Radio Mycelium & How I Hack Plant Conversations

Mindaugas Gapševičius, Martin Howse, Jan Georg Glöckner, and participants
2019 07 20-22

To register please send short motivation letters to mo[@]mo.lt till June 10.

The experiment invites participants to experience interspecies communication and feedback loops between mycelium networks and their habitats, including other organisms and beings. It also proposes the examination of a new networked imaginary between electrochemical signals, digital data, and electromagnetic waves.
Participants will experience plant to plant or plant to fungi interaction by connecting an electronic interface and converting data from electrochemical to digital and back to electrochemical signal. Using allelopathy as a metaphor for plant interaction, the project questions the mechanism of translation of signals, which, through the number of generations are influenced by the information from outside, including its own transmitted information. The theme is wrapped around in the toolkit “Mycorrhizal networks or how I hack plant conversations.”
The experiments introduced will give an idea of how to grow mycelium, how to make electronic tools and attach them to living organisms, and how to use the tools for audiovisual expression. During the hands on session, participants will do four experiments: start growing mycelium on coffee grounds; sense electric potentials in living organisms; assemble and test the mycelial radio transmitter; use built tools and a Pd patch provided for audiovisual expression.
The experiment will end with an audio-visual performance, performed by the participants.

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