Plants. Frequencies. Good jars.

An on-going investigation into frequencies, potions, plants and medicinal properties.

Foraged Frequencies

Wave Farm, 2023

🌱 In October 2023 we arrived at Wave Farm in up-state New York with the grand ambition of bouncing waves off the moon and working on our Border Radio project. In Acra, the valley was washed in the reds, yellows and deep ochres of autumn. We found ourselves wandering in the muddy fields entranced by the local vegetation: watching the light play off fluffy seed heads and set the sumac leaves alight. A rustling, whispering fire. On a educational walk we learned about the uses First Nations people had for sumac and tobacco leaves. 

Our extra-terrestrial plans seemed suddenly less important than the investigation of what was right in front of us, what we could touch, hold, collect, smell, breathe in… and listen to.

🔌 With the generous help of Wave Farm technician, Jen Kutler, we devised a plan to listen to the frequencies of the fallen flora specimens we had collected and taped to the wall of the communal living and working space. You can hear the unedited results of those experiments below. 

🌕 In the end we *did* commune with la luna (though not in the highly technical way usually associated with EME).

We built a sculptural antenna from fallen branches and measuring tape (after the tape measure yagi we love at REAST). The antenna was then connected to a Hack RF One with the open source WSJT-X software to send and receive our signal. It was definitely a more speculative and hopeful attempt than an exact science…  But as the full moon rose on our final night at Wave Farm, the digital spectrogram burst into activity as she appeared right between the divining Y of our feral antenna.