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Physarum Controlled Oscillators

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Physarum Controlled Oscillators
STATUS: Active
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This is an ongoing practice in experimental electronics and signal processing that uses the slime mould Physarum polycephalum as a living analog component in oscillator circuits. It grew out of earlier e-textile work with my sister, Lara Grant, where soft conductive materials were used as circuit components, and extends that lineage to a living substrate: the organism is treated as a true analog signal processor, its shifting electrical properties driving and modulating sound. The work is developed through workshops, lab residencies, and writing, and is the foundation that my current project sLLM builds on.

Physarum wired into an oscillator circuit, responding to shifting LED light.
A breadboard oscillator wired to Physarum, with light diffuser and speaker.
Tuning the Physarum-wired oscillator by hand.

Selected writing & workshops

  • “A Brief Introduction to E-textile Interfaces” — chapter co-authored with Lara Grant on e-textile interfaces to sound circuits, in Nicolas Collins, Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking, 3rd edition (Routledge, 2020). Publisher page · read the chapter (PDF)
  • “Slime Mold and Network Imaginaries: An Experimental Approach to Communication” — Grant, S. & Savić, S., Leonardo, 55(5), MIT Press, 2022. Read the paper
  • Experimental Signal Processing with Slime Mould — workshop. weise7.org
  • Workshop slide deck (PDF, 30 pp.): Experimental Electronics + Signal Processing with Slime Mould — what Physarum is and why it is interesting as a computational substrate, its sensor behaviours, self-healing wire setups, cultivation, and the synth / oscillator / FM signal-processing connection.

Physarum Topologies · Modeling Utopia with Slime Mould · Felted Signal Processing · sLLM

A workshop bench covered with soldering stations, breadboards, components and tools, with participants building circuits.
Building oscillator circuits during a signal-processing workshop.
A participant leaning over petri dishes wired with electrodes, examining the slime mould inside.
Wiring Physarum into a circuit as a living analog component.
A participant photographing glowing slime mould through a phone macro lens, with electrode-wired petri dishes on the table.
Documenting plasmodial growth and electrode contacts through a macro lens.
A workshop room of seated participants facing a projection of Physarum polycephalum.
Workshop session introducing Physarum polycephalum as a computational substrate.