What Future Will We Dream When We Dream With Plants?
ONEIRIC OLIVE During the Oneiric Soils Residency in 2023, Jemma Foster and Jamie Perera made recordings of an olive tree growing in the house where the residents were sleeping. Recordings were taken using multiple devices to measure the electricity biodata of the tree, at sunset as it went to 'sleep' and a few hours later during human REM cycles. These recordings were played to the group during the day and before bed. In the mornings the group recorded their dreams, talking in unison. This was then converted to the same sine wave pattern of the tree and played to the tree during the day. This, together with meditations with the tree, led to a liminal feedback loop between person and plant as an act of social dreaming. Many residents recorded dreaming with the olive during this time.
Composed and produced by Jamie Perera and Jemma Foster. Oneiric Olive has so far been played at COP28, The London ICA & The Symbiocene Summit 2024: Bioanarchy, & B-Regen at Royal College of Art, and WORLDING 2025 at MIT Boston, Glastonbury Festival 2025.
In response to our teachings from the olive tree during the residency, Wild Alchemy Lab has planted an olive grove of 40 trees in Palestine. If you would like to plant additional trees, please visit here - https://www.planteenolijfboom.nl/english-info
