Embodied Listening in a Human-Plant-Technology Encounter

For the full review of the event, please visit Embodied Listening in a Human-Plant-Technology Encounter .

In collaboration with the documentary Arbors, Herbs and Banana Leaves (dir. Xiaohui Liu), this practice-based research examines how sound becomes an embodied process that connects humans, plants, and technological mediation. Drawing from the film’s recordings of plants regarded as sacred and spiritually resonant in local belief, Yuwan Zhang integrates these sound materials with vocal improvisation and touch-activated signals generated through the TouchMe MIDI interface.

Rather than treating sound as an aesthetic object, the project approaches it as a living relational field shaped by contact, presence, and perceptual attention. By allowing voice, gesture, and biofeedback to interact with plant-derived sound, the work explores how emotional and ecological states can be registered through the body.

At the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, audiences will encounter this interactive process firsthand, experiencing how their own bodily feedback participates in and subtly alters the sonic environment. This inquiry positions embodied listening as a method of ecological attunement and artistic research, expanding the possibilities of sound practice within education, anthropology, and cross-cultural sensory study.

具身共振：人声、身体反馈与植物互动的探索

本研究与纪录片《三个世界》（导演：刘晓慧）合作展开，以实践为基础的方法探讨声音如何作为一种具身过程，连接人类与自然。峪晚彰将纪录片中采录的植物音乐（这些植物在当地信仰中被视为神圣并具有灵性共鸣）与人声即兴及通过 Touch Me MIDI 装置采集的生理反馈信号结合，形成身体与植物之间的动态声音对话。

项目研究人声、身体运动与生理反应如何记录情绪与生态状态，关注的并非审美结果，而是“当下的在场”与“感知的过程”。

该项目将于 2025年11月21日 在 美国人类学年会（新奥尔良） 展出，观众将体验自身身体反馈与植物声音的共鸣。此研究将“声音体现”视为一种生态聆听与艺术研究的方法，连接教育与文化实践的领域。