Bionic and the Wires is an art project by Jon Ross and Andy Kidd that combines art, nature, and tech. They say they want to “celebrat[e] the inherent rhythms of non-human life forms”.
To create music, electrical fluctuations in the plants trigger bionic arms to play instruments. In other words, the plant essentially generates mallet strikes that, when appropriately placed, hit keyboard keys, cymbals, or the like to make sounds.
Three Plants Having a Jam by BionicandtheWires on YouTube
You can even plug mushrooms into the same setup:
Mushroom and Plant Jamming by BionicandtheWires on YouTube
The resulting music is quite hypnotic in a way and truly fascinating.
I wonder what it would sound like if the plants were plugged into traditional instruments like hardanger fiddles or zithers. This is definitely a feature I’d love to see in a SFFnal story, especially if there already are sentient plants or fungi.
An occasional feature on music and sound-related notions.
Co-Geeking 