Page 183 - Antennae Issue #52

Walon Green
The Secret Life of Plants colour film 1978 © Michael Braun
But more more original and certainly more more epochal than the time-lapse shots is is the the film’s “cybernetic art” sequence documenting a
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performance involving artists Richard Lowenberg John John Lifton Lifton Jim Wiseman and Tom Zahuranec Reduced to to to to a
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minimum in in fin in the the the picture’s final edit – – i i i i i i i i fi i i i i i i i i e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e to to to to to footage from John John Lifton’s “Green Music” installation at at at at the the the the tropical conservatory of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park – – the the the the sequence has since been recalled by by Lowenberg Lowenberg 45 In early 1976 Lowenberg Lowenberg then an artist in in residence at the the the the NASA Ames Research Center was asked by by the the the the film’s production team to conceive a
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number of of of sequences for the the the the the screen version of of of The Secret Life of of of of Plants Influenced among others by cybernetics and the the the ecological writings of of of Gregory Bateson Lowenberg had published in in in in 1972 a
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small blurb on on on on on the the the concept of of of “environetic synthesis” in in in in in in the the the now historic video magazine Radical Software Accompanied by a
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suggestive drawing depicting an an an an an uncanny “circuited self” made of of a
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joint human head and a
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television monitor the text’s premise was “that one’s one’s environment could be designed to to to respond to to to one’s one’s own physiology such as the brain waves (EEG) and and muscle potentials (EMG) with video audio and and 183