All music is fundamentally a co-creation with nature. Whether vocalizations resonate from vibrations of our vocal cords, the slap of a hand on an animal hide, the strum of guitar strings echoing across a hollow tree—each function as a response from some natural object to another.
Recently, I had a conversation with a friend about music amid the tunes of Jon Hopkins and Speedy J about the nature of music. He was riffing on different types of electronic music that have some of their origins in circuit bending and analog outboard gear (admittedly a world with which I’m unfamiliar). This led to a discussion of a project I’ve been interested in seeing develop over the past few years called PlantWave. Essentially, this device is a series of electrodes that are connected to a plant. This device reads the electrical signals running through the plant and associates them with particular sounds. The result is as follows:
The idea of being able to listen to the electrical signals as they occur real time within a plant is pretty mind-blowing to me. I hope one day to get one of these and try it out. PlantWave’s website has videos showing the sounds different plants produce—and while unconsciously we probably know that each plant functions differently than others—to hear the difference really brings it to life. This device allows for the realization that within a seemingly silent plant exists a symphony of processes and workings. In many ways, this device allows the language of plants to come to life in the same sort of way we talk about bringing the language of the body or the breath to life.
I particularly like the demonstration in this video that shows the effect touch and different colored lighting has on a plant:
By touching the plant or altering its lighting conditions you are essentially co-creating the music with the plant.
My friend expressed interest in making music using the micromovements in his body, like tapping his fingers or other subtle movements. If there was some way to connect yourself to a similar medium as PlantWave and assign sounds to the muscle movements within your body we could essentially make music the same way PlantWave does.
Perception is Tied to the Body
Evan Thompson, utilizing Husserl, describes in his excellent book Mind in Life that every aspect of an object that we can touch or see isn’t simply correlated to the kinaesthetic experience of your body but is actually functionally tied to that very experience. He describes how when we touch the keys of a computer, the keys are given to us in conjunction with sensing the movements of our fingers! When we watch a bird, the bird exists in conjunction with sensing our head and eyes move as we follow the bird. Citing Husserl, Thompson describes how our bodily self-experience is a constitutive portion of our ordinary perception. We cannot separate the perception of something from the bodily sensation.
While the following might be a bit of a bastardization of Husserl, I think it nonetheless fits his theme. Every movement and sensation is functionally tied to the experience of the movement. This means that if we can hook an electrode up to my fingers that registers the electrical impulses of my finger tapping (or any other small movement) to a sound, then we are literally hooking a sound to the felt experience of tapping the finger. These, then, are literally the sounds of consciousness, the rhythm of consciousness as we experience it.
If that is the case, would the sounds created from the electrical impulses within the plant not be a rhythm of the consciousness of the plant? One of many?
Given the above, what would be really cool would be combining the sounds of your own movement and experience with the sounds of plants. All of a sudden you are co-co-creating music with plants.
The way I’m envisioning this has a layered system. The same way the music is subtly altered in the Speedy J video linked above, with gradual shifts based on how the music is progressing, you can subtly shift your own movements and interaction with the plants.
In this scenario, the human and plant interactions form a dynamic feedback loop, where the sounds generated by each influence the other in real time. The result is a harmonious collaboration, where gradual adjustments in movement respond to the evolving soundscape, creating a continuous interplay between person and plant. In essence, the same process is occurring in real time with a live plant as happens with an acoustic guitar as you interact with the dead remains of a plant.
Co-Creating Music With Nature
In many ways, humans are already co-creating music with nature. One particularly interesting (but invasive) way is the Great Stalacpipe Organ. Within Luray Caverns there is an organ connected to various stalactites. When a certain note is pressed a mallet taps on the corresponding stalactite that resonates at the correct note. This organ holds the record for the world’s largest instrument because the stalactites are spread over a 3.5 acre area.
The Oxygen Flute
The “Oxygen Flute” by Chris Chafe and Greg Niemeyer is another interesting example. Neimeyer built a sealed greenhouse at UC Berkeley where they planted bamboo stalks. Within the greenhouse they placed gas sensors to measure the carbon dioxide and oxygen levels as the bamboo grew. These gasses were measured and sent to a computer which would modulate the pitch and length of notes that were played by a flute. The greenhouse was small enough that a human breathing would affect the music, allowing the visitor to modulate the music with their breath. You can listen to the result of “Oxygen Flute” here.
Sound Baths
Moreover, the concept of sound baths in Redwood forests, where musicians harmonize with the ambient sounds of nature, suggests a deepening of this connection. Here, the musician is making music in addition to the sounds of the wind in the leaves, the creaking of branches, and the songs of the birds. Now, imagine extending such practices by interweaving PlantWave with the surrounding trees, creating this mesmerizing symphony where human and arboreal melodies harmonize together! Then participants, already physically surrounded by the trees, can let their mind be lulled by the rhythm of the trees.
I’d love to hear other examples that people know of. These things fascinate me!
There’s a whole genre of ambient music that utilizes sounds from the natural world, rain, thunder, wind, waterfalls, rivers, and so on that is in a sense co-creating with nature (although many of these sounds have been digitally created or altered in significant ways), but one step further removed than the other examples given. I think there is much more collaboration we can do with the world around us that is still untapped.
A reminder about my upcoming course:
Just a reminder that tickets are still on sale for my Philosophy and Psychedelics Course beginning January 17th! If you’re wanting to deepen your own understanding of psychedelic experiences and make sense of the role philosophy plays in shaping your experience whether you realize it or not then this course is for you!
I’d love to have any of you join!
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