final cover musgo

issue no.1 spring 2022

Z MUSGO

Max Rubin

Reimagine the human
relationship to the
earth with Chicago
based photographer

microscopic image of moss

Gardening 101 CONTENTS

planting moss at home

Check out all the information you need to
know on how to start your very own moss
garden. Various types of moss gardens you

10can create no matter where you live.
MARCH
25On the cover

the nature of max’s room

Max Rubin is a Chicago based photographer
who wants to reimagine the human relationship
to the earth with his work. He is inspired by the
beauty of moss and how it further connects to
earth.

love your
skin

cocokind

editor’s
letter

Growing up in the country has
made me develop a person-
al connection with nature.
Waking up to the sounds
of birds and other animals,
seeing the beautiful Tex-
as sunset, and being surrounded by trees
has made me see the world from a differ-
ent perspective. As I got closer to nature, I
developed an interest in National Geograph-
ic magazines and fell in love with how they
perceive the beauty the world holds. Looking
at all the stunning images captured in each
issue made me want to pursue collaging and
put various images together to create some-
thing meaningful to me. As I made more col-
lages, I became more fascinated with nature
and how it’s true beauty can be captured in
just one photograph.

I then decided to learn about plants with
my grandma as she taught me how to care
for them and even talk to them. I felt an ex-
traordinary feeling with plants that gave me
the opportunity to feel closer to nature than
ever before. With Musgo magazine I want to
capture a new perspective on nature where
boundaries are respected and there is no
ownership or entitlement of the planet Earth.
By combining my personal connection with
nature and passion for plants, I want readers
to think of Musgo as more than just a maga-
zine and to find a way to be one with nature
and learn more about what it holds and how
powerful it can truly be

Thank you so much for the support and for
opening the cover.

Feel one with nature,

Dasha Musil

6 Musgo Spring 2022

Innovation CONTENTS

moss is the future 36Plant of the month

It is commonly believed that mosses all about fire moss
are poorly developed plants that can
only be used for decorative purposes Flame Moss (Taxiphyllum ‘Flame’) is known for
however, that is far from the truth. the unique way it grows. Aquascapers love this
Moss plants have survived for a long moss because of its ability to enhance any
time here on earth without harming tank with a sharp green hint of vegetation.
the environment. European countries Of course, it’s not called ‘Flame Moss” for no
have been utilizing moss for green reason. This moss grows in a distinct upward
roofs for some time now due to the twisting pattern when attached to driftwood
multiple benefits of the practice. A or rock resulting in a flame-like appearance.
green roof can entirely change the
feel of more crowded urban spaces

30while absorbing runoff stormwaters

and reducing building temperatures.

Mossphone in its natural habitat. Taken by Raphaelle Mueller

pg 49

48Arts & Culture

music with your plants

Mosses are tiny organisms with slow
temporalities of growth which can
decipher the secrets of life on Earth.
They can also tell us stories about our
alienated nature and help us how to
create connections with our planet.
Understanding moss we could also
decipher Life’s Future on a damaged
Earth and beyond. Making music with
plants such as moss creates a deeper
connection with the planet.

25 Musgo Spring 2022

MAX
BRIUN

chicago based photograhper
envisioning a regenerative future

26 Musgo Spring 2022

the nature of max’s room phots taken by Max Rubin in his apartment

A personal story on Rubin’s
connection with nature

The process of curating a space to live in, and nurturing the flora I live along-
side has a lot to do with creating a new home. Around 2015 my dad moved out
of the home that we had lived in since I was 5 years old, when we originally
moved from Seattle to the midwest. We left the huge maple tree that shaded
our backyard and hung over our house, the abundant ferns that guarded our
front yard and brushed our front windows by mid august, and the vines that
clung to our siding and reminded us that summer was coming when they suddenly draped
the house in green; our prelude to summer break and long days at the beach. Home was
the dub reggae over the stereo, and the VHS memories playing back on the TV. But when
my mom got her own apartment and my dad struggled up the stairs to use the bathroom,
my grandmother decided it was time to sell the house.  

27 Musgo Spring 2022

photos of Rene Bedolla taken by Max Rubin

We moved to a new apartment building, built in the empty lot of an old factory. It was ecological-
ly barren, populated only by the tall grasses and redwing blackbirds that had settled in to the toxic
sandy soil from under the factory. I started high school a few weeks later, and began my search for
home —one that truly felt like me to the core. On my desk sat a Lego model of the Seattle space
needle. The next four years flew by until I found myself in Seattle once again.

It was there, in Seward Park, just blocks from my first home that I rediscovered the glory of moss
and lichen. The forests of Washington were just as densely inhabited by these organisms in the
winter as they were summer, giving every inch of bark and rock a similar green tinge. There was a
great singularity, accessorized by these same primary successors that broke down the mountainous
rock into inhabitable soil. It all made me wonder; is there a way to approach life with a similar senti-
ment? I realized that the core of home was an outlook rather than a space, and thus something you
could bring with you and use to cultivate relationships everywhere. Plus, since it wasn’t physical, you
couldn’t lose it.

Photography became this incredible communication device for these concepts of growth, culti-

vation, and establishing home. EVERYTHING, whether it be my belief in the divinity of all organisms,

aesthetic sensibilities, interest in texture, or philosophy of slow, patient photo shoots derived from

the lessons of old earth organisms like moss and lichen. 28 Musgo Spring 2022

generating sounds
with living beings

Microscopic view of moss

47 Musgo Spring 2022

48 Musgo Spring 2022

These instruments are alive. Yeast, moss and paramecia
are behind the unique sounds of Living Instruments, which
will be performing a concert in Zurich on October 21st.

by Clara Rodriguez Fernandez tive designer, Oliver Keller, a The artists have been play-
physicist, and Robert Torche, ing 2-3 times a year since the
I nstead of strings or a sound designer. project started in 2016, per-
windpipes, the sounds forming in front of very dif-
of these instruments “We generate a kind of ferent audiences. “Lay people
are generated by living music that is relatively repet- often find the sound weird,
beings. The sound of itive, but the fact that it’s because they are not used to
the ‘yeast organ’ is living, that it’s unpredictable, these very complex sound-
triggered by the bub- makes it groovy,” says Hen- scapes,” says Henry. “Music
bles produced by the fermen- ry. “For example, the bubbles specialists like it because it’s
tation of yeast inside five big that we generate with the very daring, it’s something
flasks. Inside the ‘paramecia yeast produce a repetitive that you don’t really often
controller’, single-cell micro- pattern, but not exactly, see, even in contemporary
organisms swim in a small giving a jazzy feeling to the music.”
container; by playing with the music.”
electric field, the musician Over the years, the art-
can influence their move- Each performance is ists have been perfecting the
ment, which is then turned unique, with a big influence instruments, sometimes with
into sound. The ‘mossphone’ from the environment of the the help of their audience.
reacts to movements around venue the artists perform in. “Some of the features of the
it that change the electro- For example, the temperature instruments we use today
magnetic field. can make a big difference. “If were actually developed with
we play in winter, in a place help from people who partici-
The instruments have a where there is no heating, the pated in our workshops. They
life of their own. “The musi- yeast is very slow. In a venue were either professional mu-
cian that is interacting with that is full of people, with a sicians or designers and came
the living organisms doesn’t temperature of 25° to 30°, up with elements of software
have full control, so it’s impro- then the yeast will be much or electronics that we then
vised every time. It also re- more active,” explains Henry. included in the performance.
quires the musician to adapt Now we have something that
to the behavior of the living “Same with the moss- is richer than what we had at
instrument. You have to be phone. If we work on a stage the beginning.”
ready to give away some of that is isolated from the
the control,” says Luc Henry, ground, the signal is much At the concert in Zurich
who created the Living Instru- lower. Once we played in a next week, the performance
ments project back in 2016. wooden stage and the instru- will be preceded by a work-
ment wouldn’t work at all. We shop where visitors will have
It all started when his had to take an electric ca- a chance to learn about the
childhood friend Serge Vuille, ble to anchor the foot of the science behind them. The
a musician and composer, musician to the ground. The idea, says Henry, is to get
visited the community labora- number of people in the room them engaged. “We will put
tory of Hackuarium, a DIY bio also makes a difference.” the instruments in the middle
association founded by Hen- of the room and let people
ry. Serge saw a connection Music informed by biology move around and even in-
between the creativity seen is not a new concept. Other teract with the instruments
at the lab and the music he artists have used the pat- themselves. We want people
does as a contemporary mu- terns of microorganisms to to come and look closer, we
sician. Together they started create musical pieces, based don’t want them to look from
brainstorming ideas for the on their growth or their DNA a distance.”
first Living Instruments pro- sequences. But often the
totypes, bringing on board result is a static piece rather
Vanessa Lorenzo, an interac- than a live performance.

49 Musgo Spring 2022

Mossphone (or Musgófono) is a hybrid interface; a dialog between the organic, toxic particles
and electronic system to sound out the Anthropocene. It is a speculative way to listen, sense
and intra-act with moss. Image taken by Raphaelle Mueller.

50 Musgo Spring 2022

HAMMOCK?

Location: O’ahu, eno
Hawaii
Hammock: Single
nest