The world of creating music from plants
How artists Sam Cusumano, and Tosca Teran experience the world of biodata sonification, also known as, plants making noises. Written by Lauren Sadler.
In a world of fast-paced eccentric people, we’re always looking for something out of the norm to represent us as people. We dye our hair, wear quirky clothes, and experiment with drugs. That’s exactly how it feels to listen to plants making music.
Sam Cusumano, known as Electricity for Progress on social media, is a 45 year old Project manager and educator. He taught at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and in his free time he would help students with their computing projects. Throughout the course of his life he had run a series of projects, some with friends, for biodata sonification. The Biodata Sonification project was all about creating sound from living things.
“It’s the process of extracting small changes in an organic system and turning that complicated information into something that’s perceivable at the human level. I like to use sound in order to present that change,
“I take readings off the surface of a plant lead, and listen for changes. When there is an invisible fluctuation, I then produce a musical note so the timing of when the note occurs, it is in accordance with the change that is detected within the plant,” He says.
He described the process as peering at the shadow of what the plant is doing. He used sound to make people more comfortable and grab their attention. Usually in his projects, the changes within the plant are naturally occurring, and are not from human stimuli. Though he has worked with musicians where they would inject solutions into plants to elicit reactions.
“If you touch the plant leaf it probably will make a sound. I always say if you tap the doctor's stethoscope she’s going to hear you. It doesn’t actually tell you something about the system. When the plant is doing its own thing and then there’s a sound change, we as humans try to correlate what happened,” He says.
Tosca Teran, another bio-sonificiation artist, explained bio-sonification working in more practical terms. She had worked with different purpose-built circuits which detected micro-fluctuations in conductivity. This would then translate for real time MIDI notes, which then enabled her to patch directly into synthesisers.
Sam’s experience in engineering started when he would go with his friends to punk rock shows in the 1990’s. He would fix distortion pedals on stage, and even the lights in the bathrooms. He started to explore audio engineering through experimenting with children’s toys and seeing what different sounds he could get them to make.
As he would navigate through life, he took an engineering perspective. Though he would try to see things through different lenses too. Spirituality seemed overwhelming at times, though a lot of people who interact with his projects seemed to be spiritual. Some people felt validated by his work, and others were sceptical if any of it was real.
“Many people are incredulous or highly sceptical. They look at a plant and they see it just sitting there doing nothing, so they don't really believe that there's anything happening. Or a sceptic would say well. It's just noise in your device or noise between the lines. I’m an engineer, I’m just saying what the machine does, but people have experiences with this plant music where it’s highly verifying,
“I'm not trying to have my perspective of spirituality land on the users of my products or devices or ideas. I’m surrounded by people who are deep in spiritual connectedness and trying to find cognitive connections to plants. I would say if someone thinks that plants aren't conscious, I doubt most animals are conscious. Then again, perhaps that's just me in defiance rather than actually sinking my teeth into a belief system,” He adds.
He wrote the original biodata sonification code in 2013. He left it open source so it could be amended by newer techniques that developed over time. People online would give suggestions and changes, forming a community around bio-sonification.
“I didn’t want to be locked into version 0.05. Every project you have to reduce the scope and figure out what the minimum viable thing is. Perhaps that's similar for any artist; when is the painting done, when is the song done. When is the biodata done?” He asks.
Tosca stumbled into bio-sonification when she bought electrical components from a man called Manual Domke. She had previously built touch sensors for listening to fungi. Manuel sold parts and components of his own bio-sonification modules that expanded on Sam’s code.
A company called DataGarden wanted to sell biodata modules so people could create their own experience. Sam was onboard with the Kickstarter, and they soon met their goals. They were able to supply everybody with a device. DataGarden continued to use his code on their latest projects.
They’re not the only ones. Through crowdfunding, and individual makers, there were plenty of people who used Sam’s open source code for their devices.
“Instead of hiding it in a box or painting over it with black paint, I just wanted everyone to see how this works. To prove my code in some ways. I’m showing what I’m doing in case if someone said this is all fake, you can see how real it is,” He says.
Out in the world there are albums full of plant music created by the device that Sam made. He would create complex midi data, and let the musicians play with the information, whether they would want the focus on the plants, or in the background as a flourish. Not only do professional musicians use the device, people have used it for their own personal reasons.
“Last year there was a couple who put electrodes on a woman’s belly while she was pregnant to have a neonatal music project. I don’t think it works that way, but it’s so cool that people are trying and that’s the whole arc of this project for me,” He says.
With DataGarden, Sam set up several machines for the Quartet installation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After he made sure the machines were running, his friends went out for a break. He didn’t want to leave the equipment alone.
A woman came in and expressed her disappointment. Before he explained that it wasn’t a visual installation, it was audio, he noticed that there was no sound. He apologised and asked her to come back later. After noticing his IPad which displayed the data of the plants, something strange occurred.
“Conductivity was the highest that we had detected on the plants before. Essentially you couldn’t hear the notes because they were too high pitched. The woman left and gradually everything faded back down to the normal level,” He explains.
It was his first immersive experience with someone outside of the project. Sam isn’t sure if it was a glitch or maybe the plants sensed the woman’s energy and his sweat. Later in the same installation, a pregnant woman visited, and the plants played some beautiful music.
The main goal for Sam was to work on something and share it with others. To empower people to learn more about the world around them, and how it all works. He wanted to inspire others to share their work, but recommended that they patent their inventions, even if nobody uses it.
“I want to tell the world, understand how your tools work. If we don’t understand our tools, we will be locked out, and very quickly,
“I want to make sure my baby cam doesn’t go out over the internet, but I want the convenience of watching my kids sleep. I want to make sure we continue to have it all tomorrow,” He states.
Tosca wanted to take things day-by-day, to create work both with her own hands and digitally. According to her Facebook her work explores different forms and audio about terrestrial manifestations. She won a jury’s choice award in 2019 for her project, ‘Grow Op’.
“I write and make music with my partner, I want to experience more of the world. I am transforming my research in fungi Bio-sonification into an orchestra symphonic work,” She says.
Both Sam and Tosca have explored Biodata Sonification. While Sam created the open source code, Tosca got to use it. She will continue to explore Biodata, whereas Sam dedicates his time to his family, and helping students. Both have influenced the world of Biodata Sonification.
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