Spiders rely heavily on touch to sense the world around them. Their bodies and legs are covered with tiny hairs and slits that can distinguish different types of vibrations. Any prey that enters the web produces a vibrating sound that is quite different from the sound of another spider approaching it or, for example, a gentle breeze. Each strand of the web creates a different tone.

A few years ago, scientists worked with artist Thomas Saraceno to transform the three-dimensional structure of the web into music. Spider Canvas.

In 2021, the team improved and expanded on this previous work by adding an interactive virtual reality component that allows people to log in and interact online. According to scientists, this research will not only help them better understand the three-dimensional architecture of the web, but may also help us learn the vibrational language of spiders.

“The spider lives in an environment of vibrating wires,” said MIT engineer Markus Bühler. “They can’t see well, so they experience their world through vibrations of different frequencies.”

When you think of a web, you most likely think of a sphere web: flat, circular, with radial spokes, around which the spider forms a spiral web. However, most spider webs are not this way, but are constructed three-dimensionally, such as sheet webs, tangled webs and funnel webs.

To investigate the structure of such webs, the team placed a tropical tent spider (Cyrtophora citricola) into a rectangular case and waited for it to fill the space with a three-dimensional mesh. They then used a sheet laser to illuminate and create high-resolution images of two-dimensional cross-sections of the mesh.

A specially designed algorithm then created a 3D network architecture from these 2D slices. To turn this into music, different sound frequencies were assigned to different strings. The notes created in this way were played according to patterns according to the network structure.

They also scanned the web as it rotated and turned each step of the process into music. This means that as the structure of the web changes, the notes will also change and the listener can hear the process of creating the web; Having a record of the step-by-step process also means we can better understand how spiders build 3D webs without supporting structures; a skill that can be used for 3D printing, for example.

“The virtual reality environment is really interesting because your ears detect structural features that you can see but not immediately recognize,” Buehler said. “By hearing this and seeing it at the same time, you can really understand the environment the spider is living in.”

This VR environment with realistic web physics allows researchers to understand what’s going on while also dealing with parts of the web. Stretch the thread and its tone will change. Break one and see how it affects the other strips around it. It can also help us understand the architecture of networks and why they are built the way they are.

“And perhaps most excitingly, this work allowed the team to develop an algorithm to identify the types of web vibrations and translate them as ‘trapped prey,’ ‘the web is being built,’ or ‘another spider has arrived with amorous intentions.'” According to scientists, this is the basis for learning how to talk to spiders, at least tropical tent spiders.

“We’re now basically trying to generate synthetic signals to speak spider language,” Buhler said. “If we expose them to certain rhythms or vibration patterns, can we influence what they do and start communicating with them? These are really exciting ideas.”