In this episode, we celebrate one year of Ferment Radio by listening to mushrooms. We all know what their fruiting bodies look like and how some of them taste. But we might have no idea how they sound, especially when it comes to the part of the mushroom that is invisible to our eyes.
How can we listen to things we cannot see? This is one of the questions we ask Tosca Terán in this episode of Ferment Radio. Tosca is an interdisciplinary, ecofeminist, human holobiont whose work is located somewhere between art, ecology, and craft. As part of the duo Nanotopia, she takes biodata from non-human organisms as mushroom’s mycelium and translates it into music.
• Interview in Glasna music Slovenia http://www.revijaglasna.si/novice/4454/ Visit this PDF link here to view magazine article
•Voices of VR interview, bringing bio-sonification performances into VRC https://voicesofvr.com/1022-biosonification-of-fungi-interspecies-communication-with-mycelia-performance-in-vrchat-by-nanotopia-_root_-metaverse-crew/
• Sound Science Podcast Episode 18
In the book ‘The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate’ author Peter Wohlleben explores the secret world of tree communication. Deep beneath the soil, trees live in community, helping each other, through their root systems. Science has revealed that neighboring trees communicate directly by intertwining their roots, and indirectly via the fungal networks around the roots that serve to further connect separate trees. In this hidden world, trees are able to recognize their own species, share nutrients, and resist environmental stressors.
These fungal networks can cover large surface areas by developing white fungal threads called mycelium, which interact with tree roots through the mycorrhizal network. In this episode, we take a closer look at fungi with Tosca Teran, an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of art and ecology. Through their work in nonhuman bio-sonification, fungi bio-materials, and immersive mixed reality environments, they have gained a deeper understanding of the private world of mycelium and hopes to help humankind imagine the world from the perspectives of non-human life.
https://www.nanotopia.net/post/music-works-magazine-feature
Tosca's work with Mycelium, "Tosca's got a brand new spawn bag" studio interview is in the #135 Winter issue of Music Works. Tosca created an exclusive track for Music Works to feature on the magazine's included CD, The Dye Maker.
• ABC Statewide Drive w/Fiona Wyllie
A live interview took place, September 10th with the Australian Broadcast Corporation. Here’s a link (they turned it into a Digital Story): What do mushrooms sound like? (I think this episode is no longer available)
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nsw-statewide-drive/recording-mushroom-magic/11501874
• Transmissions: Part Three soundscape adapted from the bio-sonification recordings of Tosca Teran.
Transmissions is a three-part, 6000 square foot multimedia installation by award-winning Anishinaabe filmmaker and artist Lisa Jackson. It extends her investigation into the connections between land, language, and people, most recently with her virtual reality work Biidaaban: First Light.
An Indigenous Futurist Installation world premiere
September 6 – 28, 2019
Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre
SFU Woodward’s – 149 West Hastings St, Vancouver
Further press & media can be found on www.nanotopia.net