Bacterial Orchestra (2006) is a self-organizing evolutionary musical organism. The installation consists of several audio cells. Every cell listens to its surroundings and picks up sounds, trying to play together in a musical way. The musical material comes from the background noise, people talking or sounds played by other cells.

If you happen to be in the same room as Bacterial Orchestra - interact with it. The complexity of the generated sound doesn’t come from the mechanism of every single cell, but from their interactions. The music is played by the organism as a whole. Listen to the orchestra, not to its members.

Every cell has a unique DNA. Only the ones that are musical fit enough survives. If the surroundings doesn’t meet up to its conditions - too noisy, too quiet or no distinct pulse - the cell dies and is reborn with a new set of DNA.

The result is a musical organism adapting to its environment, growing and evolving with neighbouring cells and spectators.

And who knows…if you leave it running long enough, it might even re-invent Mozart.

Or Acid House.