Can we hear the firing of neurons? Does their action potential have pitch and timbre? How do patterns and structures of a neural network sound? Christian Faubel and Wolfgang Spahn created an analog neuron, the so-called Pop Neuron, an electronic implementation of an early neural model originally designed to explain human heart beats. Thanks to the support of this small circuit we can experience what happens in both simple and super complex networks. As soon as these networks are activated they start to pulse and oscillate, so that one can watch and listen to how these networks generate dynamics and rhythms.

But how do these networks synchronize with each other? And how do they respond to the environment?

In this workshop we will learn the basics of analog sound synthesis, oscillation in electronic circuits as well as some principles of analog computing. In particular we focus on the implementation of these technologies in analog neural networks and on the production and shaping of analog sound. We will also build Pop Neurons and Pop Neuron Oscillators, we'll connect them and by doing so we'll create complex networks. Finally, we sonificate the neural activity and listen to patterns and oscillations of our artificial neural network.

Symbolic Grounding
Pop Neuron

- building a Pop Neuron Oscillator
- basic of analog sound synthesis
- sensors in synapses
- broken beats in synchronized oscillators
- controlling and shaping of analog waves

Make - Analog Synthesizers - Ray Wilson
Handmade Electronic Music - Nicolas Collins
The Forrest Mims Engineer's Notebook