Experiments In Musical Biocomputing: Towards New Kinds Of Processors For Audio And Music

The emerging field of Unconventional Computing is developing new algorithms and computing architectures inspired by or implemented in biological, physical and chemical systems. We are investigating how Unconventional Computing may benefit the future of the music industry and related audio engineering technologies. In this chapter, after a brief introduction to Unconventional Computing, we present our research into harnessing the behaviour of a slime mould called Physarum polycephalum to build new kinds of processors for audio and music. The plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a large single cell with a myriad of diploid nuclei, which moves like a giant amoeba in its pursuit for food. The organism is amorphous, and although without a brain or any serving centre of control, can respond to the environmental conditions that surround it. As our research progressed, we have successfully harnessed the organism to implement a sound synthesiser and a musical sequencer, grow biological audio wires, and build an interactive biocomputer that can listen and produce musical responses in real- time.