Kissing Nature

Kissing Nature is an interactive performance installation by Karen Lancel and Hermen Maat and a hopeful narrative about future empathic connections between people, plants and technology. Plants are known to respond to human bodies, sound, touch and behavior. The installation, a baroque mini-jungle of ferns from the forests of Oranjewoud, invites participants to explore a new embodied "empathy practice" with plants.

Kissing and caressing
During the performance, participants wear EEG headsets while kissing, caressing and hugging. Their brain activity and plant biofeedback data (CO₂ and oxygen) are measured in real-time and translated into a shared algorithm and data sonification. This interaction between brain and plant biofeedback co-creates a unique, immersive soundscape - a planetary Empathy Symphony, in which humans and plants explore together a yet unknown, but shared sensory experience.

The music is in the hands of guitarist/composer Tristan Visser, who created a furor with the film score of Under Water (2019) and most recently Arctic Mirage (2022), where he moves on the interface between sound and music. The relationship between man and the sea is a recurring theme is his work. With an inquisitive attitude, he wants to make people listen better to the soundscape around them.