About plant music

Plant music is a technological process that uses a device equipped with sensors to measure the bioelectrical activity of plants and translate it into music. This technology reveals that each plant produces its own unique melodies and responds differently to its surrounding environment.

The origins of this approach date back to the late 1960s, when Clive Backster, an American polygraph specialist, made an unexpected observation. After connecting the electrodes of a polygraph to the leaf of a dracaena plant, he recorded electrical signal variations that he interpreted as resembling human emotional responses. This experiment highlighted the existence of bioelectrical activity in plants and inspired the idea that plants perceive and respond to their environment.

Today, while the existence of bioelectrical signals in plants is well established, the interpretation of these signals as evidence of emotions or consciousness remains a subject of scientific debate. Rather than claiming to reveal the "voice" of plants, SUPERNATURAL uses this technology as an artistic and poetic medium to foster curiosity, deepen our relationship with the living world, and invite new forms of listening.

These early discoveries found a creative and technological continuation in Damanhur, an ecological community in Italy. Founded in the late 1970s, Damanhur is a center for research dedicated to promoting a way of life in harmony with nature, with the aim of strengthening the relationship between humans and the plant world.

The community is internationally renowned for its extraordinary underground Temples of Humankind, hand-carved into the rock of the Italian Alps, north of Turin. A unique spiritual, artistic, and ecological laboratory, Damanhur is also the birthplace of Music of the Plants, a technology developed by the company of the same name that translates the bioelectrical activity of plants into music.

In France, musician, researcher, and nurseryman JeanThoby has been sharing and expanding this research for many years, exploring the interactions between plants and music. His work is notably presented through the annual Festival de musique des plantes held in Gaujacq, bringing together artists, researchers, and nature enthusiasts around the dialogue between music and the living world.

Today, plant music is emerging as a new field at the crossroads of art, science, and well-being, inviting us to explore the subtle dialogue between the plant world and humanity through a renewed way of listening.