MUSIC
Suite sounds: on the road with cellist Yo-Yo Ma
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‘I WANTED TO SEE IF THE PLANTS COULD CONTRIBUTE SOMETHING,” says Hito Steyerl, sitting in the office of her Berlin gallery. “I feel it’s a good idea to take humans out of the equation a bit.” Described as a post-internet artist – someone who uses the tools of digital technology to tackle broader social issues beyond web culture – Steyerl is credited as the creator of one of the works in Dear Earth: Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis, a group show at London’s Hayward Gallery. But in a way the true creative force behind the piece, called Green Screen, isn’t her at all. It’s not even human.
On the back of a giant LED screen, Steyerl has arranged a vertical garden with ferns and hops. The plants generate bioelectrical signals, which are translated into sounds that have been paired with a rudimentary drum
