. . if there is an ideal, it is incompletion and tension: shifting, kaleidoscopic forms are forever moving out of chaos toward a potential perfection, a perfection which is, however, never fully attained (The Interpretation

The crystal metaphor o the constantly shifting forms transfers easily to plant form, reflecting on how plant growth is in constant movement towards a potential perfection, to Goethes primordial plantalways adding new leaves to the old, while never attaining the completed form. The kaleidoscopic vision of plant movement also resonates with the evocations of plants by one of the greatest influences on Art Nouveau, dancer Loe Fuller, whose efforts to convey the impression of pure energy in her veil dances relied on a combination of spiritualism and technology. Both Scheerbart and Loe Fuller blend coloured lights and movement to evoke plant forms without becoming referential. In addition to her famous serpentine, fire, and butterfly danceFsu, lleinrvokevdariouflsowerisn, cludinogrchidasnldilieihsn,elirght

She also pro- jected microscopic photographs of cancer cells, images of skeletons and surface of the moon onto her luminous garments. Tom Gunning, in an article on Loe Fuller and Germaine Dulac, draws attention to plants as an inspiration for both the dancer and the filmmakers experiments with kaleidoscopic visual spectacleIdsn.escribinFgullerflsowedrancehsw,eritesT: hfelowefrosrmed

Anticipating Dulac, Fuller declared, I desire to materialize the insaisissble! [unsayable] (115). In her memoir, full of references to the many famous people she encounters, Fuller also writes in a short chapter on her belief that motion and light can convey more fully than language the experience of the senses (Fuller 72). Her attraction to light, colour and movement as the basis of her sensory spectacles echoes Scheerbarts efforts to combine impressions from the senses in a constantly shifting play of light and colour in Flora Mohr. That plants are one of the fundamental points of inspiration for both Fuller and Scheerbart points to a widespread shift in the perception of plants from inanimate objects to dynamic, living beings at the fin de sicle.