fungus! is a multimedia installation by Jacques and Fran Soddell, exhibiting at Allan’s Walk Artist Run Gallery from 1 st-25 th March. It combines experimental music, video art, microbiology, computer science, science fiction, and nuclear politics,

This installation grew from research into modelling fungal growth using Lindenmayer systems (or L-systems) carried out at La Trobe University. L-systems are often used, by computer scientists researching artificial life, to generate images of fractal objects such as plants. Jacques & Fran extended this to produce music. Their L-systems, based on growth measurements of real fungi, generate not only images of virtual fungi but also MIDI files, which are incorporated into musical compositions. They presented the results of this research at scientific, computer music, and generative art conferences, and exhibited the music at art galleries in Bendigo, Castlemaine and Sydney

fungus! is a further abstraction. Visual material is incorporated in a more abstract manner. Jacques & Fran used their own images and videos of fungal growth, images from Prof. Robert Seviour’s wonderful collection of SEM photos of fungi from La Trobe University, and images and video material from Prof. Nick Read and Dr Patrick Hickey from the University of Edinburgh. But this is not a simple presentation of scientific material. Jacques’ sound work often uses real life sounds which are digitally manipulated to create new sounds, and he has applied similar methods to video material. Other “fungal” references include the nuclear debate which is likely to be part of the political agenda this year - from the “mushroom cloud” of the explosion at Hiroshima to a trip around nuclear disaster sites. Stanisław Lem, the Polish science fiction writer, foresaw work similar to fungus! when he reviewed as yet unwritten scientific works, elaborating the role of fungi, microarmies, and bacteria that communicate via Morse code. And of course there will be a silent contribution from that influential, and controversial, composer John Cage, who was also an amateur mycologist.

The installation included three works

Eruntics

Filmed through the eyepiece of a microscope, this abstract reinterpretation of Stanisław Lem’s review of a book by Reginald Gulliver about microbes communicating with humans presents a collage of manipulated material about fungi, mushroom clouds and nuclear contamination sites. Oh, and there’s some fungal music, John Cage, and a message from the fungi. The soundscape is presented in 4 channels. Conceived & produced by Jacques & Fran Soddell, 2007, 8 min 40 sec. Source materials include photos &/or film from Prof Robert Seviour, Prof Nick Read & Dr Patrick Hickey.

The White Death

Loosely connected quotations from the works of Stanisław Lem (spoken in Polish by Dr Andrzej Solecki), from an advisor to President Bush, and from Humpty Dumpty are threaded together over the top of scanning electron microscope images of fungi (supplied by Professor Robert Seviour). From the power of artificial instinct, through the development of microarmies, to the conclusion of a new reality, you are invited to construct your own thought essay explaining what form the White Death might take. No matter the form, devastation is inevitable, as suggested by glimpses of demolished nuclear reactor sites, of the Chernobyl biorobots, and of Hiroshima. Conceived & produced by Fran & Jacques Soddell, 2007, 7 min 08 sec.

The Virtual Gallery

A VRML art gallery, where observers can “walk” (with the aid of a mouse) through a 3D virtual gallery exhibiting images, film and sound (through headphones). This month Stanisław Lem presides over The Virtual Gallery, which is exhibiting works associated with fungi. These include

1. Nuclear Bombs – images and short videos . Clouds suggest mushrooms and mushrooms suggest clouds.
2. 4 – a music installation (in darkness). Four piano pieces, generated by fungal growth data, play in unison. For best listening, move to the central blue circle.
3. Surrounded - sound installation The spatialisation of sound within the 3D environment enables the words of Lem and the sounds of fungi to move around you. For best listening, move to the central blue circle.
4. Eye - video. Virtual reality enables a 20m x 20m projection on the floor of the gallery of an early silent version of Eruntics.
5. The Outer Shell – an image construction
6. Artefacts - Three artefacts of fungal civilisation are exhibited under a short video emphasising the power of instinct.. Further developed in The White Death.
7. Nuclei – sound and video (in darkness) . Three growing fungi are exhibited on stands. Each emits music created from fungal data. To hear three pieces together move to the central blue circle. Approach each stand to trigger a video.
8. Bounce – sound installation. Three bouncing sound emitters placed around the gallery beam the sound of a fungus downwards only - so you need to be close t o hear.

The Artists

Jacques, a former lecturer in microbiology, is a local sound & video artist who works with local groups Punctum and Fourcast, as well as producing music for choreographer Megan Beckwith. He also curates concerts by local film & sound collective Undue Noise, and presents Possible Musics, Australia’s longest running experimental music radio program, on The Fresh 895FM. Fran is a former computer science lecturer (multimedia and computer graphics) at La Trobe University. They both run the Australian sound art label cajid media.

from eruntics

from the white death

the virtual gallery