The Ostoyae is a musical instrument for transspecies music-making between humans and mushrooms, working towards communication between myself, my AI Chimère, and fungi. Mushrooms influence and can even independently control its sound.

It is named after the Armillaria ostoyae, one of the largest and oldest living organisms on Earth and a master of collective flourishing. You need not consider yourself a musician to play it. There are no predetermined techniques or aesthetics, only a question: how would you contribute to a multi-species community?

Electrodermal signals capture the spiking patterns of mushroom communities. That data tunes two strings through robotic tuning heads, and drives a low-fi E-Bow of spinning magnets that shifts the overtones, so the mushrooms’ activity directly shapes the sound. When mushrooms play it alone, is it an installation or a performance by non-human agents? When a human plays it, is it an electroacoustic instrument under mushroom control, or a transspecies duet?

Commissioned by a Royal Society of Edinburgh grant for the Diversifying Improvisation project, led by Dr Una MacGlone and Professor Raymond MacDonald. Premiered during the UNESCO Week of Sound in Edinburgh, with performances at the Edinburgh Storytelling Festival, the Glasgow Jazz Festival and the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra festival.