PLANT INTELLIGENCE Symposium

The international symposium Plant Intelligence marks the conclusion of the SNF research project Plants_Intelligence. Learning Like a Plant (2022–25). Over three days, artists, theorists, scientists, curators and activists come together to discuss the project’s findings and open new perspectives on the life of plants.

Through lectures, performances, screenings and experimental formats, the symposium explores how plants can be understood as intentional and cognising beings. It examines the aesthetic and political dimensions of plant intelligence and asks how an awareness of vegetal agency can transform our ways of knowing, creating and living together.

The event invites participants to learn with and from plants in times of ecological crisis, and to imagine a future in which artistic practice contributes to more attentive and reciprocal relationships with the more-than-human world.

Dates: 31 October – 2 November 2025
Venue: Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW
Organisation: Institute Art Gender Nature, in cooperation with HEK (House of Electronic Arts Basel)

Language: English
Admission: Free, registration required
Online participation: Available via livestream

Program:

Friday, 31.10.25 - HGK Basel, Aula D1.04

13:00 - 14:30
Part I: Concepts of Plant Intelligence

Intro by Yvonne Volkart: What is plant intelligence?
Keynote by Birgit Schneider: Anthropomorphism in a Feedback Loop. On Speaking with Plants and Machines

15:00 - 18:00
Part II: Ingesting-digesting: Intelligence Within

Felipe Castelblanco (Part 1): Borrachero Dreams
Keynote by Jeremy Narby: Learning from Teacher Plants
Discussion with Jeremy Narby moderated by Felipe Castelblanco
Ayënan Quinchoa and Heraldo Vallejo: The Indigenous Pan-Amazon Perspective (Online), introduced by Felipe Castelblanco
Screening: Ayënan Quinchoa Juajibioy
Lecture Performance by Julia Mensch: Kiwicha

18:30 - 21:00
Part III: Plant Companions at CIVIC
Marcos Filardi: Museo del Hambre (Online), introduced by Julia Mensch
Metabolizing Yearba Mate by Camila Chebez. KIOSK
Curated Dinner and Performative Input by KOMA Culture Studio: RE-ROOTED

Saturday, 01.11.25 - HGK Basel, Aula D1.04

9:30 - 12:15
Part I: Aesthetics and Politics of Plant Intelligence
Intro to Day 2 by Yvonne Volkart
Florianne Koechlin: Plant whispers: How Plants Communicate and Network
Keynote by Giovanni Aloi: The Lawn Condition: Thinking with plants and soil

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

13:30 - 16:30
Part II: Plants_Intelligence Artistic Research
Intro by Yvonne Volkart
Julia Mensch: Amaranth as Political Agent
Katja Tielbörger: Decision-making in plants–An experimental approach
Rasa Smite: Light Sensing. Flower as Antenna and Attractor
Felipe Castelblanco (Part 2): Plant Movement(s)
Kathrin Meyer: Among Plants: Intelligence and Subjectivity of Plants as Starting Points for Changing Relations?
Yvonne Volkart: Closing remarks
Screening: Ursula Damm

16:30 - 20:00
Part III: Plants_Intelligence at Freilager-Platz & CIVIC
Valentina Vetturi: Mimosa Pudica. Collaborative lecture performance at Freilager-Platz
Guided Tour through Plants_Intelligence exhibition at CIVIC:
Julia Mensch and Sofia Viola, Listening Session / VR showcase by Rasa Smite / Videos by Felipe Castelblanco
and Plants_Conversations / Relaunch of Insert (online journal) and Unter Pflanzen Magazine
Harmonisation: Synesthetic Ritual with Marilu Pacheco
Dinner (Soup and Finger Food) by KOMA Culture Studio

Sunday, 02.11.25 - HGK Basel, Studio Kino - EG

11:00 - 13:00
Cognizing Systems
Noelia Billi: Plant Intelligence and the Aesthetics of the Artefactual Sensorium (Online)
Keynote by Michael Marder: The Soil as the Unconscious: A Thick and Opaque Image of Plant Intelligence