图进一步探讨在当下生活里，我们该如何重新定义空间、身体、触觉、呼吸与面对面的关系。
6 孢子&子孢 周知远
艺术家将青霉菌群落封印，使菌群处于休眠状态，作品中的气泡正是休眠前的生命体呼出的最后一丝空气。艺术家短暂的介入了自然界中生命的循环，与人类无法决定规律的生死相悖，阻断了作为分解者的真菌在自然界中的生物功能，借以核磁共振成像这一常用的医学手段，对群落进行逐层定格，借由科技手段合成孢子作品的成像，形成似真似幻的生命群体的影像，并呼应真菌被封印休眠的状态，将作品以相同方式不规则封印，形成闭环的对照形态。
周知远，现工作和生活于深圳。在深圳市人民医院ICU（重症监护室）工作十九年。周知远的创作一直在围绕「生命」进行，他以独到的视角观察生命于细微之处，并借助多种媒材和数字影像的方式，赋予感性的生命以理性的记录和美丽的发现，周知远的艺术打破了「生」与「死」的界限，影响着观者对生命的态度。2022年，其作品《孢子》（曾用名《星域》）展出于由日本福冈亚洲美术馆举办的第五届亚洲艺术双年展，并获最高奖项金奖。
策展人
魏颖是一位活跃在全球科技艺术领域的策展人和研究者，她近期的兴趣方向为科技艺术史，生命、环境、数字技术等新兴媒介与艺术结合的领域。她的实践包括展览策划、研究、写作、翻译和教学等。她担任欧盟科技艺术奖（STARTS）、ISEA等国际科技艺术项目的国际顾问/审稿人、中国当代艺术年鉴编委等。她策划或参与策划的展览及项目包括“物种新论”、“竹子作为方法”、“准自然——生物艺术、边界与实验室”、“科技艺术四十年”等。
刘慕仪，现任职于深圳市关山月美术馆，数字发展统筹。她曾策划或参与策划由国家艺术基金资助的“青年艺术设计人才培养计划”，“元•界——关山月美术馆数字人文研究展” 、“数字时代与艺术博物馆未来”学术论坛、“青春心印——关山月美术馆青年工笔画展”等。