Somewhere in Britain a fungus is making music. Not metaphorically, not as a marketing stunt. A mushroom, covered in electrodes, generates signals that move a robotic arm across a keyboard.
Before you file this under “things the internet invented,” know that the science underneath is real, peer-reviewed, and frankly unsettled.
The setup is exactly as it sounds
Custom bionic weapons, a synthesizer, and a living organism that has no idea any of this is happening.
Engineer Jon Ross built custom bionic weapons for the bio-art collective Bionic and the Wires. Those arms detect small fluctuations in electrical conductivity across a mushroom or plant and convert this shift into control data that drives the robotic arm via a MIDI keyboard.
The mushroom does not press the keys. The machine does, the fungus uses bioelectric shifts as its instructions.
Think of it less like a musician and more like a very slow, very organic theremin, except the theremin has absolutely no idea it’s performing.
Real signals, carefully defined
Fungal mycelium produces measurable electrical activity, and scientists are precise about what that means and what it doesn’t.
Fungal mycelium produces measurable electrical signals. Researchers have documented low-voltage, low-intensity currents associated with hyphal activity and displacement in the surrounding environment.
These signals have not been proven to be equivalent to animal nerve impulses. A peer-reviewed review published in a scientific journal noted that the currents “are either of low intensity or low voltage, resulting in values lower than those observed along animal urons.” The available research does not establish human-like thought or cognition in mushrooms.
either of low intensity or low voltage, resulting in values lower than those observed along animal neurons
Authors of “Electrical signaling in fungi: past and current challenges”, peer-reviewed review published in FEMS Microbiology Reviews
Environmental conditions can affect fungal electrical measurements and can complicate interpretation. The humidity, temperature and other factors in the room can change the patterns the system picks up, so the resulting music reflects more than just the biology of a fungus.
Artistic interpretation vs established fact
Bionic and the Wires frames the project as evidence of natural intelligence; Science presents the signals as interesting electrical activity with unclear meaning.
Bionic and the Wires says the project “explores the intelligence and responsiveness of the natural world by transforming bio-electrical signals into” music and visual art, according to its official website. (Note: the quote is reproduced here as supplied; check the full wording against the original page before publishing.) That framing is an artistic interpretation, and it is legitimate to keep a bio-art project.
Research confirms that fungi can produce measurable electrical activity. It does not confirm that the mushroom communicates, composes or exhibits anything like cognition. The communicative function of these signals remains an active area of study, with no established answer yet.
This distinction is worth keeping.
Agency, translation, and what gets lost between the two
The mushroom is not the artist, but neither, quite, is the man, and that ambiguity is the point.
The project presents itself as an artistic exploration rather than a scientific demonstration of fungal thinking. It surfaces biological activity that is normally invisible and routes it through a human-built translation system until it becomes sound you can hear in a room.
What you’re left with is a really uncomfortable question: If creativity requires intention, where does the role of the mushroom stop and the machine begin? The project does not answer that. It just makes the question to be heard.
That might be enough.