nanotopia
mycelium, Toronto
Tosca and Andrei have been building bio-sonification modules based off of Sam Cusumano's Open Source schematics (more below).
Travelling around the world collecting fungal biodata to either process in real-time onsite or record to process through synthesizers later.
No two fungal specimen 'sound' the same. No two trees sound the same. All of the organisms respond differently to human presence, touch.
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Find BioData Module kits here:
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Modules​
Collaborate sonically with the non-human organisms around you. Next time you go on a picnic bring along your Bio-sonification Module & listen to the sounds of the forest, how it responds to your presence then, place the electrodes on your friends or hook up your houseplant and see how it really feels!
The module detects micro-fluctuations in conductivity between 1000 - 100,000 of a second and translates this data into MIDI notes and controls. You can hack the module kit to send CV out!
All components to build your own Bio-Sonification module are included plus, electrodes and 1 pair of Bio-Medical pads.
This kit comes with step by step soldering instructions with tips/tricks/suggestions, including a PDF guide on plugging into nature, recording tips, and working with MIDI. Bonus for visual artists- TouchDesigner hook-up guide included (via MIDI)
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Not included:
3 AA batteries
MIDI to USB/Lightning cable
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Kits ship once payment clears
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Please feel free to email us with any questions you have concerning the modules!
NOTE: Orders placed over holidays- please contact us in advance as we may be out of town celebrating and unable to send out orders until after the holiday season.
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Check out our Midnight Mushroom Music Podcast on Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/nanotopia/sets/midnight-mushroom-music and our Bandcamp https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com/
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The Open Source Biodata-Sonification Modules (aka MIDI Sprout) were originally designed and created by Engineer, Sam Cusumano. Visit Sam's biodata forum over at electricity for progress http://electricityforprogress.com Plus, Sam sells a bunch of super cool electronic kits, boards and more!
Ships with pre-flashed IC + customizable code.
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$120+SHIPPING
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3 AA batteries are necessary to power the BioData Module- you can convert the module to operate off a wall-wart for installation purposes. Or purchase rechargable batteries!
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Midi to USB cables- we highly recommend working with a good MIDI - USB cable such as iConnectivity Mio1 or their newer MioXC
https://www.iconnectivity.com/products/midi/mio
The issue we've found with super cheap MIDI-USB (Amazon) is they do not work reliably with different OS or for very long.
Other options out there are Roland, though we have encountered issues with them depending on OS as well.
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Check out the Sounds of Nature podcast commissioned by the Goethe-Institute Montreal to hear/learn about artists working with biodata-sonification, field recording and Soundscapes! Headphones highly recommended.
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Biodata-sonification. Before reading this term, Tosca and Andrei were building touch sensors, galvanic, proximity, light-triggered, sound-triggered and worked with various microphones towards hearing the invisible, the microscopic. During a workshop where participants learned the ins and out's of cultivating and caring for Physarum polycephalum, the instructor suggested Tosca look at her working with Slime mould as a way of collaborating with, potentially even communicating with an alien, extraterrestrial being. This inspired Tosca to the ultra maximum!
Immediately Tosca dug into microphone research to enable hearing the Physarum's "bodily" functions. Microphones this sensitive are not readily available to the general public or vastly expensive; there had to be another way. This spark led to hours of Google searches; indeed, there had to be someone who asked these same questions and looked for equipment/schematics that allowed for listening to microscopic organisms?! Sensors that read brain waves or muscle tension- perhaps? Growing closer to the epiphenomenal moment, Tosca noticed an image of a person sitting in front of a table with headphones on during a Google search. Right in front of them sat a plexiglass box-like open terrarium growing moss, with a mushroom sticking out of this moss.
They were now heading down another rabbit hole into the world of Andreas Saigian. Tosca etched Andrea's various shared workshop schematics onto PCBs, but none yielded the results she was after, though somewhere within workshop notes, someone mentioned The PhyChip. Searching this term brought her to Paloma Lopez and Leslie Garcia of Interspecifics Collective, specifically their Soundcloud work with Physarum!
Nowhere could she locate where to purchase a Phychip, or how-to build one herself but, the term BIO-SONIFICATION however, now entered her vocabulary and KABOOM!
The rest, as they say, is history.
What is bio-sonification?
“Bio-sonification,” basically means using technology to turn the bio-rhythms of natural objects into sound. Collaborate sonically with the non-human organisms around you.
Tosca has been cultivating fungi for over a decade, however, the concept of "listening" to fungal mycelium didn't take physical root until 2016 (research started in 2011) when Tosca soldered together Biodata circuitry and placed electrodes within living mycelium.
By 2018 the Midnight Mushroom Music Archives were expanding on Soundcloud. ​
Nanotopia continues researching fungi frequencies. Translating mycelial emanations into the Human audial spectrum.
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Politically speaking- Nanotopia's work with bringing fungi biodata, fungi frequencies into mixed reality installations, and VR is to speak of our shared environment, humankind's Other-than-human entanglements.
People often view -nature- as something outside of themselves; nature is over there, in a forest, or nature is the weather. This is how, in my humble opinion, many humans can deny the climate crisis- which is indeed a crisis for life.
Being Terrestrial- humans require clean air, clean water, and clean food to thrive and survive, as does most oxygen-breathing life on Earth. Earth. Humans come from the Earth; therefore, they are a part of this incredible organism. However, centuries of religious oppression have sadly sought to remove humans from the natural world—position humankind as "man-kind" and remove it from nature, from being animal.
Being Human is a collection, an entanglement of organisms that make up the whole, a Holobiont. Fungi are a significant aspect of our human entanglement.
If you’ve read this far- thanks! ;}
Meanwhile, here is a link to a sonic podcast episode the Goethe-Institute commissioned, headphones are best for the spatial quality.
Sounds of Nature: https://www.goethe.de/prj/tbp/en/eps/son.html
Nanotopia continue researching fungi frequencies. Translating mycelial emanations into the Human audial spectrum.