Darya Warner (Coalesce Honorary Fellowship)

What if we could turn our noise pollution into the sounds that can aid living organisms in adapting to harsher environments. There have been multiple studies conducted on the effects of various sound waves on plant and mushroom growth. Darya has experimented with a 220 Hz sine wave to aid fungi growth in one of her art pieces and she wants to explore this notion further with plants. For the duration of the fellowship, she will record various urban noise pollution sounds and study their effect on plants at Dorsheimer Greenhouse at University at Buffalo. The sound will be delivered via transducers attached to the bottom of the growth trays, traveling through water and delivered to the soil and the seeds directly. Thus there will be no noise heard in the vicinity of the project. It is imperative to keep the noise distribution through the air to a minimum since Darya is interested in the direct effect of the sound on the roots systems of plants. Simultaneously she will conduct research at Coalesce Biological Lab on local mycorrhizal fungi species by collecting soil samples and identifying fungi via DNA "fingerprinting" analysis and then studing the effects of noise pollution on them as well. Since Buffalo has a long history as a major wheat processing center Darya would like to focus on local wheat varieties starting with Hard Red Winter and Spring wheat. She will also experiment with Einkorn wheat, one of the oldest varieties in the world. It contains only 14 chromosomes, whereas modern wheat contains 42. Einkorn does not have the D chromosome, which seems to be connected with wheat intolerance in many humans. High Vibes Plant Retreat research will culminate as an interactive installation. Darya aims this project to not only manifest itself in the art form but also to potentially contribute to the research on sound wave stimulation.

www.daryawarner.com

Born in Ukraine, Darya immigrated to the USA in 2001 to pursue arts. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2014 with a focus on Bioart and got her Masters at University at Buffalo in conjunction with Coalesce Biological Lab in 2020. Her recent projects involve the development of  MycoPrinter, an open-source low tech bioprinter that can print with biological materials such as fungi. This brings attention to sustainable art practices and notions of art as a biological medium. Darya is a co-founder and Director of Operations at CAYO Residency, an Art and Science residency based in the Bahamas focused on bridging biological research and artistic collaboration. Darya has participated in several bioart conferences and symposiums including LASER Talks and Bioart Mixer, she has exhibited globally and received grants to support her projects.