What Remains: The Root and The Radical
2018-2020.
Exhibited at Unseen Photo Festival, Amsterdam 2018 and Secrets on the Way, Sluice HQ, London 2019.
Recently, more and more, plants are being described as ‘intelligent bodies’ and ‘social organisms’. In the late 1800s, Charles Darwin was the first to suggest that the tip of the roots in plants is akin to the brain of some animals. Since then, the possibility of mental capacities and cognitive abilities of plants has become an exciting field of research. In his book, The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben states that the roots of a tree ‘is where the tree equivalent of a brain is located’. The root network is in control of all chemical activity in the plant, they absorb and release essential substances.
Working in a pseudo-scientific manner, I have been subjecting plants to photographic chemicals, to try and understand what, if any, of the photographic material can be processed. Aiming to some how visualise the unobserved and unseen cognitive proficiency of the roots.
I find a number of capabilities of roots to be particularly relevant in relation to the chemistry and process of analogue photography; firstly, their ability to sense pH and consequently absorb levels of heavy metal from soils to make the soil more habitable for other plants. Secondly, their ability to alter the architecture of their root systems according to sensing water locations. And thirdly, thier relationship with Sodium Thiosulphate. I will go on to discuss these areas below in further detail.
Roots have the ability to sense the pH of the soil matter surrounding them. Using this sense of ‘taste’, they can understand what soluble chemicals are in the soil and ‘mine’ large quantities of undesirable compounds from the soil to improve the soil health. Plants such as these are known as hyperaccumilators, some absorb high levels of heavy metals, storing them under their bark or in their shoots and leaves. Coming at this research from an interest in pairing plants with photographic processes, I am exploring the potential power of plants to absorb silver particles from photographic fixer. Hoping to find plants that are able to absorb silver from spent photographic fixer, which could then be harvested without damage to the plant. From my research so far, I have found that the few that do absorb silver, do so in much lower quantities in comparison to those able to absorb compounds such as Nickel (Antonkiewicz, 2016). This is an area I continue to research.
As well as being able to sense soil pH, roots can also sense water levels. According to studies done by the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security in Teal Aviv, the architecture of the plants root system is influence by the location of the water source. Further more, the root is able to signal to the other parts of the plant when the water levels drop. The plant then focusses its energy into root growth, moving towards deep soil layers, searching for new water sources. The roots seek out the water though both ‘sound’ and ‘taste’. (Gagliano, 2017)
If plants feel direct contact , they feel hot and cold, dry and wet, acidic and alkaline. They are perceiving tactile sensation rather than feelings of a mental or emotional state. I wonder, what do they feel when harshly submerged into a tray of chemicals including Hydroquinone and Phenidone or Sodium Thiosulphate. Sodium Thiosulphate is the main component of all commercial photographic fixer. This same chemical, is also used as commercial plant fertiliser and to stimulate growth. According to an article by the Agricultural Research Organisation ARO in 2011, Thiosulphate stimulates growth and alleviates silver and copper toxicity in tomato root cultures. It is also used in combination of with Silver Nitrate to create the molecule Silver Thiosulphate. This molecule is used by cannabis growers to revert female plants to male pants in order to produce male flowers.In the first case, we see plants dealing with toxicity in soils. In this case, specifically silver and copper. Analogue photography being a silver based processes, it is a critical element in the advent of photography. Particles of it end up being washed down the drain in combination with Sodium Thiosulpahte. The Sodium Thiosulphate removes the unexposed silver particles during the fixing stage of development. Could it be that by disposing of our Sodium Thiosulphate laced with silver particles, we are in fact making those silver particles less harmful to the environment and therefore to the plants? Or in the second case mentioned above, of it being used by cannabis growers, is the Silver removed from the photographic surface combining with the Sodium Thiosulphate to create Silver Thiosulphates? Which, when tipped down the sinks of those unconscious darkroom users, ends up in our soils and on our plants, triggering possibly undesirable genetic changes to occur within the plant.
CITATIONS:
Antonkiewicz, J., Jasiewicz, C., Koncewicz-Baran, M. et al. Nickel bioaccumulation by the chosen plant species. Acta Physiol Plant 38, 40 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-016-2062-5
Gagliano, M., Grimonprez, M., Depczynski, M. et al. Tuned in: plant roots use sound to locate water. Oecologia 184, 151–160 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-017-3862-z