Instruo Pocket Scion: Making Music with Plants and Living Organisms
The world of electronic music has always pushed boundaries, but Instruo's latest creation takes things to an entirely new level. The Pocket Scion is a portable biofeedback instrument that literally lets you make music with living organisms – from houseplants to mushrooms to human skin.
What is the Pocket Scion?
Developed in collaboration with Modern Biology (featuring ecologist and musician Tarun Nayar), the Pocket Scion captures electrical signals from living organisms and transforms them into musical data. This compact device, about the size of a cigarette pack, contains an analog pulse oscillator that monitors resistance changes in whatever you connect it to.
The science behind it is fascinating yet simple: when you attach the included sensor clips to a plant or touch the capacitive pad, you complete an electrical circuit. The device measures how resistance fluctuates over time and translates these variations into musical triggers and MIDI data.
Four Unique Instruments
The Pocket Scion comes loaded with four exclusive instruments, each with distinct sonic characteristics:
- Secret Garden (Red LED): Creates melodic, garden-inspired soundscapes
- Fungal Waves (Blue LED): Generates flowing, organic textures
- Treebeard's Koto (Green LED): Produces plucked, string-like tones
- Soil Circuits (Purple LED): Delivers experimental, circuit-bent sounds
Each instrument responds differently to biofeedback input, creating unique musical experiences depending on what you connect to the device.
Creative Applications
The Pocket Scion opens up incredible possibilities for musicians, sound artists, and anyone interested in experimental music:
Live Performance: Use it as a gestural controller by touching the capacitive pad, or create unpredictable performances by connecting to living plants on stage.
Studio Production: Generate MIDI data to control your favorite software synthesizers and DAWs. The device can send up to five simultaneous MIDI notes with velocity and CC data.
Installation Art: Perfect for interactive installations where visitors can engage with living organisms to create music and visuals.
Data Sonification: Beyond music, the OSC output lets you use biofeedback data for scientific visualization or artistic projects in software like Max/MSP, Pure Data, or TouchDesigner.
Educational Projects: A fantastic tool for teaching about biology, electronics, and music – demonstrating how living organisms generate electrical activity.
Technical Features
Despite its simple appearance, the Pocket Scion packs impressive technical capabilities:
- Five-note polyphony for complex musical textures
- MIDI output via TRS and USB connections
- Raw signal output for harsh noise and experimental sounds
- Desktop application for advanced customization
- OSC broadcasting for integration with creative software
- Portable power via AAA batteries or USB
The sensitivity can be adjusted to work with different organisms – some plants are more responsive than others due to factors like moisture content and surface area.
Perfect for Everyone
What makes the Pocket Scion special is its accessibility. You don't need musical experience to create interesting sounds – the device does the heavy lifting. Yet it's sophisticated enough for professional musicians to integrate into complex setups.
The combination of biological unpredictability and musical structure creates compositions that are both organic and musical, never quite the same twice.
The Future of Bio-Musical Instruments
The Pocket Scion represents a growing movement toward bio-responsive musical instruments. It's not just a synthesizer – it's a bridge between the natural world and digital music creation, opening new possibilities for environmental sound art and biological music composition.
Whether you're looking to add unpredictable elements to your music, create interactive installations, or simply explore the musical potential of your houseplants, the Pocket Scion offers a unique and portable solution that fits in your pocket and connects you to the living world around you.