MUSIC FOR PLANTS BY PLANTS
2018–present · Sound sculpture, live plant, biodata sonification, album
Plants play their own music: sensors on a plant's leaves pick up its bioelectric signals, and a MIDI Sprout turns them into notes.
Visit musicbyplants.com · Shop merch · Listen on Spotify · Bandcamp · Instagram
About the Work
Music for Plants by Plants began as Raúl Romero's MFA thesis at the Yale School of Art in 2018. A handmade kick drum curves upward toward vibrating speakers, with a living plant growing from its end. Sensors on the plant's leaves read its bioelectric signals, and a MIDI Sprout translates them into notes, so the plant performs in real time.
The work has been shown at Vox Populi, Temple Contemporary, and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, where it appeared in Sonic Presence (or Absence) in 2023. In Conducting Connections, a participatory activation of the piece, visitors touched the plant and each other, joining its circuit and changing the music it made.
The album, performed entirely by plants, is available on Spotify and Bandcamp. A 10th-anniversary re-release and a new album are on the way.
Credits
MIDI Sprout circuit and code by Sam Cusumano (Electricity for Progress), brought to market by Data Garden.
Press
The Fabric Workshop and Museum — Sonic Presence (or Absence): Sound in Contemporary Art, exhibition page · 2023
The Fabric Workshop and Museum — Conducting Connections: A Sound Activation by Raúl Romero · December 2023