Making music with Plants and Microcomputers:
Cape Cod, November is a prototype sound installation that explores the textures and voices of plants through granular synthesis and sound spatialization. The sound recordings that form the basis of the project come from twigs, pinecones, sage, and lichens I found in Harwich Port, Massachusetts, and used as instruments. My intention in performing and recording the plants was to uncover the unique sounds that their physical structure enables them to produce.
I edited and organized the sounds into five sound banks that I loaded into four Raspberry Pi microcomputers running Happy Brackets (A Java-based creative coding platform designed for network performance and installation work), to set up and implement a granular playback system.
Sound Sources
- Pine Twigs
- Lichen
- Pine Cones
- Sage Brush
- Kalimba (as resonator)
- Violin Bow
Documentation:
For further technical and creative details see the PDF presentation below