The System
A cart, mushrooms you play, a terrarium that listens, and short pieces called Bits.
Musical Mycology is built around four things that work together. Each can deploy on its own; together they're a portable concert hall built around play.
The Cart
The Magical Mycological Museum.
A powered, deployable, weatherized cart that's a portable stage with PA, batteries, and central processing. Wheels in, plugs nothing, runs all day. It's how the system travels — to a faire, a school playground, a museum atrium, a festival field.
The instruments
Tune Shrooms.
Wireless, LED-lit, MIDI-capable mushroom controllers people can hit, tilt, and sing into. No tuning. No "wrong" notes. The hard work of musicality is moved into the software, so anyone can pick one up and immediately participate in something that sounds good.
The visualization
The Terrarium.
The central shared display that reacts to the Tune Shrooms in real time. Every player sees the same world responding to all of them at once. It's the feedback loop that turns a crowd of strangers tapping mushrooms into a single audience playing together.
The pieces
Bits.
Short performance and game pieces a performer guides the audience through using the Tune Shrooms and the Terrarium. Three to ten minutes each, designed so a person who's never made music in their life ends up making music with strangers.
The first batch is being authored alongside the technology with the CMU Entertainment Technology Center, debuting at the June 13 deployment.
How it deploys
Three ways the system shows up.
At events ↗
RenQuest. Web app + NFC stations turn faires, conventions, and festivals into quest experiences.
At permanent venues
Tune Shrooms + Terrarium installations at children's museums, science centers, and immersive venues. Booking pilot installs for 2027.
At schools and community spaces
Foundation-funded school assemblies and free public performances.