Connecting art to science by taking Arabidopsis Symphony to Japan (5-9 June)

We are passionate about the collaboration between science and art, so we are thrilled to announce we will bring our project Arabidopsis Symphony to Tokyo (Japan) for the International Conference for Arabidopsis Research! It will take place from the 5th until the 9th of June.

The Arabidopsis plant grows all across Europe, Asia and Africa, and although it is commonly seen as a weed, the plant is popular as a model organism amongst plant biologists. The plant’s life cycle is quite short and its genetic traits have been very well mapped and archived. This makes them interesting to study. Researcher Sander van der Krol of Wageningen University recently told us all about his scientific research into their growth processes and inner dynamics, as well as his vision of plant life (plants are more boring than animals? Absolutely not!), his fascination with it and how Arabidopsis Symphony blossomed into what it is today.

Arabidopsis Symphony shows us there is more to a plant than meets the human eye by translating scientific research into augmented reality and music. The installation uses real-time local data, such as weather conditions and time of day, to illustrate the hidden growth processes of plants. It shows us just how dynamic plants really are and invites us to interact with the plant world. The installation looks and sounds very different in every part of the world we’ve been to, so we’re excited to see how it will behave in Japan!