Michael PRIME
"Ha, Ha! Your Mushrooms Have Gone?" 2005

A piece extracting the bioelectric potential of shiitake mushrooms planted on raw log as sound. Infrared sensors will detect the movement of people within the exhibition space, and trigger the shiitake's sound. The sounds slowly changes in the shiitake's approximately one week lifespan, from bearing unfurling its cap to eventual death. This installation was originally presented during the "Playing John Cage" exhibit at Arnolfini Gallery in England. This work's inception was tied to the composer John Cage himself - Cage as a mushroom researcher, listening to the sounds of his own bioelectric potential.