Negotiating The Stage With Plants: Improvised Music And Other-Than-Human Hauntings

ArteActa 2026, 15

Negotiating The Stage With Plants: Improvised Music And Other-Than-Human Hauntings

Leonardo Barbierato: Conservatorio Santa Cecilia

This short essay offers a perspective on multispecies improvisation through a transdisciplinary approach that brings together posthuman theories, new materialism, dark ecology, object-oriented ontology and critical studies of improvised music. More specifically, it analyzes the improvisational practice involving both human elements and plant species, using as a case study my work as a sound artist and improviser in the theatrical performance Pezzo a due con dieci piante, created by the collective conferenza balaam. In this performance, music emerges through improvisation, as I interact with the vegetal component using a synthesizer, an electric bass and a sensor. Working on this performance has brought to light numerous ethical and ontological questions regarding interspecies relationships on stage. It is evident that the performance is conceived by humans for other humans in an environment seemingly controlled by humans. However, the agency of plant species and technology, especially during musical improvisations, has a strong impact on the performance, to the point of potentially redirecting it, like a true “performance bug” (Masini 2024) of vegetal origin. The non-human presence seems to haunt the performance, revealing an unsettling aspect of the non-human, one that challenges the very concept of nature (Morton 2007). How does the presence of plants in the improvisational process alter your perception of the improviser's role compared to a performance with only human musicians? What social implications does this aspect carry? Improvisation becomes an experience through which it is possible to engage with the uncanny nature of the non-human and to find new ways to co-inhabit it (Tsing 2015), embracing precarity and “staying with the trouble” (Haraway 2016).

Klíčová slova: improvised music, plants music, dark ecology, post-humanism, improvisation, object-oriented ontology

Zveřejněno: 14. červenec 2026 Zobrazit citaci

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