PlantWave | Plant Music Device

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Sea lettuce music 🌊 On the Big Island of Hawaii, we recorded the bioelectric signals of a beach naupaka, the plant some people call sea lettuce, growing on the lava rock above the surf at Papaikou. It lives right where the waves break. Its thick, glossy leaves hold water and shrug off salt spray. Its small white flowers look torn in half, with every petal fanned to one side. And its corky fruit floats, so ocean currents have carried it to coastlines across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. A plant built for the edge of the sea, playing from the edge of the sea. #naupaka #hawaii #ambient #relaxingnature #plantmusic

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Japanese star anise music 🌿 On Miyajima, high above the Seto Inland Sea, we recorded the bioelectric signals of a shikimi, the Japanese star anise. First, the warning. This is not the star anise in your kitchen. That one is Chinese. This one is its poisonous cousin, close enough in looks that people have been hurt confusing the two. Nobody should eat it. What Japan does with it instead is offer it. For centuries shikimi branches have been placed on Buddhist altars and on graves, the plant you bring to the dead. Sakaki goes to the shrine, shikimi goes to the temple. And here it is growing wild on the mountain itself. Kūkai is said to have lit a flame up here in the year 806, and it has never been allowed to go out. In 1964 fire from it was carried across the bay to help light the Peace Flame in Hiroshima. So we clipped onto the offering plant, on the mountain with the fire, and let it play. #shikimi #japanesestaranise #japan #plantmusic #naturesounds

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Fern music 🌿🎶 On Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii, we recorded the bioelectric signals of a fern and translated them into music using vocal samples. Ferns already carry a word from music. A young frond comes up coiled in a tight spiral and unrolls as it grows. People call that coil a fiddlehead, because it looks like the carved scroll at the top of a violin. This fern is past that stage, with its fronds wide open in the sun. So we gave it voices. Each note you hear is a small piece of a recorded voice, and the fern's signal picks the next note. Nothing is looped. The melody keeps moving for as long as the fern does. #fern #hawaii #ambient #naturesounds #plantmusic

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Japanese maple music 🍁 At the foot of Tokyo Tower, we recorded the bioelectric signals of a Japanese maple in its autumn colour. There are two oranges in this frame. The tower is that colour because the law said so. When it went up in 1958, aviation rules required a structure that tall to wear international orange and white so pilots could see it. The maple is that colour because of chemistry. As the days shorten the tree breaks down its green, and what was underneath the whole time is orange. People in Japan have gone out to look at exactly this for over a thousand years. It has a name, momiji-gari, maple hunting. You find the leaves at their best and stand under them for a while. So we stood under this one, with the old orange beside the new one, and let it play. #japanesemaple #momiji #japan #plantmusic #naturesounds

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These sounds get wild 🌿🌀 On the rim of Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii, with the crater steaming behind it, we recorded the bioelectric signals of an ʻōhiʻa lehua. ʻŌhiʻa is the most common native tree in Hawaii and one of the first plants to grow on new lava. Its scientific name, polymorpha, means "many forms." Up here on young lava it grows as a low shrub with fuzzy grey leaves. In the rainforest down the mountain, the same species grows into a tall tree with smooth green leaves. We gave it long, deep notes that roll out slowly, like wind moving across open lava. The ʻōhiʻa sets the pace. Put on headphones and listen to a plant on the edge of a volcano. #volcano #ambient #naturesounds #plantsounds #plantmusic

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What does a Venus Flytrap sound like? With PlantWave, you can select the instruments your plants play. Then, the plants take it from there. Every single note is a real-time expression of biological changes within a plant, so every plant will play the instruments differently. Each one with its own song. What do you think of the sounds we chose for this venus flytrap? Did it play them the way you’d expect? #plantwave #plantmusic #venusflytrap #carnivorousplant #carnivorousplants #venusflytrapcare

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Will this plant sing? 🌿🎶 On Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii, we recorded the bioelectric signals of a small hopbush growing straight out of black cinder. Hawaiians call it ʻaʻaliʻi. There is an old Hawaiian saying about this plant: "I am a wind-resisting ʻaʻaliʻi, no gale can push me over." It grows on open lava where the wind never lets up, and it stays put. So we gave it long, deep notes that stretch out like wind over the crater. It plays slow. Put on headphones and let it carry you. #hopbush #ambient #naturecalm #naturesounds #plantmusic

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“PlantWave turns your houseplants into little Brian Enos.” via 99% Invisible #plantwave #plantmusic #brianeno #ambientmusic #generativemusic #electronicmusic #plants #planttok #houseplants #musicproducer #musictech #musictechnology

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Will this plant sing? 🌿🎶 On Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii, we recorded the bioelectric signals of a hopbush, the shrub Hawaiians call ʻaʻaliʻi. The name has a story. Hopbush makes small papery seed capsules, and early settlers in Australia brewed beer with them in place of hops. In Hawaii the same capsules, in shades of red, pink and gold, are strung into lei. People have made a drink from this plant and people have worn it. We wanted to hear it. It plays. We gave it slow, warm tones that drift and hang in the air, and the hopbush set the pace. Put on headphones and stay a while. This is calm nature, played live by a plant. #hopbush #ambient #naturecalm #naturesounds #plantmusic

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Mushroom music 🍄🎶 In the Dolomites of northern Italy, we recorded the bioelectric signals of a cluster of mushrooms in an alpine meadow. The rock under this meadow started out as a reef. Over 200 million years ago these mountains sat at the bottom of a warm tropical sea, built up by corals, sponges and algae. The sea is long gone, and the old reef now stands as pale grey peaks. Fungi are a big part of how bare stone turns into ground something can grow in. So a meadow of mushrooms and flowers now sits on top of an ancient reef. We clipped onto one cap and let them play. #mushroom #mushroommusic #mycology #ambient #dolomites

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Chamomile music. 🌼🎶 Chamomile is known for its calming properties — used in teas, oils, and remedies for relaxation and sleep. You can spot it by its white petals, yellow cone-shaped centers, and its soft, apple-like scent. Here in the Dolomites, we connected it to our technology, letting its electrical activity play a gentle sine wave in real time. A plant that soothes… and now sings. #naturelover #beautifulnature #scenery #outdoors #chamomile

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Red button ginger music 🐦 On the Big Island of Hawaii, beside the water, we recorded the bioelectric signals of a red button ginger. Look at it for a second. The red cone is the body and the orange flower pushing out of the top is an open beak. It is not a bird, obviously. It is also not a ginger. It looks like one and grows next to them, but it belongs to a separate family that split away from the true gingers a long time ago. The tell is the stem. The leaves climb it in a spiral staircase. So it is two things it is not. We gave it a sine wave, a single clean tone, which is about the closest thing a synthesizer makes to a whistle. A flower that looks like a bird, playing the nearest thing to one. #redbuttonginger #hawaii #flowers #natureaesthetic #plantmusic