Midnight Mushroom Music

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' A central theme of the "Ozymandias" poems (excerpt here by Shelley) is the inevitable decline of rulers with their pretensions to greatness. Physarum polycephalum does not see Humans as ruler, nor their pretensions.

Apologies for a couple missed evenings. Andrei and I have been contemplating our losses. Andrei's father last year, my mother this year along with everything else. Positive thoughts, too. Many projects and changing the code on our bio-sonification modules- which you hear here. Andrei and I hooked up to each other, our bio-data simultaneously chugging through the MIDI channels, making sounds. Sirin and Grandmother. Then we venture towards Mars. Andrei and Grandmother. Meanwhile, we are working on the Mycelium Martian Dome project, generously sponsored by: Ecovative Design, Moog Audio, Brothers Dressler, The Mushroom Guerrilla in partnership with MoCA and the Ontario Science Centre. Installing later in July, 2019.

Electrodes placed on my scalp, MIDI out to Mother 32 running into various Eurorack modules; Karl Marx, Braids, Clouds, Black Hole and some Make Noise.. It has been a difficult week. Wondered what that might sound like.

Listening to the Mycelium sculpture that was grown for GrowOp 2019 every other day, it changes. This episode is a bit Bjork + Matmos = some high pitched pings so, watch out if you're wearing headphones! Oh and May the 4th be with you! :) Scanning electron mage taken from Lichen growing on a birch branch that I found.

Today has been a hell of a day! Positive/Negative/in-between. Regardless, tonight the Ganoderma lucidum is very active. Brought the midi biodata through the Grandmother and then decided to simply bring it through Ableton. Thanks for listening!

Grow Op 2019 installation at the Gladstone. The Mycelium Shrine; Primordia was created. An immersive environment where visitors could listen to the Mycelium and commune with it. April 17-21st at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto Room 206 Primordia won the GrowOp Jury Award! For Grow Op: ENERGY I created an immersive underground environment. Visitors could enter the world of Mycelium and interact with it sonically. Over a two month period, I formed and grew a large-scale mycelium sculpture during my residency at MoCA Toronto. The living mycelium sculpture served as the centrepiece within the installation. The walls within the space were covered with black scrim, for the floor we brought in 8, 25-litre bags of topsoil. I sprayed the topsoil with hydrogen peroxide and diatomaceous earth to keep the possibility of fungus flies to a minimum. Fibre optic lighting was hung from the ceiling to represent mycelium growth and networks. A pedestal was placed within this space for the living Mycelium sculpture to stand upon

During my residency at MoCA I'm exploring myco-remediation, growing mycelium sculptures, on agar plates, in jars, in bags... Last night Andrei and I hooked up ourselves and mycelium to experiment with some ideas we have for the bio-sonification at Grow Op April 17-21 2019. We brought midi into 2 Mothers and a Minitaur, reverb via a T2 pedal. We are also constructing touch-pads for visitors into the 'Underground' in room 206 at the Gladstone Hotel (Toronto). If the pads work, visitors will be able to directly interact with the mycelium bio-data. Stay tuned... :)

March 31st. Blizzard outside, mycelium inside. First bio-sonification recording during the MoCA residency. A bit strange.. the mycelium was very active, incredibly buzzy- toned it down a bit with a Lowpass filter.

Workshop at U of T March 7th. Nanotopia shared our Bio-Sonification studies with Masters and PHD students. During the last half of the workshop we set electrodes onto our Hosta undulata.

Bio-sonification during York Universities 1st annual Makers Fair. Spider plant hooked up sending its bio-data into Ableton. We added some Bach style arpeggiator, a little delay and lowered pitch -12 ;) We also had some amazing volunteers allow us to hook em up! 12 kids completed a circuit. Lots of fun.

After the Bio-sonification module building workshop (Feb 23) participants placed electrodes onto a plant and recorded its bio-data to midi (Animoog) and Ableton. Here are the results!

Recording bio-data off friends while they meditate.

My Stropharia rugosoannulata aka wine cap mycelium is in danger. Somehow the bag was compromised and Trichoderma entered the scene... I kept the parameters simple. The beginnings are all healthy mycelium then, I placed the electrodes onto the Trichoderma. Time for the compost bin!

Thursday, January 17th, 2019 the opening reception for Planete Sauvage took place as part of the DesignTo Festival. During the event, I held a demo/intro to sculpting with mycelium and midi bio-sonification. Brave participants placed electrodes onto their fingers, earlobes and I recorded their bio-data, making sure to use the same parameters for each subject. Ashley starts the set. At 6 minutes, 51.725 seconds in Linsay's set starts. At 13 minutes, 26.306 seconds Sinjin's set starts. At 20 minutes, 17.081 seconds Rachel's set starts and around 26 minutes in a spike happens- what is the cause of this spike? Rachel and her partner are now hooked up to each other and holding hands. They kiss. At 28 minutes, 19.505 seconds Damn Zombie's set starts. As usual, I recommend headphones for the best sound experience. Unless of course, you have an amazing sound system! Can you hear and feel the differences? Please leave comments below. Thank you again to the participants for sitting with me and allowing your bio-d

The mycelium has engulfed the substrate and is now overtaking the soil! I carefully buried electrodes down into the substrate over the mycelium and recorded their bio-data.. I've left the electrodes in place to see what will happen. Last time I did something like this with Ganoderma lucidum the mycelium grew over the silicone insulating the wires. Listen to this translation with really good headphones, if at all possible. I am still on the fence with this one... next time, different parameters. This mycelium was busy with the bio-data! I just kicked back and allowed the mycelium to do its thing. Super activity! Not quite as 'mellow' as the Ganoderma lucidum. Enjoy responsibly!

Mycelial ghosts.. I recorded more bio-data from the Stropharia. This is less squelchy, less hectic. Happy dreaming!

January fifth by Mycelium Network

Last night at Sím (2018) many of the artists in residence allowed me to record their bio-data. E.Sher, visit her at www.eleonorasher.com Image, E.Sher's Tessilations, was taken during our group exhibit at the Icelandic Arts Association Gallery in Reykjavik, extruded in Toronto.

The Mycelium is fruiting.

I've been growing Pink oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus djamor) since early August (2018) and admittedly forgotten them in my downstairs greenhouse. There they were, beautiful as ever. Fruiting and the substrate entirely myceliated.