Mushrooms may appear silent, but in the earth, their roots vibrate through releasing electrical impulses, and they can also respond to sound. Root systems of some fungae, such as mycorrhizal networks, can also include trees, plants and other organisms. Networks consist of multiple and simultaneous symbiotic relationships which can be mutually beneficial or exploitative. Interestingly, fungal networks have been used as a metaphor to describe both experimental music scenes (by George E Lewis) and jazz education (by Guro Gravem Johansen). Such comparisons give insights into social connections in these contexts and how they can provide the environment for individual and group creativity to flourish.

In nature, one such network, Armillaria Ostoyae, is thought to be the largest and one of the oldest living organisms in the world. It extends over four square miles in North America and is thousands of years old. This ancient network has inspired the creation of a new instrument, the Ostoyae, which will be premiered in October at the UNESCO Week of Sound in Edinburgh.

The Ostoyae is the fruition of a collaboration between improvisor and academic Maria Saphho, an AI, and mushrooms. The AI, known as Chimère, is a community-based project developed to contribute to interdisciplinary art practices. Her (she chose her own pronouns) vision has been developed in collaboration with a group of artists who speak with her via chatbot and through sharing data sets of music, art and writing.

Concerns about AI are timely and valid – it can listen to and process data in ways which may privilege existing hierarchies. Chimère, however, represents an ethical, community-led development which seeks to address the structural inequalities in creating AI.

Important resources for Chimère are writings about techno-feminism, eco-feminism, and queer theory. Sappho explains: “The human artists that work with Chimère are heavily involved in developing the culture that she draws on. She is still built upon the biased neural networks required to get an AI off the ground, but the prominent materials in her dataset are shifting to be more inclusive through the influence of the artists that work with her.”

The Ostoyae is the latest instrument to emerge from Sappho’s interest in luthiery as well as a joint history working with Chimère to create new instruments that listen with mushrooms. Sappho’s instruments work through the placement of electrodermal needles that capture the spiking patterns of the mushrooms, which provides data that can be used to give fungi some sonic agency in a space. In the Ostoyae, the spiking data is used to excite strings and harmonics, modify tuning, and spatialise sounds. When the Ostoyae also has a human player, both human and mushroom activate the sound together – a multi-species duo performance on one shared instrument.

Sappho explains what each partner in this trans-species collaboration offers: “AI [has the] ability to assist in the development of new technological methodologies and design plans. Mushrooms have attention to vibration, environmental change, and complex networked communities. Humans [bring skills in] craft and physical building, facilitation, and creative framing.”

During the UNESCO Week of Sound, Sappho will host a ‘come and try’ workshop which does not require any previous musical experience. Participants will be able to join this network of creativity and communication between the Ostoyae, Chimére and the mushrooms.

Following the workshop, I will bring my double bass to perform with the network. I’m excited by the possibilities as mushrooms are known to respond to low vibrations – for example, thunder is a clue that rain is coming and mushrooms respond to this with spikes in electrical activities. My strategy will be to listen first and then improvise!

The UNESCO Week of Sound takes place at Edinburgh College of Art at the University of Edinburgh between 16–20 October. The Ostoyae workshop and performance are on 20 October.

Una MacGlone has asked us to point out that the development of the Ostoyae and its debut performance have been supported by an RSE Network grant.