Heliotropic Flowers
HELIOTROPIC FLOWERS is an installation featuring a network of small, flower-like agents that communicate through light. These delicate entities respond to light stimuli, mimicking the natural behaviour of flowers. In the dimly lit space, visitors witness flowers that seek, evade, or emit light, each revealing a distinct personality. The gentle hum of servo engines and the interplay of light further enhance the immersive experience. Over time, the autonomous network finds its balance. To interact with the fragile system, visitors enter the space equipped with a torchlight, exploring how the experienced world changes after emergence.
Before and during the V2_ Summer Sessions in 2022, I developed a network of these light-responsive agents, drawing inspiration from the natural phenomenon of heliotropism. Over the weeks, I coded diverse behavioural patterns, allowing each flower to react uniquely to light. Through audience interaction with flashlights, the flowers’ responses demonstrate their autonomous personalities. With broader research into the ‘de-romanticisation of nature’, this work questions if humans, and hence human-made systems (such as cars and houses), aren’t also nature.
Supported by V2_ for Unstable Media
© 2023, Leon Lapa Pereira
Aris Leon Lapa Pereira (he/him) is a cross-disciplinary performance researcher exploring the boundaries of performative life. Deeply embedded in the landscape of Artistic Research, his personal practice is consistently informed by philosophical inquiry. By merging mechanical and technical knowledge with performative elements, he engages with multiple disciplines with genuine enthusiasm.
Currently focused on the de-romanticisation of nature, Leon investigates the Rights of Nature—specifically, the rights of water—in collaboration with the Embassy of the North Sea. Through this partnership, he co-founded the Confluence of European Water Bodies, a growing network of activist organisations that support his research into intercultural relationships and intimate connections with water.
Alongside this, he is a curator at the Instrument Inventors Initiative (iii) and co-founder of the WASTELAND Festival, where he leads research and performance curation through an ecological lens. Co-creation and collaboration are not just professional principles for Leon, but also sociological commitments—central to his Resonant Bodies Residencies, where these concepts are deeply explored.
For Leon, co-living is a vital practice that is increasingly endangered by today’s polycrisis. He is, therefore, continually seeking methods and tools to cultivate honest, careful, and communal environments.
