Philip's Sound Sculptures and Homemade Instrument Events

UBEATS Camp

2009-08-12T19:29:00.001-07:00

July 2009 I was artist in residence for the UBEATS summer camp near Greensboro, NC testing new biomusic curriculum for grades 2-5. Twice a day for a week we made instruments and prepared a site-specific performance in the woods with 60+ people.

We had a mile long pathway that the audience was shepherded around, led by me playing the flute. After passing through the magic bubble machine bubbles, the first station was an old shack where the adult participants were to be found singing a Slow Song. Then we moved to an open platform area with a Rapunzel Tower nearby; the kids did a circle ritual dance with hoops, paintstick bullroarers, and rattles while 3 drummer girls played from the tower. We took advantage of a triple echo from the distant buildings by playing some rhythmic percussion. Then we walked across the Troll Bridge which was being played from all angles (including beneath). Then we entered the Enchanted Forest where everyone gathered to make jungle bird calls.

These were not bird imitations but human street cries (The Cryes of Greensboro), touts and jingles composed by the participants, that were sung and vocalized throughout the space. Some examples:
"Treehouses. Treehouses. Treehouses. Foreclosures. Foreclosures. Foreclosures. Cheap. Cheap. Cheap."
"Bird Bingo Tonight"
People also played straw oboes, panpipes, squawkers, and that amazing invention, the acorn whistle. The effect was marvelous and one called it the most effective recreation of a rainforest he had ever heard.

Emerging from the forest we encounter the ball field where two giant instruments were waiting to be played by everyone: the baseball dugout koto, and the machine shed long string instrument. The former was played with wooden shim plectra plucking the welding-wire strings (it sounded great inside the shelter), and the latter was made of tasut fishing line with rosin. The wind would have sounded it had there been any, but we dragged cups and resonators along to make sustained tones. The best resonators are no longer Dixie cups as I have found, but rather Percy's 9 Lives catfood cans.

Here's an audio recording of our walk on the WILDSIDE. Thanks to all the many collaborators who came together in grand style (especially Patricia Gray).

Beyond Neverland residency

2009-08-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

June 2009 I led a group of 2nd graders attending summer camp at St. Paul's SteppingStone Theater in the art of instrument building. The camp theme was loosely based on Peter Pan and Neverland so I watched most of the Disney version on Youtube as preparation.

We made sea urchin shaped pan pipes, cat food can steel pans, fishing line guitars with styrofoam resonators, straw oboes, drainpipe trumpets, and string telephones.

We also recorded vocalizations and sounds of the instruments that I brought together into a bizarrely hallucinogenic composition: NEVERLAND

Philip Blackburn and his Talking Plant

2009-06-05T15:55:00.001-07:00

Here's the video of some of the reactions and interactions with my plant. You can't even be vegan any more without eating a sentient being.

Bird Dance at the Singing Garden

2009-06-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

View in Hi Def for better results (those millett rattles sound terrible when compressed). Also here is a 3D interactive model of the event using 625 photos by Preston Wright.

People/Plant Dialogues

2009-06-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

One of the surprise hits of the festival was the Talking Plant. It was amazing to see the pyschic shock and awe when people (of all ages) realized their behavior could affect a plant's internal life. I told them that plants have evolved successfully because they are responsive to their environment: light, water, heat, vibration. That activity can be measured in the small amounts of electricity it generates, picked up by the EEG sensor, mangled by the MaxMSP patch and made audible by triggering some of the 2000+ samples.

Some people danced, asked it questions (Are you a girl or a boy? What's your name? What's your favorite color? What's your favorite drink?), tickled, fondled, caressed, struck, blew, watered and communed with it.

It was interesting to me to see that normal people can accept the weirdest blips and vegetable booping noises if it is related to their actions and context, whereas sitting in a concert hall the same sounds would be eagerly rejected.

A video of these moments will be edited one day. In the meantime here are some stills.

What a week it was!

2009-06-01T10:05:00.001-07:00

Here is the complete timelapse video of the Rise and Fall of the Singing Garden. More to follow;

We are in business

2009-05-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

The flowers and sounds are in place, lovely dancing from Jan Louise's team, and young and old are enjoying the plant orchestra. Here's the video of the setting up process. The tear-down will follow all too soon.

In the midst of setting up

2009-05-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

It shouldn't be 50º and raining today but it is and the flowers don't mind, only the hordes of volunteers putting this all together. So far so good: Plants looks great, speakers in place and beginning to look like toadstools. They sound fine but much more subtle than indoors away from bus engine noises. Tomorrow is perfecting the spinnies and firing up the talking plant.

Lovely story in the Pioneer Press above and below the fold.

Here's the invite to my friends:

Stroll through the Singing Garden and converse with a Talking Plant

Please visit Philip Blackburn’s sound installation this weekend. You will hear a 20-channel soundscape created from dozens of vegetable sounds (from coconut milk to Rice Krispies to acorn squash clarinets); a kind of vegan frogpond at dusk. Don’t miss the spinning flower beds that strike bamboo chimes in a spatial phasing pattern (a safe alternative to LSD). You will notice this all takes place in a colorful 50-foot diameter flower carpet pieced together by the St. Paul Parks Department. Pretty.

Then there’s the Talking Plant. This is a Bird of Paradise plant that has been wired up with a brainwave sensor that spits out MIDI signals from its stalk. J. Anthony Allen wrote the MaxMSP patch to convert those data to trigger yet more vegetable samples (from cactus needles to rubber bands). Amaze your friends by playing the plant like an organic Theremin; it’s an intelligent salad.

This is all part of the Flint Hills International Childrens Festival at the Ordway and throughout Rice Park so bring the family and you’ll find plenty of other stuff to do. All free.

More on the Singing Garden and the Talking Plant:
http://oddsandendsorchestra.blogspot.com/

When:
Friday, May 29-Sunday, May 31
9 am — 4pm

Where:
Landmark Plaza, next to Landmark Center (where the skating rink usually is), Rice Park, downtown St. Paul (take the 5th Street or Kellogg exit from 94)

The Talking Plant Talks

2009-05-21T18:17:00.001-07:00

Ever wondered what plants think when you play with them? Some say that saying nice things will help them grow and that playing heavy metal causes them to wilt. They did evolve pretty well to find light and nutrients and whatever life force is going up and down their stalks might contain their deepest wisdom...

Anyway, here's what this Bird of Paradise had to say when I conversed with it this evening. I bet the kids have fun with this next week: it's quite sciencey and amusing in a metaphysical sort of way.

Last day of class, listening to the Singing Garden

2009-05-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

As the culmination of all our listening, recording and composing efforts we finally got to hear the full 20-channel version of the Singing Garden. We closed our eyes, listened closely (quietly even), and wrote stream-of-consciousness notes about our experiences. Here are some of the reactions. Notice how few refer to vegetables, the main sound source; their sounds seem to evoke more weather and animal images. Maybe because plant and vegetable sounds are so alien to us, even though we are around them every day.

It makes me feel like I’m in a cave. It’s dark with a lot of noise around me. But the sound I hear don’t seem like it’s in the right place. It goes from fast to slow, loud to quiet sounds. It’s hard to hear everything around me. Sometime it sounds like the sounds are responding back to each other. Now I hear some strings getting strummed. I hear some kind of bird screaming. Some of the sounds are moving around; you hear them from somewhere and then it comes out from somewhere else. I now hear a fan or something and it seems like it’s getting closer to me somehow. Now hear frogs croaking and the fan coming and going.
—JL

It’s a hot summer day. I’m sitting by a pond. In the distance I hear something rattling in a bush. I hear a frog croaking and a dragonfly beating its wings. Fish making air bubbles in the water. It’s peaceful and there’s a sweet scent on the breeze. I look over and there is a lilac bush.
—A

Relax
Hearing things never heard
And how to do things with materials
Like f you are in spaceship
A car with a bad motor
A bubbling spa
Boiling pot
A lighter
A balloon getting flat by letting air go from your mouth
Speakers hot plug in light
A harmony of flute
Drum sticks Macarena
It makes me feel like I am in an airplane
Making me feel I am at the rainforest or a woodpecker and above four frogs in the middle of nowhere.
—NS

In the forest where native people live they are playing some type of instrument; there’s ghosts too sounding scary. Feels like I am in the bathroom taking a bath while water slowly drips down. At school in a quiet room with tape being taken off. Altogether like a dream taking me to different places. Took me to a Japanese palace or Chinese where there are people playing instruments.
In a quiet house with rain falling, then a ghost came and made scary crying noises. Ghost came back, more crying noises.
Somebody crumbling vegetables loudly.
In a house (in my bedroom) sprinklers turn on. Somebody playing an instrument. My mom washing clothes repeatedly. Dad cleaning up some stuff and making noises. Sister practicing an instrument. Somebody scraping something together.
A twirl like a spiral taking me to somewhere else, really windy, fan making it windy going faster and faster.
Got to a different land with all these different insects.
—N

I heard a lot of noises through all of the speakers but the one that I like is the water that’s shaking and sounds real. Also all of the sounds are going at the same time. Sometimes it will go loud then it will go small and I hear some strong squeaky noises through the speakers.

The sound started to be quiet and then it have a drizzle sound. And you can hear some instrument and animal sounds
—K

Sounds of images
Sounds like you’re in a cave
Makes me feel like I’m alone in a cave
Forest sounds
There’s a lot of wind and it gets louder and louder
Sounds like an animal is burying something
A lot of water in the area
There are electric sounds with music in the background
And there is rain outside in the background
I can hear animals in the forest
Sounds like branches are getting stepped on
And more animals
Someone plays music a little
And it sounds like people are gardening
More flutes playing
The wind picks up again and there is a loud shaking sound.
Just the wind picking up.
Frogs croaking
I hear rattle snakes
—RJ

This reminds me of my basement, water leaking. And the fan part reminds me of my room because my fan is always going… LOL. The shakers remind me of rattle snakes. It reminds me of pouring juice in my cup. It reminds me of a birthday party because of the balloons.
—DW

It sounds like being in a quiet water place like a sea, lake, ocean, something like that and it just stop running and there is still like drops like and you can hear little sea creatures.
—SW

Somebody in the tub
Somebody play with a fan
Frog
Maracas
Bubles
Drums
Gum
—EK

1) nothing
2) horny
3) gay
4) dumb
5) happy
6) high
7) bitchy
8) sad
9) Mexican
10) Hmong
11) Black
12) White
13) More gay
14) Less gay
15) Same gay
16) Normal
17) Annoyed
18) Sleepy
19) Awake
20) Hating
21) Loving
22) Empty
23) Fun
24) Boring
25) Talkative
26) Quiet
27) Helpful
28) Pollution
29) Man
30) Woman
31) Normal
32) Partying
33) Peeing
34) Smoking
35) I can’t believe
36) that it not butter
37) Omg
38) Watching tv
39) Go to China
40) Pass Math
41) fell
42) writing number 42
43) lol
44) cellphone
45) driving
46) need help
47) 47
48) ssr
49) unhappy
50) unsad
51) gang bang
52) lonely
53) cheating
54) play
55) boring
56) kicking
57) got milk
58) pokemon
59) go home
60) names
61) don’t know
62) bold
63) fishing
64) sleeping
65) I am your father
66) Who your mother
67) Curds
68) Eminem
69) Tomcuris
70) Ky
71) Blackjack
72) Great
—48

Spinners and Zombies

2009-05-15T11:18:00.001-07:00

Today we figured out the engineering solutions for the rotating plant frames and how to get the biggest Oomph to strike the instruments underneath. A golf ball is suspended with string from the frame of the plantbed, sometimes it goes up a ramp, and then it falls back down onto a bamboo chime or wooden clapper that is placed at just the right spot and is free to vibrate. It takes time to tune perfectly. When all 5 spinners are going, each with one tone block, the space and the phasing will add dramatically to the effect.

Then we hooked up the brainwave, proximity, and turn sensors to ourselves (a plant was not available at school). Philip's brain activity is steady 60-62 range, students got a 0-127 sweep much more easily. One of us may be a zombie. We could definitely hear the effects of our activities and motion even though the sounds were many and complex.

Sensing Plants and Sounds from Salad

2009-05-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

What does a plant think when you go near it?
Why not put a brainwave sensor on it and ask?

Thanks to the ingenious programming of Jay Anthony Allen, moral support of Brian Heller, and sample crunching of Preston Wright we can now find out. I have three electrical sensors: a Biowave (brainwave EKG set of electrodes), proximity and turn knobs. These send MIDI data to my laptop that can be mangled and interpreted by a custom MaxMSP patch. The output triggers a few hundred samples derived from our vegetable recordings, hopefully in interesting ways.

Tests so far are promising and whether the human gardener or plant itself are wearing the sensor there is a reaction when the plan is touched. I am tweaking the dials and optimizing the samples so that effect is amplified. I will also try different plants to get better electrical conductivity from their stems and leaves; the small philodendron is fine but maybe a huge Bird of Paradise would be more dramatic. I imagine the xylem flowing up the tubes has some electrical capacity...

Here are some more pics of sound sources we have recorded:
Watermelon drums (tap on the outside and record with a contact mic), or bring the two halves together for that clip-clop effect;
Two boxes of whole grain spaghetti make for a full throated rattle;
Onion skin = super crinkly

Patrick Henry in the Studio and Listening to Soundscapes

2009-05-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

The Patrick Henry Vegetable band has been busy listening, playing and being weirded out by veggie sounds. Over the last couple of meetings we have:
Recorded solos, duets and group performances on:
• rubber floor tiles
• cantaloupe melon drum
• cabbage
• leeks (these greens were unfamiliar to many)
• bok choy
• popcorn rattle
• a rubber band whizzer device and
• a collection of wooden organ pipes.

We listened to a variety of ecosystem sounds (on Wildsanctuary.org):
• Loons on Echo Pond
• Costa Rican Rainforest
• Amazon Jungle
and graphed the sonogram of the sounds and the acoustic niche that each animal inhabits.

We looked at landscape paintings for detail and global images:
Brueghel
Constable
Chinese Scroll painting

We learned about top-down organization (hierarchical) of groups (by having a leader determine when someone should play a sound), and bottom-up (dynamic, when everyone can play whenever they want so long as they listen carefully and communicate).

We listened to a series of recordings that group social-musical interactions into three groups:
ME
ME + YOU
US

ME
whistling in the street
dog barking
Humpback whale
Bobby McFerrin: Blackbird

ME + YOU
Whale + Nightingale (!) duet
Thavil Indian Drum duet
Tallis: 40 Part Motet: Spem in Alium

US
Samoan cicadas and slit log drums
Freshwater pond insects
Arcade sounds

We took the birdsong challenge at Wildmusic.org to identify the thrush songs. Amazing to hear the detail when slowed down, and to watch the sonogram. They are not just chirping up in those spring trees.

Here's the mix

2009-04-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Pending edits, feedback and additions from the Patrick Henry students, here's a stereo mixdown of the 20 channel sound bed for the garden. Remember when it comes out of many widely spaced speakers at ground level it won;t sound so chaotic; more like cicadas, water, wind, geese flying over, and enthusiastic frogs. You get to walk closer to the ones that interest you, so I haven't spent time adjusting the levels here.

Now I have to try exporting the 10 x 2 channel files, stagger them by 5" so they might start all together in synch, and load up my cute Chinese mp3 players (whose batteries wear down after a few hours, so I have to make a backup for each one)

The flowers that spin

2009-04-22T09:37:00.001-07:00

Just came back from the Ordway's Community Breakfast pep rally for the festival. Mark, Angie and I got to test out the prototype of the spinning flowers and they should work in grand style (with a few adjustments).

The Spinning Flowers

2009-04-19T16:32:00.001-07:00

Tests are underway with one of the small prototypes of the spinning flowers, this one with only a 3' radius (the others are 5'). It goes around 6 times per minute on a repurposed softball pitching machine motor.

After dreaming of various mechanisms that could strike a sounding body I settled on the simple golfball on a rope solution. This is about the right impedance match (weight, hardness) for the tone bars to make a decent sound.

There are two types of tones: one a Vietnamese hardwood clapper, the other bamboo tubes from a cannibalized windchime. The two Vietnamese clappers need a hard knock so I made a ramp just before they hit the block to allow gravity to accelerate the ball. Having two such high sharp sounds, one on each machine, should mean they will go out of phase in interesting ways since no two motors are likely to go exactly the same speed all day.

The bamboo tubes are softer and don't need the ramp so are just suspended on old door casings between rubber bands so as not to dampen the vibrations. With a larger flower the edge will travel even more quickly and give a better tone than on this small version. These can be adjusted in height and position to give different rhythms; perhaps they will phase and produce a change-ringing effect like in English campanology.

This is what it sounds like with all seven effects on a single disc (ie no phasing).

Patrick Henry Classes Start

2009-04-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

The first session at Patrick Henry High School (Liz Kotek's 9th Grade music class) was an introduction to my work and ideas. Shelley led the discussion at the end of both classes and the students came up with the following responses:

PATRICK HENRY 1

"I noticed"
Slow in beginning then got faster
funny dancing
change in pace of music
sounded like stepping on leaves, crunching,
horns were loud
different horns came together to make music
scraping sound of instrument and bottles sounding like birds
string instruments
nothing
old lady clothes
a lot of things can make music, even coconuts
flute sounds
headgear (skullphones)
cups used as amplifiers
marimba benches can be sat on and sound like drums

"What did it remind me of?"
ships like beach movie
wind like in Miami beach, comfy
mom's clothing like dance costume
eerie scary jungle movie and scary face
Pinocchio flute sound

"What questions do you have?"
How come up with such ideas?
was it hard?
Did I get paid?
How many did you make?
How long making instruments?
Was it fun?

"What did Philip want to convey?
Show us something never seen before
New things can make music, surprise
Anything is possible
Fish make sounds; that's how they talk to each other
creativity is GOOD
Recycling

PATRICK HENRY 2

"I noticed"
balloons
raindrops
see-through person
flipping papers
bottles
plastic cups
marimba benches
kids screaming
scratching sounds
half invisible lady
different natural materials for sounds
animal growls
no wires making electronic sounds
people making noises
footsteps in field
tigers
saw lost woman spinning and reacting to sound
whistling noises

It reminded me of:
Madagascar movie
zoo birds honking
shark tales

Questions?
Was that a lady?

What did I get out of it?
a taste of music
pay attention to sounds
music can be made out of any materials
music is around you whether you know it or not

Making sounds with vegetables

2009-04-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

As Tom Waits once said, there's a world going on underground. I have been shopping the produce aisle for the Stradivarius potential and been amassing a sound library of veggie voices.

Some of them need a contact mic while others are plenty loud enough to be heard by a regular air mic.

The band so far includes:
Bamboo whirlies
Bok choy creaking
Wooden bull roarer
Cactus needles plucked
Coconut water as picked up by contact mic
Eggplant flapper
Eggplant guiro
Gourd rattles
Melon halves
Millett rattle
Onion skin crackled
Bamboo pan pipes
Pine cone scraped (sounds like mosquitoes being zapped)
Popcorn rattle
Rice Krispies trademark Snap Crackle and Pop
Spaghetti in box rattles (whole wheat, of course)
Water melon tapped by fingers

Next job is to orchestrate their sounds so they complement each other and provide weird and wonderful textures and rhythms that emerge from beneath the whole flower carpet area. There will be 10 parallel mp3 players + speaker systems, totalling 20 channels. The start of each pair will be staggered by 5" so we can get an approximation of synchronization. I am playing with solos and choruses, creating mini dialogs, as well as giant massed textures. Loons, frogs, cicadas, and jungle critters all have different organizations yet live together in the ecosystem in their acoustic niche.

Added to this recorded multi-channel spatial configuration will be the sounds made by the rotating flower beds. I have a couple of bamboo windchimes to deconstruct as well as wooden clappers. Since there will be 5 spinners going around every 10" we will get a constant looping sound from whatever gets placed underneath. Less is more, so I will be experimenting with mechanisms that make clear tones and phase patterns that enliven the space without being too predictable.

Mark and Angie Inscribe a Circle

2009-03-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Mark and Angie at the Park and Rec Board have commandeered a local gym floor to lay out the background for the petals (the flowers themselves are on order from Holland, where else?). It involves geometry and compasses on a grander scale than we ever did at school.

You can also see the shape of the wiggly pathway through the middle. Here is the outline of one of the spinning flowers. More on that soon.

Spinning Flower Beds

2009-02-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

Work has already begun with the five rotating flower beds and here are the motor housing units. They are going to sit under circular boards which are covered in flowers and cause them to spin slowly. Trippy.

Our task is to use them for sound generation and here is what I am thinking for now...

So there will be 5’ diameter boards placed on top of these motor housings, about 12" high and lots of room underneath. Small enough that they won’t need skirting around the perimeter hanging down (but could have...).

My idea is to have at least one rod firmly attached to the edge or the underside of each plinth that could act as a striker when it goes around. I’d work with the students to design simple gear mechanisms that would trip and activate an instrument. For instance, a stone lithophone slab placed outside (or beneath) the edge might be the resonant tone. When the peg approaches it slowly raises a mallet on a pivot that then falls and drops onto the stone (and returns to the original position for it to happen all over again).

This would give the effect of 5 giant clock mechanisms going out of phase but spreading similar sounds across the whole space.

We’d need to make sure the trip mechanism didn’t offer so much resistance as to put too much strain on the motor. At least the pegs could just tickle a suspended (bamboo?) chime that then rattles back into position.

A more elaborate version could make full use of the space underneath by having several pegs across the bottom surface at different radii and stroking tines (rulers on the edge of a desk principal), like a giant music box. Again we’d need to ensure that the smooth rotation of the flower circle is not impeded or made wobbly.

The Singing Garden

2009-02-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

It's already time to gear up for the 2009 Festival and this time the project is to bring a sound element to an Alfombra (flower carpet). It's going to be a fabulous collaboration with Mark and Angie at the City of St. Paul Park and Rec Division and I'll be working with Liz's students at Patrick Henry High School to make sounds using vegetables and natural materials. All under the caring attention of Kirsten and Shelley at the Ordway.

Here's the initial project description that will undoubtedly morph:
THE SINGING GARDEN
Sound installation for Ordway Flint Hills International Childrens Festival, May 26-31, 2009

The Singing Garden is a sound-art installation that musically animates the 50-foot diameter alfombra flower carpet/garden walk located in the street near Landmark Center. Developed in residency at Patrick Henry High School it combines fantasy, research and science to imagine and realize the acoustic potential of plants and vegetables.

VEGETABLE CRITTERS
Speakers hidden inside the flower/petal beds will play sounds recorded by high school students made only using vegetables and plant materials. Battery-operated mp3/CD playback systems will mimic imaginary animal sounds, as though creatures are communicating across the whole space. Visitors will be encouraged to listen carefully and hear the space come alive as though it were a jungle dawn chorus or swamp at dusk.
We will begin the school residency by listening to recordings of some of the bizarre sounds made by birds and animals when communicating. We will explore how language is used in human social interactions and use that as a model for composing the conversations in sound.
We will see examples of music and sound made using vegetables; from the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra to Hmong leaf-blowing (grass-blade buzzing). We will provide vegetables and tools to make a variety of instruments together. Students will also be encouraged to create their own vegetable instruments and practice them for live classroom improvisations and solo recordings. Approximately 10 solos will be recorded, with lots of space and silence between sounds so that when all 10 are played back, they seem to be talking to each other. Each recorded solo (10-15 mins?) will then be encoded on CD or MP3–one for each playback device–placed hidden inside, behind or under the flower structures, and set up to repeat throughout the days of the festival.
In addition to the solo “sound” recordings, we will improvise, compose and record an ensemble of vegetable instruments that will play “music” at regular intervals through the day.
Examples of vegetable instruments include watermelon drums, ginger flutes, carrot and bell pepper trumpets, daikon slide whistles, leek flappers, eggplant guiros, coconut marimba, and jicama ocarinas. These can be made with simple drills and modeling knives and we learn acoustic principles in the process (and can eat the leftovers).
SPINNING FLOWER BEDS
Six of the 8 foot beds will be slightly raised and rotate slowly on motors. With the addition of one or more pegs on the perimeters we have the opportunity to make automated striking mechanisms. We will explore possible designs and materials that will make interesting sounds when a hammer is raised and dropped onto them; perhaps a bamboo rattle, struck gourd drum, stone lithophone, or ratcheted rainstick. We will learn some physics and mechanics with this.
There will be a mosaic bench and copper tree next to the pathway; we will include sounds made by tiles and copper in the recordings played back in those locations.
If topiaries are available, placed around the perimeter, we will hide speakers near them so that they join in the plant conversations.
These recordings will together make a harmonious whole; since birds and animals tune their voices to fill a specific acoustical niche we will also orchestrate our sound varieties so they do not compete for attention.

PLANT MUSIC
We will explore ways to amplify the sounds of living plants themselves through technology:
1. Taking a field trip to the Harriet Island worm compost pile and inserting contact mics to record the sounds.
2. Visiting St. Paul’s Como Conservatory Tropical Exhibit to record micro-sounds of plants and animals.
3. Experimenting with placing contact mics on trees to record the sound of water and nutrients rushing through the xylem (this will vary with the light and weather). This could be a live installation high up in the branches of the birch trees at the site, with listeners wearing headphones to listen to the tree breathing, live.
4. We will experiment with attaching electrodes to philodendron or bird-of-paradise leaves, connected to EKG or GSR sensors that output voltage to a preamp and medical software. This will output MIDI signals to a computer so that people can approach the living plant and touch the leaves to “play” it like an instrument. This is an astonishing phenomenon that shows how plants react to local stimuli and appear to have moods according to how they are treated.
5. We will set up two microphones at either end of a gravel pathway and record people walking and running. These recordings will then be played back at either end of the (non-gravel) path to give the illusion of different materials at visitors’ feet.

HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES
Students may like to demonstrate making vegetable instruments during the festival week and teaching others how to make similar ones, especially those that are quick, easy, and safe to make (eg, a drinking straw oboe reed or buzzed grass blade).
Students are welcome to make plant costumes and hats covered in real moss, flower petals, woven grasses, etc. and wear them during the festival activities or perhaps during a live performance.

TIMETABLE
8-10 school meetings (weekly, after-school sessions, any number of participants)
late-February – May (20-30 contact hours + prep time)

MATERIALS
R&D vegetable purchases for developing instrument ideas
Fresh vegetables supplied for each session.
Carving tools as needed.
10-15 self-powered playback devices: Mp3, batteries, self-powered speakers (waterproof)
contact mics, electrode sensors, software to experiment with plant sounds.
Headphones/amps, cabling
Wooden/metal mechanism for spinning beds
Recording equipment and audio editing
(40-60 hours R&D research time)

Some pics of the Events

2008-06-23T08:19:00.001-07:00

Next, Hollywood

2008-05-30T18:52:00.001-07:00

The applause was (justifiably) wild and everyone went home happy. We had an incredible week as everyone's work reached a climax of perfection. Students, teachers, parents and staff were all proud of the shows that were the culmination of many months planning and dreaming.

You can hear Webster's world premiere of The Phoenix and the Fish and Burroughs's premiere of Jungle Dreaming.

Video will follow when edited.

Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr did a feature on All Things Considered.

WCCO-TV did a brief spot very early one morning and KSTP-Fox 9 too.

Congratulations and thanks to all concerned. Until next time.

Into the Home Stretch

2008-05-20T14:17:00.001-07:00

One week to go until Installation Day and the Rumble Strip is taking (enormous) shape. The poetry is being calligraphed elegantly around the organically-shaped rumble areas. Everything has been glued and painted and the warped plywood has been wetted and flattened, rescuing the whole thing from disaster.

It make quite an impression (and sound).

The Webster poets came up with some watery/sky imagery so their piece now has a name:
The Phoenix and the Fish

We started some bird and fish choreography (it is a school after all)

Burroughs visited last week to try out the actual instruments. Their piece,
Jungle Dreaming
gets very weird in the middle so gives us a good reason to play the Potato Dance (pictured). This involves passing a potato, held in your elbows, from one person to another without dropping it. The winner gets to carry the triumphal pineapple down the Strip.

The whole piece starts with the sounds of raindrops (the ends of the balloon flutes)

Webster Plays Some More

2008-05-02T14:23:00.000-07:00

Listen to Webster as they combine stones, drums and gongs in a thrilling climax.

Philip did a spot on KFAI's Art Matters on 5/1/2008with Marya Morestad to promote the show.

Slowly the works are gaining direction and structure. The Rumble Strip materials have been delivered so much painting will follow...