Sounds of the Soil (ongoing)

What if the forest could talk back?

year: 2026
type: interactive installation
role: artist · interaction designer · electronics / technology
key words: installation · multimodal interaction · mycelium · sound · textile

Sounds of the Soil is an interactive installation that imagines a future where the hidden communication of trees and mycelium networks becomes perceptible to humans. Textile panels combining photography, hand embroidery and mycelium objects invite exploration of the surface. Visitors use a handheld mycelium scanner to move across the panels, triggering sounds recorded with a contact microphone as well as haptic feedback. Through this interaction, they become, for a moment, part of the forest’s conversation. The installation invites curiosity, slowness, and reflection on how technology might help us listen more attentively to the non-human world.
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Artistic concept, technology & interaction design: Bente de Bruin
Embroidery & interaction design: Marie Schön
Spatial design & construction: David Masson

Developed for NAVET Student Festival 2026 at Tekniska Museet Stockholm. Part of the "Dreamland" exhibition.

3D rendering of the installation, made by David Masson

Recording sounds with a piezo contact microphone

Form and material research for the handheld mycelium scanner. The mould was cast from this stone found in the forest.

Growing different forms of mycelium and putting electronics in the handheld scanner object

Contact microphone recording with sounds of ants touching the microphone

Image of tree roots and contact microphone recording audio

Marie working on embroidery of one panel

Recording with a seismographic contact microphone