This installation enables a live plant to control a machete. It has a control system that reads and utilizes the electrical noises found in a live philodendron. The system uses an open source micro-controller connected to the plant to read varying resistance signals across the plant's leaves. Using custom software, these signals are mapped in real-time to the movements of the joints of the industrial robot holding a machete. In this way, the movements of the machete are determined based on input from the plant. Essentially the plant is the brain of the robot controlling the machete determining how it swings, jabs, slices and interacts in space.

Kinetic installation artist David Bowen has given a rhododendron a really big knife, the power to use it, and therefore, a degree of agency not enjoyed by the kingdom Plantae since the Cambrian era. His latest piece, Plant Machete, melds a woody shrub with an industrial robot arm and slaps a machete to the business end of it. On the other end, a series of electrical pickups monitor the bioelectrical noise generated by the plant. Living plant controls a machete through an industrial robot arm pic.twitter.com/jQYzMzoG0W "The system uses an open source microcontroller connected to the plant to read varying resistance signals across the plant's leaves," Bowen wrote.

Three of my movie recommendations this time around are about thinking: There's an aging detective trying to recover the memory of his last case, a wife who discovers the true nature of her relationship after repeatedly lying to him, and a group of smart people who sit around drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and talking about life. Since we're in the midst of the Olympic Games, I'd also encourage you to catch T-Rex, a documentary that's not about a terrible lizard, but a terrific female middleweight boxer named Claressa Shields. Other new and notable movies this week involve physical activities of their characters and subjects, whether it's making punk music or folk music, shooting an erotic movie, exploring a terrifying underworld, or defending yourself with a machete. Sometimes the act of escaping can be physical, with the fear of getting caught increasing the adrenaline flow. Characters this week escape from a tyrannical dystopian future and with a stolen baby.