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Between Species is a live musical instrument and performance that positions plants as co-composers in a living audiovisual ecology. Recently exhibited at the 2025 Taoyuan Youth Design Exhibition & International Design Forum, the work is designed and performed by UnCalculated Studio (Rewa Wright & Simon Howden). An audio-visual ‘conversation’, where sonification connects living plants with human composed music, the work combines plant signal drones, uses a Yamaha keytar as a visual interface, and generates a live audiovisual interaction via custom designed node based software built in TouchDesigner.

We began our development for Between Species in small steps, initially crafting a prototype in our studio, and then with a first exhibition in Taiwan, thanks to curator and Professor CK Lim (Yuan Ze University).

That gave us the impetus to transform this petite installation into a powerful, immersive full live AV show, filmed at QUT’s large screen facility The Block in Brisbane. Excerpts below.

Drawing on Rosi Braidotti’s zoe-centred posthumanism, Between Species reveals the vitality and agency of more-than-human life. Bio-electrical signals from living plants modulate both sound and generative animation, while the keytar activates responsive sonic layers within a custom-built software system. The result is a dynamic interplay between human gesture, machinic logic, and vegetal rhythm.

Rather than representing nature, Between Species performs with it—creating an entangled space of co-composition where sound and light emerge through interspecies interaction. The work invites audiences to witness a form of ecological improvisation: a live choreography of code, frequency, and plant intelligence, in which boundaries between organism and instrument, composer and listener, begin to dissolve.