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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.

The installation itself is further transformed the installation into a real-time performance environment through musical activation performed by UnCalculated Studio and members of the public. This petite yet powerful installation gave us the space to experiment,

and evolve the work into the full scale interactive piece shown in the videos 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.