Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats always fascinates us by coming up with neat ideas that get us thinking about our relationship with technology and the natural world. His newest project? A cinema that plays foreign travel documentaries for immobile house plants and ficus trees, letting them “see” a selection of European skies by projecting them onto a special screen that reflects diffused lights from the movies onto the plants’ leaves. As Keats explains:

Plants don’t have human eyesight, and perceive light only in aggregate, but they’re highly sensitive to fluctuations in the spectrum since luminosity is the basis of photosynthesis. As an entertainment form, cinema was practically made for them.

Movie theaters are appealing to us because the big screen makes cinema a shared experience. This is a chance to share experiences with other species.

“Strange Skies” will play at the AC Institute in New York City through March 13.