Sounds of Soil: A New World of Interactions under Our Feet?

Soils are biodiversity-dense and constantly carry chemical flows of information, with our mental image of soil being dark and quiet. But what if soil biota tap sound, or more generally, vibrations as a source of information? Vibrations are produced by soil biota, and there is accumulating evidence that such vibrations, including sound, may also be perceived. We here argue for potential advantages of sound/vibration detection, which likely revolve around detection of potential danger, e.g., predators. Substantial methodological retooling will be necessary to capture this form of information, since sound-related equipment is not standard in soils labs, and in fact this topic is very much at the fringes of the classical soil research at present. Sound, if firmly established as a mode of information exchange in soil, could be useful in an ‘acoustics-based’ precision agriculture as a means of assessing aspects of soil biodiversity, and the topic of sound pollution could move into focus for soil biota and processes

Ten simple rules for hosting artists in a scientific lab

Hosting an artist in a scientific lab is likely a new experience for many scientists in the natural and engineering sciences, and perhaps also for many artists, yet it can be a very beneficial experience for both parties [1]. “Art and science are in a tension that is most fruitful when these disciplines observe and penetrate each other and experience how much of the other they themselves still contain” [2]. During our science and art collaborations in the last years, we have learned what connects and what separates our disciplines, how different yet common our worlds of working and thinking are, and how stimulating such collaborations can be. Although scientists and artists belong to two different cultural worlds, many share research as a congruent method to explore and understand the world around us. Often, scientific and artistic work spaces are indistinguishable as they are full of equipment, materials, tools, and computers to run experiments and analyze data [3,4]. Science and art are fundamentally connected through their focus on creativity [5]. Also, both scientists and artists deliberately venture into the public realm in the spirit of Hannah Arendt: “Humanity is never won in loneliness and never by handing one’s work over to the public. Only if you take your life and person[ality] into the venture of the public realm, will you reach [humanity]” [6]. At the most fundamental level, science and art both try to understand the world around us and to guide society to recognize and solve problems. Artistic and scientific research may also have much more in common than one expects at first sight: They both involve years of schools and personal development, they both involve trial and error, and the sharing of results with different communities. However, transdisciplinary cooperation requires openness, a willingness to take risks, the ability for self-reflection, respect, and esteem for the other culture as well as a lot of appreciative listening from both parties [7,8]. Our paper thus intends to serve as a practical guide for both, artists-in-residence and the hosting scientific lab to easier cross borders, to better collaborate, to better learn from each other, and to sustainably bridge the different cultures of science and the arts. Our discussion starts at the point where a decision for such an interaction has already taken place. Still wondering if this is for you? There is much to gain for both sides. For the scientists, for example, this interaction can be a source of new ideas and questions, offering new points of view. Some of us also felt that this interaction offered training in explaining research in clear, simple language, and provided opportunities for interfacing with the science-curious public in a curated context. For the artists, this can be about learning new tools, methods, and approaches and about the specific topics on which a lab works

Basculement des mondes

A l’heure où le changement climatique est une problématique majeure qui nécessite de repenser nos manières de vivre, les artistes nous invitent à appréhender les recherches scientifiques et le devenir du vivant, par le sensible. Des enjeux environnementaux, des processus naturels, du microcosme à l’échelle d’un milieu, parfois en relation avec des scientifiques, ils sont témoins, inventeurs et créent des œuvres qui proposent des expériences. Ils rendent perceptible l’état de notre environnement, en bouleversement. Si les processus de vie de la nature fascinent et inspirent, ils provoquent aussi des émotions, ravivent des souvenirs, des récits et conduisent à ressentir son propre corps. De ce contact naît la compréhension du végétal, sa manière d’être et de se transformer selon les lieux et conditions où il se trouve. L’invisible, l’au-delà se découvre par l’expérience physique, l’écoute et le touché. D’un fragment, d’une matière naturelle ou d’un élément collecté, les artistes, parfois en collaboration avec des scientifiques, nous donnent à voir et à écouter le temps de la nature. Ainsi, les œuvres sont chacune un monde où plonger son regard, prendre le temps de comprendre une découverte scientifique ou se laisser surprendre et aiguiser sa curiosité sur les ressources naturelles, à préserver. Elles proposent des moments de contemplation, d’exploration à la fois visuelle, sonore et tactile. Elles nous amènent à prendre conscience des phénomènes naturels. Ainsi, les œuvres rendront perceptible l’état de notre environnement, en bouleversement. Elles proposeront des moments de contemplation, d’exploration et de prise de conscience des phénomènes naturels. La tension entre la fragilité et la puissance de la nature sera alors révélée. La Maison des arts plastiques Rosa Bonheur sera un laboratoire, un jardin, un espace de cultures, pour une observation des microcosmes, de formes végétales, d’éléments instables et des dynamiques du paysage. Cette exposition remplira d’émerveillement sur les formes de la nature, sa capacité de grandir, de se développer et de produire des sons

Vertimus – Une saison dans le marais #2. Le printemps..

Exposition à l a Maison de la Culture de Bourge du 30/03 au 27/06/202

Vertimus – An Art and Science Project

Section Art et ScienceI was in the shop tuning up a Khan-Arachnid orchid with the UV lamp. It was a difficult bloom, with a normal full range of twenty-four octaves, but unless it got a lot of exercise it tended to relapse into neurotic minor key transpositions which were the devil to break. And as the senior bloom in the shop it naturally affected all the others. Invariably when I opened the shop in the mornings, it sounded like a madhouse, but as soon as I’d fed the Arachnid and straightened out one or two pH gradients the rest promptly took their cues from it and dimmed down quietly in their control tanks, two-time, three-four, the multi-tones, all in perfect harmony.– JG Ballard, “Prima Belladonna”, Vermilion Sands

La croissance artistique et l’énergie des végétaux.

Aujourd’hui un certain nombre d’artistes travaillant avec la nature se sont intéressés à l’énergie produite par les plantes, toutes sortes de plantes, comme les arbres par exemple, si nécessaires dans les villes dont ils constituent un poumonvert, libérant une énergie perceptible à la fois physiquement et mentalement. Les artistes, en tentant de comprendre comment nous partageons avec les végétaux un même environnement, mettent en lumière à leur façon la complexité de nos rapports avec eux. Ainsi font-ils écho à ce que les scientifiques explorent de leur côté, comme l’équipe MECA, un groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire de biomécanique intégrative de l’arbre étudiant à l’INRA les sensibilités des plantes aux changements environnementaux. C’est naturellement l’aspect sensible de ces études qui intéresse le plus le monde de l’art. Des propos comme ceux de Bruno Moulia y trouvent un écho certain : “Les plantes savent très bien percevoir le vent et son intensité. C’est très important puisque le vent est un énorme danger pour elles. Si elles sont exposées au vent, elles vont s’adapter et limiter leur croissance en hauteur, augmenter leur croissance en diamètre et donc être plus trapues2.

Vertimus: We Are Turning Around, Upside Down, We Are Changing, We Are Switching

Bonneval will present her collaborative projects across art and science around the topic of trees. She will discuss Dendromacy, a series of workshops, installations, and films developed with teams of ecophysiologists that considers tree intimacies and rethinking trees; Listen to the Earth, a collaboration with fungi specialists, microbiologists, bioacousticians, and soil scientists from Paris, Berlin, and Ithaca that is based on recent research on linkages between sound, soil, plant root behavior, and fungi; and Vertimus, or, how to move with plants, a collaborative project with Eric Badel and Bruno Moulia from PIAF, INRA Lab in Clermont Ferrand, France

Sounds of Soil: A New World of Interactions under Our Feet?

Soils are biodiversity-dense and constantly carry chemical flows of information, with our mental image of soil being dark and quiet. But what if soil biota tap sound, or more generally, vibrations as a source of information? Vibrations are produced by soil biota, and there is accumulating evidence that such vibrations, including sound, may also be perceived. We here argue for potential advantages of sound/vibration detection, which likely revolve around detection of potential danger, e.g., predators. Substantial methodological retooling will be necessary to capture this form of information, since sound-related equipment is not standard in soils labs, and in fact this topic is very much at the fringes of the classical soil research at present. Sound, if firmly established as a mode of information exchange in soil, could be useful in an ‘acoustics-based’ precision agriculture as a means of assessing aspects of soil biodiversity, and the topic of sound pollution could move into focus for soil biota and processes

Les formes contemporaines du voisinage. Espaces résidentiels et intégration sociale

Ce rapport présente les résultats de la recherche "Voisinages". Elle s'appuie sur deux grandes enquêtes de terrain : une enquête par questionnaires (l’enquête Mon quartier, mes voisins), réalisée en 2018, puis une enquête post-questionnaire par entretiens, réalisée en 2019. Elles ont permis d'étudier les relations de voisinage dans divers types de quartiers et contextes urbains (quartiers bourgeois en ville-centre, quartiers gentrifiés en ville-centre, quartiers populaires en ville-centre, quartiers de mixité sociale programmée, Grands ensembles en rénovation urbaine, petites villes périurbaines, communes périurbaines rurales) en région parisienne et lyonnaise. Cette recherche a été réalisée sous la responsabilité scientifique de Jean-Yves Authier (Professeur de sociologie à l’université Lyon 2) par une équipe de chercheurˑes composée de : Jean-Yves Authier, Loïc Bonneval, Josette Debroux, Laurence Faure, Karine Pietropaoli et Isabelle Mallon (Centre Max Weber), Joanie Cayouette-Remblière et Aurélie Santos (Ined), Eric Charmes (Rives, EVS), Anaïs Collet (SAGE), Colin Giraud (CRESPPA/INRAE) et Hélène Steinmetz (IDEES), avec la contribution de Laure Crépin (CRESPPA). Elle a été financée par l’Union sociale pour l’habitat (USH) – et les Fédérations nationales des Coop’Hlm, des ESH, des OPH et ABC Hlm, Alliade Habitat, Alpes Isère Habitat, APES-DSU, AORiF, AURA Hlm, Grand-Lyon Habitat, Groupe Polylogis, Groupe Valophis, Habitat en région, Paris Habitat, Sacoviv ; l’Agence nationale pour la cohésion des territoires (ANCT) ; l’Institut pour la recherche de la Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC) ; le Plan urbanisme construction architecture (PUCA) ; la Métropole de Lyon et la Ville de Paris. Elle a été gérée administrativement par Kamel Guerchouche (Centre Max Weber). L’enquête « Mon quartier, mes voisins », qui constitue le coeur de cette recherche, a été réalisée sous la direction de Jean-Yves Authier et Joanie Cayouette-Remblière, avec l’appui du service des enquêtes de l’Ined : Gwennaëlle Brilhaut, Géraldine Charrance, Bernard de Clédat, Valérie Laprée, Kamel Nait Abdellah, Sandrine Ragazzi, Amandine Stephan et Lamia Temime

Forest Biodiversity, Soil Functions and Human Behavior - A case study: the October 29 2018 catastrophe in North-East Italian Alps

The forests of 473 Italian Alpine municipalities were severely damaged by a strong wind at the end of October 2018. The affected forest area covers 42,500 ha. The president of one of the damaged regions asked for help from the TESAF Department of the University of Padua, Italy. Twenty-six international scientists (listed: 25; anonymous: 1) responded to the appeal and collectively wrote this article. At first the value of ramial chipped wood was discussed, then whether the forest should be left or not to its natural evolution, then whether there is a threat of bark beetles, then the time needed for the biodegradation of fallen trees was estimated from the on-site examination of humus forms, ending with political and social considerations. After eight months of discussion, with various reworkings and cuts, a controversial text was born, complete and practical at the same time