bioelectric
Made an appearance at a Botanic Garden picnic event today. These are events where the general public comes to the garden to see what’s growing, to eat food and to witness various art performances and to take part in workshops. I was invited to show some of my recent investigations into the bioelectrical sonification of plants.
Using some custom-made equipment, I spent the afternoon wiring up some of the garden’s plants (and the occasional fruit from somebody’s lunch) to subject them to a small electric potential, allowing me to use the small changes in voltage to control different aspects of an audio signal.
In this way people were able to hear not only how different each ones sounded but also how sensitive the plants were to their surroundings. It was a real surprise for them to listen to the plants ‘ obvious reaction to being touched as well as simply being near to someone, or to being blown about in the wind.
