Instrumental Morphology

Project Description

Instrumental Morphology is an ongoing research project that investigates living organisms as active participants in musical and sensing systems. The project is realized through a series of aquatic instruments, including light-responsive Daphnia swarms, vision-tracked shrimp environments, and multi-species ecosystems activated by infrared sensing. Across these instruments, biological behavior, environmental conditions, and computational systems form feedback-driven loops that shape sound and light over time. The work is informed by Goethe’s concept of the spiral as a model of growth through return and transformation, where progress emerges through repetition rather than linear advancement. Iteration is treated as a core method, with each instrument developing through cycles of observation, adjustment, and response. The project documents these evolving systems as case studies that examine how uncertainty, care, and partial autonomy can be central to the definition of an instrument.

Instruments Overview

At its current stage, the project consists of three functioning instruments and an open body of ongoing research:

In parallel, the project documents experimental work with algae, sensors, sound synthesis, and cybernetic feedback systems.

Research Structure

Placeholder for describing the research phases, methodology, and key questions.

Biological systems as generative frameworks

This work is informed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s conception of morphology as a study of form through transformation rather than static classification. Goethe’s spiral functions as both a visual and methodological guide: growth occurs through return, variation, and accumulation, not linear progress.

Each instrument is developed through repeated cycles of observation, intervention, and response. Iteration is not a means to optimization, but a way of remaining attentive to how living systems change when placed in new conditions.