FAWM: "plantscape #2 ✿ crassula arborescens"

plantscape #2 ✿ crassula arborescens

16 hours ago by @burrMod

Liner Notes

my second experiment collaborating with houseplants this FAWM:

rhapis excelsa
crassula arborescens ← THIS

for christmas, my wife got me this pocket SCÍON thing that's a biofeedback instrument. you can hook it up to basically any living organism and it will translate its electrical pulses into musical data.

after my first one, @jamesstaubes said:

I'm curious to hear how succulents sound.

so this time i decided to try and get the crassula arborescens (jade plant) in our dining room window to play my eurorack modular synth:

i restricted the notes to C,E,G,B
SCÍON voices 3-5 are mapped to MIDI channel 10 on the beatstep pro, and summed together to trigger 4 percussion modules:
- befaco kickall
- wmd chimera
- alm tyso daiko (x2)
SCÍON voices 1+2 are mapped to MIDI channel 2 and trigger a "baritone" synth voice via the basimilus iteritas alter module
i play a "soprano" mutable instruments plaits on channel 1 by hand

the two melodic voices are run through a pico dsp reverb, and the whole mix goes through the qu-bit data bender for some glitchy crunch.

comparing the jade with the bamboo palm... the jade seems to trigger one voice at a time, but loves repeats/ratchets! lots of machine-gun stutters, which my wife thinks is a distress call since the sensor clips chewed through a couple of its leaves (you can see them in the lower right corner).

not the most musically satisfying thing ever., but i did spend 3 hours trying to figure out how to get it all to work, so figured i'd go ahead and post this anyway. fruits of my labor, as it were....

#plantscape #slothcore #generative #ambient #instrumental #2x4 #eurorack #modular

Comments

@esc4p3 4h

This is mind boggling and awesome at the same time. Creativity at its best. The 'machine gun' rapid fire sounds intrigued me, the plant was trying to say something that's for sure

@atam94 5h

I love the way your setup looks with that camera angle. Your idea to collab with house plants is really cool, Burr. It's inspiring and makes me want to do more with my Pocket Scion, as well!

@wynia 6h

Fascinating with the bursts here and there. They sound so random but the thing is, they aren’t, and that’s maybe the coolest part! Given the rat-a-tat and only occasional lower bloops from the jade, I think the high synth was a nice conversation partner. A+ collab, I could watch these all day 🌱

@nathanjoelong 11h

This is amazing, I love the patterns. I built one of the DIY biofeedback kits to try to do this but could never get the app to work to get the midi out. This makes me want to try again, thanks for posting and documenting how you got there.

@ndavies 12h

Wow, love it. New genre here! Succulentcore

@froggymagee 13h

Yep, this is awesome. I have always wanted to use a biofeedback instrument

@sadcoolgirl 15h

this is so cool i can't even wrap my head around it. i love this and am so glad you shared. wow!!!

@headfirstonlyMod 15h

I remember reading Lyall Watson's book "Supernature" when I was a teenager and marvelling at the tales of plants having physical reactions to the way that they were treated. And here I am, fifty years later, watching a friend and a jade plant jamming on synths together. So freaking cool—and a fun piece of music, too!