Lem’s idea for sending messages to the future with the help of plants captured the imagination of two British artists, May Abdalla and Amy Rose, who co-established Anagram, an studio specialising in immersive experiences. In spring 2021, the artists invited us to perceive nature in an entirely new, different way. In collaboration with Monica Gagliano, they plan to create digital installations in tree crowns and around tree trunks in botanical gardens in Amsterdam, Warsaw, London and Vienna – extending viewers’ visual experiences and inviting them to reflect on the fact that the natural world is something much more complex than what the human eye can see. The essence of the installation resembles the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, forest baths. As shown by the research conducted by Dr Qing Li, an authority in the field, frequently submerging ourselves in a forest benefits not only our mental health, but also the physiology of our immune systems.
A few generations ahead, through artists from an entirely different, new generation who are using the technology he anticipated, Lem –the futurologist, the cosmic thinker whose reflections seemed to have orbited so far from our everyday reality – has invited us to realise how strongly we’re intwined in the universe. To go into nature; to feel it. And when we add the potential health benefits to the equation, it seems that there’s no better way to heal our minds and bodies, which have been exhausted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not even necessarily as a part of an artistic event.
Perhaps as civilisation develops, we’ll learn to encode information using plants, as Lem predicted we would. And maybe we’ll finally hear what they have to say to us.
Originally written in Polish by Maria Hawranek, Mar 2021, translated by Anna Potoczny, Sep 2021
Maria Hawranek is a reporter who works with publications such as Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format and National Geographic, amongst others. She is the co-author of two books of reportage from Latin America: Tańczymy Już Tylko w Zaduszki (We Only Dance on ‘Zaduszki’) and Wyhoduj Sobie Wolność (Breed Your Freedom).
This article is presented in partnership with Tygodnik Powszechny.