Paco Calvo is professor of philosophy of science at university of Murcia, Spain. In 2015 he founded the Minimal Intelligence Lab where he does research on the ecological and philosophical basis of plant intelligence. He and his team use behavioral methods in order to explore perception-action, and learning in plants, at the level of both roots and shoots. He is co-editor of The Arquitecture of Cognition and author of the manifesto The Philosophy of Plant Neurobiology.
Eike Wittrock is a dance scholar and curator, currently teaching at the Universität Hildesheim. From 2012 until 2014 he was working at the Freie Universität Berlin as a post-doc research assistant in the DFG project „Bilder von Bewegung“, on dance photography between 1900 and 1920. He has been teaching at Freie Universität Berlin, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig and lectured in different institutions, such as theaters, galleries and academic conferences. His curatorial work spans from collaborating on the International Summer Festival Hamburg, Kampnagel, to the „Julius Hans Spiegel Zentrum“ with Anna Wagner, where international choreographers investigated the exoticisms in modern dance. He is co-editor of the book Floriographie.
Dieter Volkmann is professor emeritus at the University of Bonn. In Bonn he researched more than 25 years at the Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany (IZMB). His fields of research were plant physiology, plant perception and plant signaling. He is co-founder of the Society of Plant Neurobiology (now: Society for Plant Signaling and Behavior) and co-editor of Communication in Plants – Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life (Springer).
František Baluška researches since more than 20 years at the Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany (IZMB) in Bonn, Germany. He specialized on plant physiology, plant behavior, plant signaling and the sensory systems of plants. 2005 he founded together with other botanists the Society of Plant Neurobiology (now: Society for Plant Signaling and Behavior). He is the co-editor of Communication in Plants – Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life (Springer) and frequently publishes papers on the similarities between the animal and plant signaling systems.
Elsa Salonen is a Finnish artist based in Berlin. Her installations unite scientific world view to spiritual positions especially through alchemy, biology and nature. She has hold various solo exhibitions through Europe and her works are part of museum collections such as Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland and Lissone Museum of Contemporay Art, Italy.
Filipe-Guilherme Pirl studied five years philosophy at Humboldt-University and specialized on non-human consciousness. In his bachelor thesis Google: plant consciousness he argued for a visual turn in consciousness research. In 2015 he worked three months for the Minimal Intelligence Lab in Murcia and gave courses at Humboldt-University on plant consciousness and audio-visual philosophy.
Cordula Linke studied pharmacy at Freie Universität in Berlin and has developed her relationship with plants by extended studies of the Indian traditional medical science of Ayurveda. She teaches yoga and meditation in Berlin at Deutsche Akademie für traditionelles Yoga where she also held a spiritual phyto therapy course. The course examined plants from the scientific and spiritual perspective and aimed at encompassing a holistic picture of what plants as living creature comprise. There she experimented with meditational methods to get into a state of deep communion with plants at the level of the soul.
Simone Vitale is a musician, composer, sound healer and vocal yoga teacher originally from Rome, Italy. He has been working in the field of music and recording for more than 25 years. Over the last 10 years his interest and focus have shifted toward the healing quality of music and the effects of sound on the human body and mind. His MINDFUL MUSIC is following the call for an ethical approach to Art as a contribution to our re-connection with Nature; promoting an ecology of sound and music where kindness and mindfulness are the keys to a deeper connection with ourselves and each other. With the project of The Music of the Plants Simone is exploring the possibility of Inter-species communication from a musical perspective. The various aspects of Simone’s journey into the world of sound include Healing Music, Music for Pregnancy and Birth, Live Music for Yoga, Music of the Plants, Inspirational Songs as well as a Sound Healing practice (Tuning Forks) and Vocal Yoga workshops. As of 2012 Simone has been sharing his work internationally in Italy, India (Tamil Nadu & Kerala), Germany, Finland, Estonia and New Zealand.
approaching plant consciousness 