
Imagine each tree in a grove contributing a unique voice to a dynamic, living symphony: each tone being a result of mapping sap flow, water content, energy flow, and more, to a specific sonic component. How would each tree respond to the sun emerging from behind a cloud? to an oncoming storm? the rain? the presence of people and animals? Would different species create similar music? Would trees sharing a soil chemistry respond to atmospheric changes similarly?
I am creating portable electronic “TreeMusic” devices to accurately and authentically sonify trees. The electrical potentials within every tree are dynamic and influenced by a combination of internal physiological processes (sap flow, water content) and external environmental conditions (temperature, sunlight, temperature). Each of these factors (and more) are electronically sensed and measured, their data converted into sound, turning invisible, natural processes into something perceivable and artistically meaningful.
Sonification would use the voltages measured from several pairs of attached electrodes. Each voltage would serve as the control to its own sine wave oscillator, amplifier or filter using standard FM synthesis.
NOTE: Trees will not be harmed when being sonified. Sap flow changes in the phloem/xylem might correspond to measurable electrical signals influenced by nycthemeral cycles, but no electrodes will be driven into the flesh of the tree to obtain such data.
(Click for list of tree paramaters that can be measured)

The Spirit of TreeMusic
All of Earth’s living things are constructed of nutrients, water, sun; are fashioned by their DNA and animated by electromagnetic energy. I call this energy “Spirit“.
By translating the real-time dynamic “spiritual” fluctuations of trees into sound, the living symphony that results reveals their inner, invisible lives. By making the invisible visible (audible), TreeMusic has the potential to connect people to the natural world in a new, profound way.