Seeing Plant Lives in Graphs

Description

In this talk, I will introduce my recently completed fieldwork at a Swiss biotech startup working
with plant electrophysiology to develop sensors for agricultural applications. The company
positions its devices within sustainability narratives and serves both growers, big Ag clients,
and other startups involved in the agricultural sector. The device offers continuous recordings
of plant states, which require complex technological mediations and expert interpretations to
function as a tool enabling interventions before symptoms become visible to humans, or to test
the impact of specific solutions on "plant health".
Focusing on technological mediations, data practices, and expert interpretations, I will present
materials for an umbrella project tentatively titled "Seeing Plant Lives in Graphs." Drawing on
questions central to environmental sensing technologies, I consider that these devices do more
than merely record plant states; they actively constitute particular plant-human-technology
relations, where visual practices play a crucial role. Specifically, plant electrophysiology
sensors generate new modes of knowing, representing and predicting plant lives through data,
supported by specific and actionable modes of visualization, such as graphs.
As the company tries to transition from interpreting past data to provide advice for the next
cultivation season - to implementing ongoing alerts to assist growers in making timely and
"more sustainable" decisions (reducing irrigation and treatment application), my aim is to
examine three interconnected questions. First, the material practices of sensor deployment and
the technological infrastructures enabling such ongoing alerts(and their current issues). Second,
the interpretive work required to translate graphs into actionable agronomic knowledge
(including struggles in power/translation). Third, the tensions between sustainability claims and
industrial agriculture, where the sensors program particular versions of "sustainable",
potentially foreclosing others.
This research engages the cosmopolitics of agricultural digitalization: whose worlds, values,
and futures are being enacted? By tracing how plant electrophysiology sensors aim to transform
agricultural practices and environmental relations, I aim to contribute to broader discussions
about environmental sensing and participation.

Period	20 Nov 2025
Held at	University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	International