“For some things which are neither fire nor forms of fire seem to produce light by nature. Unless the colour of fire is light, light is not the colour of fire alone; but it is possible that this colour does not belong to fire merely, but that light is actually its colour.” Aristotle, On Colours (de Coloribus) in Minor Works, 4th Century BC.
Bio-Vortex is an investigation into nature cultures and explores interspecific collaborations between humans and non-humans.
Introduction
Dona Haraways concept of companion species as a creature that you “break bread” with i.e. eat with them. This is where the term company and companion originate (in Latin, “Cum Panis” – With Bread).
This idea was extended to musical instruments… what if in the same way a performer gets tired when they perform and need to eat, need to drink etc… what if a musical instrument was like this?
What if you had to feed your musical instrument before a performance?
Bio-Vortex looked at ways to explore these questions and developed responses involving bio-luminescent algae. Bio-luminesent algae are mixotrophs. They get sustenance from eating food but are also capable of photosynthesis. When mechanically agitated they are able at certain times to produce light.
Growing Algae – Pyrocystis Lunula
A starter culture of P. Lunula (Fire Crescents) algae was purchased online from the algal library in Oban, Scotland. This starting culture was then used to innoculate nutrient rich growth medium (like enriched sea water) to then grow on larger quantities of algae. This took place in the Algal Culture Suite, Ridley Building, Newcastle University.
The Arduino prototyping platform was used to create a motor speed controller and a sensitive light detector. The magnets from old broken hard drives were removed and glued onto the fans of old computer cooling fans from discarded computers. These were then used as diy mechanical stirring devices capable of creating a vortex. This was to be used to mechanically agitate the algae, the light detector would output a voltage dependent on the level of light given off by the algae and this would be converted to sound.
Performance At NIME ’16
Performances with prototypes of the instrument were given at Griffith Conservertoire, Brisbane, Australia.
“Not everything that is visible depends upon light for its visibility. This is only true of the ′proper′ colour of things. Some objects of sight which in light are invisible, in darkness stimulate the sense; that is, things that appear fiery or shining. This class of objects has no simple common name, but instances of it are fungi, flesh, heads, scales, and eyes of fish. In none of these is what is seen their own proper′ colour.” Aristotle (ca. 350 BC)–De Anima (On the soul, Book II, Chapter 7).
Ben_Freeth 