Sonos Studio Explores the Sounds of Plants

Visit the studio's "ecological sanctuary" and show with your own fern, too.

Way back, 'round about the 1970s, a leaf couldn't fall from a tree without landing upon a magazine touting an article about the connection between plants and music or plants and the human voice.

It was an en vogue conversation -- can the right song actually help a plant grow? -- that still crops up today, in various studies and think pieces. Likewise, how nature impacts we humans is also a point of interest for many a researcher, those who'd love to know more about the silent, though maybe not, symbiosis between plant and person.

Sonos Studio is turning up the dial on this delightful dialogue, with a nifty happening called the Sonic Garden. The envelope-pushing, aural experience-making venue describes the Sonic Garden as "an ecological sanctuary where live plants empower an immersive sonic experience." 

Mileece, an installation artist, has partnered with the studio to explore "how plants and elemental materials act as instruments to create harmonic symphonies through sensors that are able to harness bio-electrical signals wired to the leaves of the plants."

Music of the forest, indeed. And you can join in, you and your favorite ficus or fern or philodendron, at the Bring Your Own Plant Workshop on Saturday, Oct. 17. The studio says that you'll be able to "listen to its unique inner vibrations through Sonos speakers." You'll also learn more about the project and acoustic ecology.

If your fern prefers to stay put in the den, you can still visit the Sonos Studio Sonic Garden through Friday, Oct. 23.

This isn't the first offbeat path the music-making outfit has walked. Past workshops and events have included Sound Effects: Music and Mood and Sound of NYC.

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Will you be inspired, after your plant-pretty, sound-vibe visit, to go home and turn a curious ear in the direction of your own fern? Will it emit vibrations or a hum or tell you about its days spent in the macramé hanger you made?

And will you ever stop singing to your plants? Singing and speaking aloud, of course, is also good for the speaker (so probably don't stop, ever). 

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