Ep.37: Plant Music with Loretta Maps Bolt

Biotunes

https://mapsbolt.wixsite.com/biotunes

Cannatunes

https://cannatunes.wixsite.com/mysite/music

Ginseng Guided meditation spa kit

https://www.cimarron-maz.com/product-page/guided-ginseng-meditation

Other stuff

Damanhur

https://damanhur.travel/

Plants Play

https://www.plantsplay.com/

Cleave Baxter

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/992993.Primary_Perception

Loretta "Maps Bolt" Hord is an artist, innovator, technoshaman, and paradigm changer focused on interspecies collaboration. After studying environmental law at the SUNY College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry she began trying her hand at biodynamic farming, environmental education, and geo locative coding. Since then, Maps Bolt creates realistic pathways for humanity to manifest deeper connections with the natural world through animistic perspectives and technology.
Maps Bolt looks to be eclectic in her experiences and use them to facilitate her work. Constantly learning new skills in coding, alternative artistic methods, and AR/VR development, she works to connect all of these disciplines into the pioneering of plant music applications and provides a unique user experience that makes plant vitality evident through sound.

As founder of Biotunes, she uses multi-media, multi-sensory applications that translates bio-rhythmic energy of the plant into musical notes and a cymatic visual projection. Her strongest influences has been the works of other researchers and scientists such as Monica Gagliano, author ot "Thus Spoke the Plant", Cleave Baxter who first transmitted data from plants, or Jeremy Narby who stated in his 2012 Bioneers presentation “The way the shamans describe it, the spirits of nature, or the essences, are themselves melodies. When they perceive these different entities, if you pay careful attention, they vibrate out a melody. And the work of the shaman is to pick up the given melodies of each species.” This statement best expresses the core of Maps work with plants and creating immersive experiences that engage the public. Her work is also influenced by the notion of "hikoi", a Maori term for pilgrimage.

Through the engagement of making music with plants by translating the electrical impulses into musical notes, questions about who gets to belong, who makes the decisions, and what is considered valuable in the conservation world arises. Combining plant generated soundscapes with geolocative tools, allows for the creation of “songlines” - geo-triggered audio tours of ethnobotanical communities . When the music made by plants are connected to gps location, the plants song will automatically play through a mobile app when approaching each individual plant species. The placement of the songlines are often in in publically accessible forests and gardens.