aubrie's bounce zone

who’s the loneliest?

2020

modified plant communities

this project was designed to function simultaneously as a scientific experiment and an artistic installation. the scientific experiment addresses the common assumption in ecological theory that competition is the primary force structuring biological communities — testing the theoretical expectation that to be alone is to be better off. in each of 312, 50X50cm plots, i selected “focal” individuals around which to remove all plants, all conspecifics (plants of the same species), all heterospecifics (plants of different species), or a mixture of species in the plants’ “interaction neighborhoods”. as an artistic installation this project departs from the same point as the scientific work — aloneness — but asks the viewer to consider the experience of separation which they share with nonhuman individuals. walking to each of the plots to commune with a focal plant within its neighborhood invites the viewer to understand themselves as visitor, neighbor, or participant in nonhuman communities. in doing so, the work activates a thrumming sense of separate-togetherness that we often only feel with other humans: any attempt to consider the condition of the focal plant brings us together with it, but our inability to truly know its experience keeps us separate.

associated scientific paper

James, A.R.M., Mayfield, M. M., Dwyer, J.M. 2023. Patterns of frequency and density dependence are highly variable in diverse annual flowering plant communities. Ecology. 104(5):e4021. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4021