Alchemies of Noise: Biosonification Workshop with BioClub Tokyo

In this workshop, participants will experiment with digital tools to turn the hidden chemistry of living materials into sound, a process known as biosonification. In fermenting materials like yeast dough, kombucha, miso, or natural liquid dyes, microbes metabolize sugars to produce acids and alcohols, changing the pH and redox balance of their environment and, in turn, the material’s conductivity. Arduino-based circuits can measure tiny shifts in electrical conductivity between two electrodes which, when placed in fermenting matter, detect how easily ions move through the material. Using handmade Arduino circuits, participants will transform fluctuations in conductivity into MIDI signals and listen to them in music production software — in other words, join this workshop to hear the chemistry of fermentation in real time.

Each fermenting material offers a different electrochemical “voice”: kombucha’s yeasts and acetic-acid bacteria acidify their tea into a tangy, conductive brew; miso’s salty, enzyme-rich paste produces a dense field of ions; indigo dye vats operate at high pH with dramatic redox swings, shifting the dye between its oxidized and reduced states. These evolving chemistries alter the signals sent to Arduino circuits, producing soundscapes that mirror microbial activity.

To expand the sonic ecology of this workshop, participants will also experiment with introducing scrap metal and other urban debris into the circuits. Immersed in fermenting liquids, these discarded metals can actually change how electricity flows. Surface reactions between the materials can produce new ions, and larger metal pieces can expand the conductive surface area, reshaping the circuit’s pathways.

Photo from first iteration of this collaborative installation exhibited at SVETOVA 1 in Prague; collaboration between Laia Bent, Mary Maggic, Ilva Ieva, Barbora Jurčová, Tianrui Pan, Ever Peng, Marialena Souli, Zlata Ziborova

The workshop will culminate in a collective installation — part microbial colony, part machine, part urban debris — generating an ever-changing, responsive soundscape. Here, the humble, often overlooked labor of microbes breathes new life into the discarded metals and rusting scraps of the city. In joining these worlds, the workshop collapses distinctions between natural and manmade, biological and mechanical. The bubbling of microbes and the corrosion of metal become parallel processes, each reshaping the other, each producing signals that the circuit makes audible. Together, participants will listen to how matter ferments, corrodes, and renews, and how categories of “living” and “nonliving” dissolve into a hybrid being.