Music from plant data

Folkestone’s plant shop, Pot & Vessel, with its beautiful array of plants, became Ruth’s collaborator and the location for a unique musical event. Ruth developed a dramatic 5-minute ‘plant symphony’ which was played in a one-off event. Data from 10 plants in the shop were used by Ruth to create a symphony using orchestral sounds. This event was not recorded.

Visitors could also buy plants with a QR code which played that individual plant’s musical track recorded by Ruth. Page down to access the individual tracks.

Background

We need plants more than they need us.  Our very existence is dependent on plants. This realization led Ruth to pay more attention to the plants around her.  This, along with the discovery of an existing consumer product, which gathers plant data and turns it in to music, started her extensive experimentation, in 2023, with producing music from plants.

Using plants in her own home and then in her local plant shop, she gained access to the raw notes from Plantwave, (normally hidden inside the consumer product). Ruth arranged and produced music without making any changes to the notes.  As a non-musician, she made no attempt to create a traditionally harmonious music – rather simply presented the data (as musical notes) produced by the plants.

The section below features the 24 tracks from the individual plants.

Ficus Lyrata

Swedish Plant on Harp

Thai on Pluck Guitar

1 -1 Flamenco Guitar

1 -2 BBC Harp

1 -3 BBC Viola

1 – 4 Bells

1- 5 Synth Piano

1- 6 Synth Terrain

1 – 7 Synth Choir

1 – 8 Voices

1 – 9 Gongs

1 – 10 BBC Piano

1 – 11 Synth Strings

1 – 12 Vintage Bass

1 – 13 Wurli

2 -1 Strings

2 – 2 Synth Old Piano

2 – 3 E Piano

2 – 4 BBC Harp

2 – 5 Palm Guitar

2 – 6 FM Guitar

2 – 7 Voices

2 – 8 BBC Violas

2 – 9 Synth Harp

2 – 10 BBC Marimba

2 – 11 Micah’s Voices

2 – 12 Organ