This Economist article about biohacking got me wondering about what possibilities this developing new class of geeks might create for musicians? After all, if the field is undergoing a revolution comparable to the computer revolution from 30 years ago it stands to reason that this will eventually have a big impact on our culture as well. Think the “I’m T-Pain” iPhone app is cool? Wait until you consume a bacterial culture that alters the properties of your voice to make you sound like Diamanda Galas. You could design clouds of invisible spores to change the tonal properties of sound waves in a given area, thereby improving the acoustics of a room and creating a much better overall soundsystem culture. Micro-orchestras of organisms that produce alien clicks, buzzes, chirps, etc. could be produced in a vat, which Villalobos would use to produce the first micro-house radio hit as a curious public started listening to strange, subtle sounds in a different context. People would start pumping these organisms full of drugs to produce stranger and stranger melodies, and the genre of field recordings would enter into a golden era as the biohacks permeated every inch of our social spaces.
Tags: science fiction