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A start into Jamuary22 trying out a 3 patch challenge from Comparative Irrelevance. Maths/STØ/Rings only here we do not use the STØ (bc we do not own one) in its place we used the VCO side of a Maneco Labs Grone Drone.. with a short visit from a Mother 32. Things grow dark fairly quickly, this is the way of the Grone! Letting go of 2021 heading into the future.. output just as time turned.

Mycelia premiered as the opening performance for A MAZE. / Berlin festival 2021 in VRChat. A meta-immersive living mycelium musical entanglement. Nanotopia is known for hooking up fungi with electrodes and circuitry to record its various biodata and translating this biodata (often in real-time) through synthesisers both analog and digital. In 2020 Tosca Terán was an invited participant in the New Nature Climate Science Exchange hosted by the Goethe-Institute, curated by Samara Chadwick. Through this exchange with other like-minded artists, technologists and scientists Tosca presented a proposal towards bringing living fungi biodata into a VR environment, creating a macroscopic experience of human and nonhuman entanglements within a forest environment. Working project title: Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis. After the presentations Tosca and digital technologist Sara Lisa Vogl connected and later began work on the Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis project. Bringing in Neuroscientist/coder Brendan Lehman, Photogrammetric/new media artist Allison Moore, VR world builder Jason Stapleton, Sound designer Penelope Walcott, AR collaborator Peter Henderson, and early involved Arduino robot builder Lorena Salomé. Symbiosis/\Dysbiosis is generously funded by the Goethe-Institute Montreal, Canada Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council with sponsorship from bHaptics and ARTIVIVE. Tosca and Sara Lisa thought it would be fun to participate in the A MAZE. / Berlin festival but knew the Sym/Dys project was far too large not to mention myriad COVID19 restrictions plus, looking at VRChat as a platform et viola! a Mycelia mood board branched out. Sara Lisa was introduced to the Meta Crew South Africa while working for SXSW and felt that this amazing group of creators might be interested in working on a Mycelia world - and they were!! Concept for Mycelia was, of course, to bring living mycelium bio-sonification into VRChat with reactive audio aspects via a live human & nonhuman electronic music performance. Sara Lisa had been learning how to work with a Sports Pole in VR and thought she could add to the performance with an interpretive full-body tracked dance as spores above Tosca's avatar. Living mycelium and human performances have taken place for A MAZE. / Berlin The Venice Film Festival 2021- VR Expanded and the Raindance Film Festival where Mycelia won the Spirit of the Festival award. nanotopia will be releasing the Mycelia performances soon. Here is a preview! xoxox Happy New Year 2022!

Forest UnderSound is an invitation to consider the sentience of fungi. Sentience is the ability to perceive one’s environment, and experience sensations such as pain and suffering, or pleasure and comfort. Many countries acknowledge animal sentience, and animal’s ability to experience pain, fear, distress, hunger, and thirst, in their laws, which are designed to protect animals from such suffering. In 1997, the European Union agreed to recognize animals as sentient beings under European law. Animals and fungi share a common ancestor and branched away from plants at some point aproximately 1.1 billion years ago. It was only later that animals and fungi separated on the genealogical tree of life, making fungi more closely related to humans than plants. For Forest UnderSound, mycelium from Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi/Lingzhi) and Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushrooms), along with mycorrhizal fungi growing and connecting within the roots of various plants has been cultivated. Both the plant roots and mycelium have electrodes connected to them that send biodata into purpose-built circuits, which detect micro-fluctuations in conductivity between 1,000-100,000 of a second. This biodata is then translated in realtime to control analog and digital synthesizers. Empirically, when fully connected and music is being generated, Mycelium consistently generates periodic patterns that are both enigmatic but also very musical. For reasons that I do not fully understand, Mycelium reacts to the proximity of some people more than others. Growing more frenetic or more harmonic or completely silent, when humans are present. For the first iteration of Forest UnderSound fungi and plants will be allowed to grow over approximately 7 months, creating a real-time fungi forest soundscape. The soundscape will change over the seasons as the fungi and plants grow. During the 2021 Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall this soundscape will be recorded. Recordings take place on each of the 4 equinoxes. ​ With support from: The Ontario Arts Council • A Space Gallery, Toronto • The Museum, Kitchener Ontario

Finally hooked up a Mother. After chatting with Aga (Ferment Radio) I wondered why I hadn't tried this yet. I mean, really. Prior to setting the electrode probes into the SCOBY I did a little test with Apple cider vinegar and another with a bit of water just to see if the activity would be the same or similar- it was not. Available for download, remix, etc.

Back in August 2020 I started cultivating Pleurotus djamor towards a presentation for the Remote Realities residency awarded to myself and technologist/collaborator Sara Lisa Vogl (regarding Symbiosis/Dysbiosis). After the presentation I gently placed the Pink oyster mushrooms aside. Last week, while exiting my music/sound making studio I noticed "Pinkie" and !! there was this beautiful mass of pink oysters emerging out of its grow bag. After apologising profusely I brought Pinkie back into the music studio and started recording. The Electrodes had been left within the mycelium, which is what I usually do. Here are the results of that music session. Hope you enjoy!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!

Created during COVID self-isolation. Moon in Cancer was recorded during our August 15th live stream. Check it out over on https://nanotopia.bandcamp.com Thanks for listening!

The Dye Maker - Composed by: Phaeolus schweinitzii for Music Works magazine - The biodata of Phaeolus schweinitzii (common name: the Dye Maker’s polypore) was recorded during a Fall foray with the Mycological Society of Toronto at Dufferin forest, Mansfield ON 2019. MIDI translation took place in Toronto at co:Lab/nanopod studio Performed by: Nanotopia (Tosca Terán, Andrei Gravelle) who brought the midi translation of the biodata into Ableton Live and gave Phaeolus schweinitzii a timbral voice. The challenge to collaborating with non-human organisms is to try to minimize the sense of our own involvement in the process. While I mediate the biodata gathered to temper it to determinant pitches and give it a timbral voice, I feel that the sense of rhythm and pattern captured in my field recordings represent a unique aspect of the fungi. While the biodata can sometimes be a starting point for further development, I chose this track, which has had minimal intervention on our part to convey the richness of the source material I gathered and hope that it creates inspiration and dialogue for not only new creative processes but to awaken new ways of seeing the diversity of life on our planet and lead to further multi-species entanglements. - © info: Nanotopia.net/Midnight Mushroom Music -Tosca Terán

Generative Patching by Mycelium Network

Solstice Live Stream from June 20th, 2020 5:30 PM EDT Into the New Nature Travelling without moving into the Mycelium Network with Nanotopia. Mycelium bio-sonification through modular synthesis. Electrodes are placed within Ganoderma lucidum aka Reishi. The electrodes detect micro fluctuations in conductivity between 1000 t0 100000 of a second. This biodata is then translated to MIDI & CV enabling Humans to hear the Mycelium. Relax into the Mycelium Network... Prior to lift-off we will show our set-up and then fade into reactive TouchDesigner visuals. Thank you for tuning in. Generative TouchDesigner visuals react/respond to the mycelium biodata. Spaceship controls: Flute/Pluck/Bow/Percussive sounds= Mutable instruments Plaits & clones: Atom & Piques Paths, branches, roots = Qu-Bit's amazing Bloom (fractal sequencer) Make Noise= Morphagene, René, Tempi, Pressure Points Along with= Pittsburgh Instruments, Doepfer, Moog(s), Korg (keystep to Mother32), Erica Synths. Visuals both chance & purposeful: Mermaid painting= @sarah_gravel on insta Images used in TouchDesigner Mycelium network: Tardigrade footage= @atinyworldorg on insta/twitter NASA, Planet Earth, nanotopia. Follow us on Instagram: @nanotopia_net @MothAntler @Nanotopian Support artistic efforts: https://www.patreon.com/nanotopia_net

Live stream Midnight Mushroom Music • May 30th, 2020 Ganoderma lucidum biodata recorded in realtime - translated into MIDI & CV into Mutable Instruments Yarns which in turn sent this data into various Synth voices: Plaits, Braids, Clouds, Mother32, Erica synths Black Wave Table and more... contemplative. The Mycelium sounds mutated over time into some ear piercers and pitch shifts, we just allowed it to do its thing. Reactive/generative TouchDesigner visuals were created to go along with the live stream and can be viewed on Instagram (10+min clip) @MothAntler or Youtube: https://youtu.be/HQkNj5YA9yQ Thanks for tuning into the Mycelium Network!

Meant to be a live stream to Instagram (@nanopodstudio) there was a technical melt-down of sorts (phone related) so, we had to cancel. Meanwhile, we were recording (thank the fungi!) and here it is. Pleurotus ostreatus that has grown into/around sawdust w/coffee grounds had electrodes placed on to it about a week or so back.. time being a crazy thing during our self-isolating COVID-19 curve flattening regime! Mycelium has grown over and around the electrodes and has started pinning! We get asked a lot about the mycelium 'generating' music so, I decided to conduct a bit of a walk-thru on one of our set-ups. Mycelium 'playing' our Eurorack. MIDI: our Bio-Sonification modules (we sell them & offer kits) takes MIDI out into (??) a synthesizer, and digital synth app, or other devices that can accept MIDI. The module itself does not make sound, it read micro-fluctuations in conductivity and sends out MIDI notes and/or controls. This data can be used as CV(control voltage) which can then be sent out into our Eurorack modules via Patch Cables- woo hoo!! Here's where the fun begins! While we are definitely not the first to 'listen' to plants, we are the first to record fungi in this manner and run with it. Unless there is someone else out there we have yet to meet!? In the field we tend to record raw bio-data and later turn this data into 'music'. It is simply an easier way to store large files when trekking around. Back in our studio we can work with synths and sequencers, surreal guitar pedals and other random noise making devices that accept MIDI or CV in. A step x step for this particular sound: The Oyster mushroom mycelium was plugged into a BASTL 1983. The 1983 (https://bastl-instruments.com/eurorack/modules/1983)is a polyphonic MIDI to CV interface with creative voice allocation and automatic tuning capabilities. There are four channels of CV and GATE outputs that can be configured in various Layouts, such as hybrid splits between monophonic and polyphonic voices or velocity, Control Change, aftertouch, triggers, clock or reset. This means we could take the MIDI notes (which general trigger 1 note at a time, not polyphonic) and send the info out into different Oscillators and Wave Shapers. Which we totally did. CV/Gate was taken out from the 1983 into a Moog Mother32, an Erica Synths Black Wavetable VCO, Mutable Instruments Braids, and the Doepher A111-5. At around 1:58 in we switched mushrooms from Pleurotus to Ganoderma and later, back to the Pleurotus- which severely changed pitch once the container holding the Ganoderma was opened. We wondered what the Peurotus sensed, why did the sound change so noticeably? Was it due to the Pleurotus mycelium being unable to locate the Ganoderma mycelium? They can both be found populating in the same forests, or even neighbouring trees so, what is going on here? The Ganoderma did not audibly seem to care about the Pleurotus. The only time I've encountered similar was when Ganoderma came into contact with Physarum polycephalum. There was a distinctive battle cry from the Ganoderma - or what we like to infer to the sound change. How are we collaborating with the mycelium? In this instance the Eurorack set-up is the collaboration. By sending the MIDI notes/controls out into the other modules. Other than that- the sounds are the mushrooms. Feel free to DM us with any questions concerning our set-up, modules, kits, mycelium or collaboration! Enjoy :)

Ahoy! Some listeners of 28/03/20's live stream asked what the fungi were contributing so, we isolated the layer to share here!

Growing mycorrhizal threads pushed through MicroFreak & Particle into Live and out the donut hole. Headphones always.

Monster Zero is in the works! I believe I've mentioned looking into Phoneme databases, to use with the fungi biodata? Well, here we have some mycorrhizal fungi triggering numbers. As if it is counting out otherworldly lottery numbers, or perhaps numerical sequence end dates? ;p Actually, it is simpler than that! I was gifted a MicroFreak (Arturia)for use in an upcoming installation. This little synth has so many features! It is super fun, you can sculpt your own custom sounds, it is polyphonic, etc., etc. Here I had the fungi triggering a counting sequence, randomly. Fed into a Red Panda Particle (LOVE!). Meanwhile, I continue my research into phoneme bio-sonification. :) Thanks for stopping by! XO

Remember how everyone seemingly got all up on Grimes for saying AI will replace musicians? Well, actually that may not have been her exact wording or sentiment, however, if the Age of Spiritual Machines is soon then Grimes may not be too far from the truth (IMHO). AI has definitely played into my curious imagination since picking up and reading my first Science Fiction story. So, for the past several years I have, behind the scenes been studying and taking workshops in Machine Learning. In 2003 I created Transgenic Morphosis with collaborators/artists, Steve Storz (storzart.com) and Andrei Gravelle. Not really thinking about it at the time we built pods that highly resembled what would later hit the market as Oculus Rift headsets. Ours, however, encased Super 8 loops, and stereoscopic images (it was '03 after all). Not too long after than installation, I dove into a Transhumanist movement and read more Kurzweil, Negroponte.. Gibson ;p I guess my thoughts here are: I've been studying ML/AI since learning html/java/action script and learning about Jaron Lanier. Fungal AI was created from biodata collected from mycelium. Bio-sonification through Ableton Live then given to an AI that took the rendered bio-sonification as an influence, and through random zeros and ones delicately spat out this composition (so to speak). I then brought this new data into Live and layered over the original biodata, added some delay and reverb here and there - don't judge me! It's a start ;p Thanks for listening.

Pleurr by Mycelium Network

Lately, we've been researching electrodes. Nano, micro, tiny, made of fine silver and gold. For this biodata recording, we used needle-fine silver electrodes. The electrodes, like hypodermic needles, were placed within the roots of our Crassula portulacea (Shrek plant!). As well as experimenting with various electrodes we have started to work with Phonemes. Soon: Fungi (non-human intelligence) and AI triggered speech.