(3) The third chapter, Light-Sensing Experiment, draws on biologist Anthony Trewavas’ definition of intelligence as “adaptively variable growth and development” during the lifetime of an individual plant.

Scientific experiments by plant ecologist Katja Tielbörger at the University of Tübingen have explored this plasticity, describing these responses as ‘decision-making,’ yet avoiding calling them ‘intelligent.

These unique plant ‘decision-making’ experiments by Katja Tielbörger served as inspiration for a further artistic experiment on plant ‘light-sensing’.

The artistic experiment was set up at the FiBL greenhouses, expanding plasticity research into the conditions and challenges of growing white lupins—light-loving plants that thrive in the sun and are therefore valued by Swiss breeding researchers as crops, while also surviving diverse environmental conditions.

The Light-Sensing Artistic Experiment used growing white lupins, combining scientific methodology with artistic modifications: green transparent plastic filters were used to simulate competition, and colored filters to stimulate growth.

An ethnographic study, along with 3D capturing techniques, was used to observe different stages of growth and the individual responses of plants to the color filters and environmental conditions. Environmental and photosynthetic data were later collected to trigger the colors and movements of plants and light particles, while 3D-scanned lupin flowers, captured at different growth stages, became key actors in the immersive journey of Solarceptor Flowers in the final chapter.