PABLO RAMÍREZ GONZÁLEZ

Mycelium Networks of Sticky Transmission
Sound installation

The project follows my current research about plant intelligence through the use of deep listening practice and bio-sonication techniques. These tools allow me to embrace a radical empathy towards other species as well as to create a network of sound symbiosis where plants, fungi, humans and technology can interrelate in non-hierarchical ways, producing new kinds of knowledge.

John Cage begins his book A Mycological Foray by saying: “I have come to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom”. I believe that we can understand mushrooms better through sound.

Focusing on the relationship that emerged between a recently fallen beech tree in the forest of Morawa and the fungi Meripilus giganteus, the project addresses the role of mushrooms as data transmitters. I am interested in the vast range of connections that are triggered when a tree dies or falls inside the forest, and how mushrooms take a vital part in distributing the information to the close environment.

For this project in the context of the Art Symposium, I developed a wireless version of my bio-sonification device, which enables me to translate in-situ the bio-signals coming from the mushrooms and turn them into sound.