Mold Sounds (TEI ’25)

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025
project
by nhowell8

Mold Sounds: Queering Ecologies in Polyphonic Material Explorations

Closeup of fuzzy black mold growing on conductive medium as part of an electrical circuit. Jumper cables around as part of the circuit.

Mold grows in a conductive medium as part of the electrical circuit of the audio synthesizer. The mold growth influences the sound.

Top view of mold sounds, showing the mold growing in the medium, the microcontrollers, circuits, on/off switches, and piezo buzzers.

The synthesizer plays a loop of sounds on piezo buzzers, with switches to turn particular notes in the repeating pattern on and off. The mold was allowed to grow over several weeks, slowly altering the sonic pattern.

In “Mold Sounds,” we design a more-than-human encounter that explores how biomaterials, specifically molds, can reorient narratives of toxicity towards polyphonic, multi-species assemblages that speak to queer ecologies. We designed an environment in which molds grow and interact with conductive components, thus altering the sounds produced by the artifact. We reflect on how this helps complicate essentialist, heteronormative narratives in human and non-human relations. Through material engagements, “Mold Sounds” fosters reflections on how we might design for polyphony, or multi-species temporal rhythms, reconsider the nature of toxicity, and explore the unpredictability of queer ecological entanglements in more-than-human design.

Publications

Alexandra Teixeira Riggs, Michael Nitsche, and Noura Howell. 2025. Mold Sounds: Queering Ecologies in Polyphonic Material Explorations. Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction.