©2006 Chicago Botanic Garden
View a slide show Watch videos Read the companion guide (PDF)

Think a shoot can’t shoo-be-do?
Slow down, watch carefully, and see eager sprouts dance to greet the dawn at sLowlife, a dynamic multimedia exhibition that presents plants as complex, living beings.

This mesmerizing exhibit features time-lapse movies which show plants as they sense and respond to their environment. The gallery-style presentation includes photographs of remarkable plants, original sound compositions based on plant movements, concise text, and live plant material.

Many of us think of and treat plants as inanimate objects. But a plant grows, reacts to changes in its environment, reproduces, responds to disease and injury, and undergoes a slow decline into old age and death—a saga that sounds hauntingly familiar.

In a way, our “plant blindness” is a handicap. Human senses are attuned to react to movement: the stalking predator, the advancing storm, and other immediate threats. Seemingly stationary plants simply don’t capture our attention. But, contrary to our conscious perception, plants do move…be it ever so slowly.

sLowlife offers a journey into altered perceptions—a window into the world of plants. It accelerates the time-scale of plants into our own frame of reference, speeding up their everyday lives to a pace that resonates with our own.

About the exhibit
sLowlife is a collaborative project of the United States Botanic Garden, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and Roger Hangarter, Indiana University. Original sounds by John Gibson, Indiana University. Additional support was provided by Indiana University, the National Science Foundation, and the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Additional information and resources
• Visit the sLowlife Web site from Indiana University.
• Learn about First Fridays at CHF.