MIDI Sprout Enables Plants To Play Synthesizers In Real Time

Plants. They’re all around us. We’ve given them names, put them on shelves and in corners of rooms. But what do we really know about the shrubs, weeds and flowers that adorn our rooms and gardens? There have been studies on how certain music and sound promotes healthy plant growth, but what kind of sounds would we hear if plants were able to use, say, a synthesizer?

MIDI Sprout from Data Garden aims to give plants the ability to create sounds… or at least convert their biorhythms into MIDI notes and CC data by measuring small electrical currents that run across the leaf of a plant. 

“The MIDI Sprout converts these fluctuations into MIDI notes and controls that can be read by synthesizers and computers. This information can be scaled and played through synthesizers or used to activate pre-programmed sonic environments.”

MIDI Sprout sending MIDI to a Moog Slim Phatty.

Though this doesn’t actually tell us anything about the secret life of plants, it can lead to some interesting sonic experiments, and provides new ways to interact with our green friends.

MIDI Sprout can be connected to any MIDI receiving synthesizer or computer application. Here’s some videos to show how it works:

Connecting MIDI Sprout to an iOS Device:

Connecting MIDI Sprout to the Critter & Guitari Pocket Piano MIDI:

Connecting Your Plant to a Moog Slim Phatty with MIDI Sprout:

Having already run a successful Kickstarter campaign, Data Garden are releasing 60 MIDI Sprouts into the wild on May 22nd at 12pm EST for $300 each. Data Garden tell us there are over 1,000 people on the waiting list, so if you want one, you should make sure to be online at the time to snap one up.

60 MIDI Sprouts will be made available on May 22nd at 12pm EST...

Go to MIDISprout.com at 12pm on May 22nd to order a MIDI Sprout.

More info here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/datagarden/midi-sprout-biodata-sonification-device/posts/1576432