As a part of Dave MacFarlane's research, MacFarlane, Shabbar, and drummer Brad Kilpatrick have formed a quartet around a grapefruit plant. This plant has electrodes attached to it that sense changes in the plant's impedance. This is then translated into MIDI information, which drives a synthesis. The human band members react and respond to the sounds produced by the grapefruit plant.
Dave MacFarlane's biography:
For some time now I have imagined a dialogue with and between the five Great Lakes and what humans might learn from these exchanges. Influenced by phenomenology, I am experimenting with ways to personify the Great Lakes. The goal of this research-creation project, entitled “Sounds Like Music, To Me”, is to bring awareness to other sensory modalities of perceptions that consider our environment as an active participant in human understanding of reality.
My current research-creation project involves a study of the acoustic ecology of the Great Lakes soundscape, analysis and interpretation of various sonified biodata gathered from within them and on their shores, in an effort to translate how they may sense and respond to our presence and ways of life. Adapting participatory processes and methodologies to work with nature as an active participant, I am experimenting with generative computational creative approaches that position the Great Lakes as co-creators of soundscape compositions. Using their biodata, I will create graphic notations, and musical scores that bring their interaction with me to our attention.