Music of the Plants

What you see here is Josiah Johnson playing his guitar heard as deep notes, and one of my garden plants, Jack in the Pulpit (JIP) is playing the high pitched notes you hear.

JIP is not making these sounds themselves. Rather the musical sounds originate from the plant synthesizer ‘Music of the Plants’ (MOP). However, since JIP is attached to this synthesizer through delicate electrodes clipped onto the plants leaf, JIP is indeed manipulating the notes you hear and is coordinating the sounds to meet with Josiah’s.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING ON:
Josiah is not playing along with JIP.
It is JIP who is playing along with Josiah! YES.

How is this possible? Read on.

How This Was Arranged

  • Working with the back garden plant, Jack in the Pulpit (JIP).

  • Using my iPhone camera.

  • We were the photographers.

  • Plant synthesizer instrument MOP.

  • The plant JIP (Not my plant. I just take care of them).

  • We arranged to have a whole day open just in case, we didn't want to rush JIP.

  • Plus, we weren't sure how long it would take for JIP to learn a particular set of notes. You see, what we were aiming for was that JIP was to follow the musicians musical prompts.

  • And they did!

The Set Up

  • Josiah sat on the stone wall near JIP and repeatedly played a particular set of notes.

  • At the same time JIP was hooked up to the MOP's synthesizer which allowed varied impulses to be expressed by JIP as notes.

  • Initially JIP played notes randomly and in a most uncoordinated way.

  • Soon after that, JIP seemed to try and then miss here and there as one often might hear when an orchestra prepares before an event. Within less than an hour, the video you see here is what came to be. JIP following Josiah's notes.

  • Within less than an hour, the video you see here is what came to be.

  • JIP is following Josiah's musical prompts.

  • Though JIP’s music may sound a little off, you can clearly hear the tempo and patterns are exacting, and maybe even at one point, prompting of Josiah.

Why is this so important for us to share and know? It's important to know just exactly what we mean when we say, plants are alive. You see, plants are just not alive. They are really, really alive. Such as, they have the faculties of observation, awareness, self awareness, judgement, decision making, discernment and much of the same feelings humanity embodies. Here at Plant Pioneers, we are taking steps to include them in our daily decision making processes.

If you want to know more and how you can participate, contact Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower 607-437-1218 or 3moonsisters@gmail.com

And please, share video wildly.