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F.I.G.

Factory Industries Group


Slime Mold Research & Sonification




2024 - Research Project, Installation - Waag Futurelabs

Did you know slime mold (Physarum polycephalum) is one of only three living materials that exhibits memristive properties? (The other two are human skin and blood!)

So what’s memristance? Essentially, it’s a unique property where a material "remembers" the last current that passed through it, altering its resistance based on past electrical activity. This makes slime mold perfect for creating complex, organic circuits—almost like a living brain.

In Slimeville, the slime mold wire plays the role of a pitch-bending potentiometer. As it grows between two copper electrodes, it regulates the resistance in real time, influencing the pitch of the musical tones produced. Using Arduino, I send voltage pulses to one electrode, while the slime mold’s shifting resistance alters the signal received by the other electrode.

For future projects, I’d like to explore how adapting to the slime mold’s growth and environmental changes can further bend and shift soundscapes, giving the slime more of a stage.
I made a lot of mistakes, many of which boiled down to time and budget limitations. I’m not sure if I’ll remake this instrument, but I definitely want to make more functional slime resistors in the future which are less contamination-prone and easier to implement in a variety of circuits.

I am very grateful to the Waag BioLab for making this project possible and allowing me to exhibit it and all the extremely talented, knowledgeable and patient slime lovers and designers who helped me along the way.

I’m also indebted to the research of Andrew Adamatzky, Eduardo Mirando, and their colleagues at the University of West Bristol, who demonstrated the memristive qualities of slime mold and outlined musical applications