Radical Soundscape is an interactive installation and ongoing research project exploring bioacoustics in plants through a fictional, tech-based lens. Participants are invited to interact with nature to explore unique soundscapes; As audience touch the plants, their fluctuating electrical biofeedback generates dynamic sounds in real-time. This method of data sonification offers an immediacy we wouldn’t expect from nature, offering a moment of wonder for audiences, an almost magical element. Beyond challenging conventional perceptions on the responsiveness and agency of nature, the project proposes technology as a tool for promoting alternative narratives around plants and its growing potential for interspecies communication. Radical Soundscape has been previously exhibited at the Blooming Festival in Italy, as well as at LCC’s Degree Show and IMT Gallery in London in 2022. More recently, it has been selected in 2024 for the Softer Digital Futures in London.

Artist bio

Marta Ilacqua (b. 2000, Italy) is an interaction designer whose practice orients towards exploring and challenging audiences' perception and understanding of cultural phenomena. Her work remoulds cultural notions through storytelling and experimental technology, aiming to present alternative realities that strive away from the anthropocentric narrative.

In 2023, Marta has begun her work in the Creative Technology Lab at LCC- UAL as ‘Interactive Media and Experience Design’ specialist technician. In 2022, she graduated from the BA Interaction Design Arts at the University of the Arts London, where she's now a Visiting Practitioner.