Ask the Wild  is a project by Feral Practice and Marcus Coates. It offers fresh perspectives on personal, social, and political issues in human society, by bringing the expert knowledge of the natural history disciplines to bear on everyday human problems and dilemmas.

Ask the Wild

Using a Pico data-logger artist Theresa Schulbert recorded two days of activity of a slime mould sample. The resulting datas was later process by Leslie Garcia in order to compress this readings in a 6 minute format  to be sonified by a digital synthesizer. This experiment was conducted during The MusicMakers Hacklab at CTM Festival in Berlin.

Slime mould_ Day two

jam in the garden with guitars and a laptop

Field Music

Physarum movements

Live act at Inoculum Connecting the other. Berlin Feb 4 1026.

Non-Human Rhythms Featuring Physarum (Live)

commissioned by Deutschlandradio Kultur premier 07 April here >
http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/ursendung-radikale-pilzkunde-
mycelium.1022.de.html?dram:article_id=378861

Mycelium - {sound} art as underlying network for advanced {deeper} listening
http://mycelium.poemproducer.com/

They grow in secret and yet form the largest living organisms
in the world: mycelia, the subterranean filament of fungi.
In this, the sound artist Antye Greie-Ripatti {AGF} sees a metaphor
for political activism in the age of the Internet.
Here, too, small cells are interlacing in the subsurface to effect the greater.
For her radio composition "Mycelium" Greie-Ripatti therefore sonifies
the vital functions of the forest plants and contrasts them
with voices of activists from all over the world.
This creates a multi-lingual sound network,
which transports a quiet but sustainable utopia: Together we are strong.

{text Marcus Gammel, Deutschlandradio Kultur}

Encouraged by Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
Inspired by Peter McCoy and Radical Mycology
In admiration for the people's political activism.

{sonification in collab w interspecifics and Anja Erdmann }

related #sonicwilderness

FIREMUSHROOM

This time we've got a freebie for you all! We had an afternoon with Peggy Lee and she was kind enough to lend her awesome vocal chords to some 21st century electronicmusichousething. Download and enjoy!

Visit FB, if you like 

Peggy Lee - Fever (Stavroz remix) - free download, yeah!

Feral Practice and Marcus Coates are delighted to release the first of three podcasts for Ask Somerset’s Plants.

Podcast 1: Quantock Hills - Feral Practice and Marcus Coates are in conversation with Plantlife ecologist Dr Alison Smith.

Recording took place at Holford Coombe, part of the Quantock Hills Nature Reserve.

Questions addressed and plants discussed:

Anonymous – How can we best engage with others, when we see so many polarising views and entrenched positions. How can we put aside differences to achieve something genuinely shared and mutually enriching together? Plants: Lichens, including Witches Whiskers and Barnacle lichens.

Kerry Grant – In the light of recent leadership contests, in which we find ourselves confronting a scenario where both candidates are seriously flawed, how would the plants select the best leader? Plants: Rhododendron, Laurel, Silver Birch, Ivy.

Anonymous – Can the stars light the sky forever? Plants: Polypody Ferns, Mosses

 

Ask Somerset’s Plants brings the knowledge of local flora to bear on our everyday human problems and dilemmas.

Ask Somerset’s Plants is steered by the questions that Somerset audiences posed. Not questions about nature or plants, as you might expect, but about people’s own lives and human society, questions that vary from the political and societal to the deeply personal. Each walk and conversation visits plants in some of Somerset’s diverse and specialised habitats, and is guided by the questions we received.

Podcasts 2 and 3 will be shared here on the 28th September  and 5 October, as part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival.

Ask Somerset’s Plants is commissioned by Somerset Art Works.

Ask Somerset's Plants | Quantock Hills

Podcast 2: The Levels 

Feral Practice and Marcus Coates are in conversation with plant scientist Dr Nigel Chaffey and local wildlife guide Deon Warner. Recording took place at Shapwick Heath and West Sedgemoor, on the Somerset Levels.

Questions addressed and plants discussed:

Jenny Melling - How can I deal with the seeming impossibility of knowing the whole truth? Plants: plant perceptions, Oak tree, mycorrhizal fungi, woodland connectivity.

Anonymous - I am an eighteen-stone woman. I have been this weight for most of my adult life. I've repeatedly tried diets, but to no avail. What would the plants suggest I do? Plants: photosynthesis, Eyebright, Sundew, Bladderwort.

Luminara - How can I stay in my tenderness, as I navigate my way in a competitive and precarious career? Plants: Reed Mace.

Anonymous - Can the plants explain, considering the supposed wisdom of hindsight, how we are seeing a new rise of extremist views, and can they advise on a positive response? Plants: Common Dock

Ask Somerset's Plants | The Levels

5.10.19 - We are delighted to release the third and final podcast for Ask Somerset's Plants.

Podcast 3: Cheddar Feral Practice and Marcus Coates are in conversation with botanist Liz McDonnell

Recording took place in Kings Wood and in various locations in Cheddar Gorge.

Questions addressed and plants discussed:

Guinevere King - How do I accept my uniqeness without berating myself for being so different to everyone else? Plants: Autumn Crocus (Naked Ladies), Cheddar Whitebeam.

Anonymous - In earlier days when I had no money, I thought having some would be enough to keep me happy. Now I have money, property and good fortune. I am extremely happy, but I still seek to add to my assets in the late summer of my life. What is it about the human species that keeps us striving? Plants: Wild Garlic, Ancient Lime trees.

Penny Elphick - Fleeting ideas are often the most creative, but how to capture them and make them stand still, that is the question. Plants: Wood Avens.

Ask Somerset's Plants | Cheddar

TONAL - Rivers Beyond Sewage explores water issues nationally with a special focus on the River Tone in Somerset. Through riverside conversations with people who have different and profound relationships with water Feral Practice leads us on a deep dive into the politics, law, art and science of rivers with curiosity and humor.


Artist Feral Practice lives in Somerset, UK. They work to explore and expand our relationship to other species and the living earth.

Ask Somerset's Plants | The Levels

Feral Practice

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