Today on inventions that feel extremely surrealistic: Bionic and the Wires invented a machine that allows a living plant to “play” a musical instrument. The group will debut their performance featuring the “bionic robot arm” and a plant this weekend at the city’s Castlehead Viaduct venue on 20th April.
Biomusic
Bionic and the Wires, led by Manchester based Andy Kidd on the keyboard and Jon Ross on the plants via the robot arm, combines botanical rhythms with atmospheric textures and soundscapes created by synthesizers. The art encourages “new ways of thinking about the natural world”.
The invention harnesses electrical bio-signals that plants generate by natural processes such as photosynthesis. The sensors attached to the plant leaves capture such pulses. In consequence, electricity transforms into power that moves the robotic arm.
The machine builds upon precursors by the duo, such as Plantwave. This past bionic robot arm, however, enables the plant to directly “play” musical instruments. These include the steel handpan, drum, and the violin.
Speaking on the new invention, Jon Ross said: “We’ve spent many months researching and developing the new bionic robot arms. It’s exciting to think that with this invention we may have opened up the opportunity for a whole new genre of music. Maybe it’s called bionica!?”
Tickets for the upcoming gig at Castlehead Viaduct are available now. You can secure yours here. What do you think? Is this the right direction to take away power from AI and technology and bring back the sounds of nature? (Source)
