Proceedings of ICAD 04-Tenth Meeting of the International Conference on Auditory Display, Sydney, Australia, July 6-9, 2004

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REEDS - A RESPONSIVE SOUND INSTALLATION

Dr Garth Paine

Head of Programs, Electronic ArtsSenior lecturer in Music Technology

University of Western Sydney, School of Contemporary ArtsUniversity of Western Sydney, Australia

ga.paine@uws.edu.au

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the responsive sound installationReeds. The Melbourne International Festival of the Artscommissioned the Reeds project in 2000, for exhibition on theOrnamental Lake at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.It consists of twenty-one large floating sculptures1, modeled torepresent clusters of river reeds in immaculate man-madeplantings. Each reed pod2 contained a collection ofelectronics for either the gathering of weather information orthe reception and dispersion of sound. The sound installationgathered data from two realtime weather stations, andproduced eight channels of musical output by interpreting themachine unit pulses of the weather data as pulse inputs toInverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) algorithms. The Reedsproject focused on a consideration of multiple streams ofchaotic and constantly varying sound. I was interested inexploring whether the sonic environment would remainhomogenous even though, unlike a musical ensemble, thecontrol inputs varied randomly and independently of eachother. The sound installation was site specific, reflectingdirectly upon the environment it inhabited, both in terms of itsvisual quality, and aesthetic of the sound.

1. INTRODUCTION

For some years now, my artistic practice has been dividedbetween composition and interactive sound installation work.Within the composition work I have often applied interactivetechniques when working with dancers or even seekingmaterial at early stages of composition. Whilst the computerhas had a profound effect on the practice of electroacousticmusic, I personally feel the greatest paradigm shift has comethrough the application of the computer as a facilitator inresponsive and interactive engagement, and more specificallywithin this forum, the scope for realtime sonification ofbehavioral data through the abstraction of the source of sonicexcitation from the sounding body. This extraordinary changehas led to a new way of contemplating sound installation sothat both the content and the temporal form of the workremain in flux, at the mercy, and under the control of theinteractive, responsive process.

In 1998, the virtual reality and interactive installationartists Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau expressedsimilar thoughts when discussing the development of theinteractive digital arts:

1 The sculptural elements were fabricated by Christopher Langton from concept

drawings by the artist, see Figure 3 Plan view.

2 The term “reed pod” is used to define the sculptural elements of the Reeds project.

. . .the art work . . . is no longer a static object or a pre-defined multiple-choice interaction but has become a process-like living system. [1]

The Reeds sound installation explores the potential ofmultiple, random, continuous control inputs that have aninternal chaotic structure. By this I mean that therelationships between the various controllers is in a constantstate of flux. In a previous responsive sound installation,MAP23, I had used video sensing4 to create a responsive,interactive sound environment that was driven by themovement and behavior patterns of those within it. In MAP2,I created four independent sensing and sound synthesis zonesby dividing the horizontal video sensing field into quarters.The four zone outputs were not interlinked or under thecontrol of a common influence, their relationship was chaotic.Different associations could generate separate audio streamsin each quadrant of the space without affecting each other inany way other than the general aesthetic of the combinedoutcome. The combined sound was not unpleasant to listento, even though there were up to twelve distinct soundelements occurring together (each zone had three realtimesynthesis algorithms, that were dynamically engagedaccording to the dynamic and position of activity as well asthe direction and speed of movement in the space). Thesesounds were drawing from a common algorithmic pool, andtherefore a common aesthetic base, but there were differencesin the filter set up for each of the zones, which causedanything from subtle to marked timbrel differences,representing substantially different spectra, which seemed towork together very well.

The sonic outcomes from MAP2 encouraged a furtherexploration of chaotic multi-modal responsive sound systems.The logical extension was to find a multi-dimensional controls o u r c e t h a t e m b o d i e d t r u l y c h a o t i c

3 I n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t M A P 2 c a n b e f o u n d a t

http://www.activatedspace.com.au/Installations

4 I have most ly used the Very Nervous System (VNS) see

http://www3.sympatico.ca/drokeby/vnsII.html

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Figure 1 One of three groups of seven reed pods that made up the Reeds exhibition at the Royal Botanic GardensMelbourne, Ornamental Lake, during the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts in November and December 2000

inter-relationships, and would change rapidly, slowlyand unexpectedly but within a defined overall range.

The weather seemed the most suitable candidate, as:The conditions can change rapidly, especially in thespring, the season during which Reeds was firstexhibited5.

1.1. Selection of Sensed Phenomenon

The weather conditions have a natural range (it isunlikely the temperature will exceed 50 degreesCelsius in Melbourne, Australia nor the wind speedexceed 150 mph), so the characteristics of eachsynthesis algorithm could be developed to respond to aknown range of conditions.The macro and micro level structures of variationwould provide diverse possibilities for sonification.

The selected weather parameters revealed inherentlydiverse temporal structures and distinct overall rangesof activity. The independence of each parameterwould provide dynamic orchestration options[2, 3].

These were important considerations whencontemplating the generation of musical/soundoutcomes[4].

5 Reeds was adapted for gallery showing, resulting in PlantA and PlantB,

both exhibited many times in Australia and the UK

Choosing suitable weather characteristics was in itselfa difficult task, conditioned by the availability ofsensors, their individual cost, and a consideration ofthe structure of each sensor’s data output as discussedabove. Sensors for the measurement of rainfall andleaf wetness were of interest but would have provedunstable when installed so close to a large body ofwater. With the exception of rainfall, I chose to focuson weather phenomena that directly relate to thegrowth patterns of plants. Two weather stations wereinstalled in reed pods, sensing: wind speed, winddirection, temperature and solar radiation.

The sound synthesis was driven by both the directinput from each of these sensors, and the differencebetween the two weather stations, which although notfar apart (10 meters) often reported markedly differentconditions.

1.2. Artistic Context

Whilst the exploration of simultaneous chaotic controlinputs, and their mapping to sonic outcomes was theprincipal motivation for the creation of Reeds, myartwork is always contextualized within a broaderconsideration of the human condition. The Reedsproject was no exception, exploring the relationshipbetween the weather conditions as the provider of thefoundations for biological growth, and the paradoxbetween the apparently static façade of most plants,and their immense power, symbolically expressed by

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Figure 2 The Reeds life cycle.

the weed that pushes its way up through a foot path,which to us is impenetrable.

2. PATTERNS OF RELATIONSHIP

In keeping with my humanist perspective, thetechnological structure of the Reeds installation isbased on the concept of the organic life cycle. Thisdesign approach mirrors the cybernetic principal of theclosed causal loop.

Figure 2 The Reeds life cycle

I have taken the liberty of transplanting NorbertWiener’s, principles of social systems organisation [5]into the plant ecosystem. The conceptual and resultingtechnological design of the Reeds installation isfashion around the idea that such a system implementscontinuous and dynamic cyclical process ofcommunication, feedback and rejuvenation.

I propose that the patterns of relationship in aninteractive, responsive sound installation are madeexplicit and coherent through many iterations of theclosed causal loop discussed above, each onerendering the nature of the relationship with greaterdetail. It was exactly this sense of coherence that Iwas seeking to test in the Reeds project.Would this soundscape maintain such a sense eventhough the control inputs would be dynamic andchaotic?Would the sonic landscape generated by the weatherconditions make explicit “ a coherent underlyingpattern”?In this sense I was very interested to see whether thecybernetic mantra “the whole is greater than the sumof the parts” would be proven by the musical outcomebeing both coherent, engaging and perceptibly relatedto both the current weather conditions, and themomentary changes of the meteorological states in theimmediate vicinity of the sound installation.

The sound synthesis software consists of a number ofmusical algorithms, producing eight channels of

digital audio. These eight channels of sound (whichdiffused from the reed pods) were then broadcast ashigh quality stereo audio back out to the reed pods.The return of the audio signal to the reed pods, and itsdispersion to the listener, observer, spectatorcompletes the life cycle (Fig. 2).

2.1 Collection of Weather Data.

As mentioned above, each of the two weather stationsreport four pieces of weather data:

• Wind Speed• Wind Direction• Temperature• Solar Radiation

This data was collected using custom built weatherstations comprising sensors manufactured by DavisCorporation6, and data processing, transmission andreception units designed specifically for this project byMicroscan7, Australia.

Figure 3 Reed pod plan view

The weather sensors output a sliding voltage scale,representing their current state, with the exception ofthe wind speed sensor, the output of which iscalculated on the basis of the number of rotations per1.25 milliseconds (one rotation equals 1.00615 metersof air movement). A data processing board, inside thereed pod hosting the weather station, converts this datato an ASCII data set in the form:

6 Davis Corporation weather station and sensor product

i n f o r m a t i o n c a n b e f o u n d a t

http://www.davisnet.com/weather/products/index.asp

7 Microscan, see http://www.microscan.com.au

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Battery Voltage, Temperature, Solar Radiation,Wind Direction, Wind Speed

This data set is transmitted by the weather station onceevery ninety milliseconds to a land based receiver,which, having performed a checksum to ensure dataintegrity, pipes the data into a Macintosh computer asRS2328 data.

2.2 Weather Data Analysis

The weather data is fed into a software application,developed in Max (Fig. 4), that analyses the incomingdata and dynamically scales it, before passing theresult in the form of MIDI Continuous Controllermessages to a SuperCollider patch, containing sixaudio synthesis algorithms.

A sub-patch of the Reeds Max patch polls the serialport every ninety milliseconds to collect the incomingserial data from the weather stations. The weatherdata is transmitted as machine units, which have arange set by the manufacturers, of 0 to 4095.

The machine units were converted into weathermeasurements in order to get a clear understanding ofthe range of weather activity.

It was important to gauge the maximum and minimumrange for each weather characteristic in order to scalethe synthesis processes appropriately, in this sense themachine units were meaningless. The conversion ofthe data to standard units of measure (degrees Celsius,wind speed in meters per second, etc.) had the benefitof providing minimum and maximum measurementsto the user interface, which were used to makesubjective judgments about the timbral quality of thesound synthesis when equated to the dynamic ofweather activity. The scripting language Pyrite9 wasused for this purpose.

Having the ranges displayed in the user interfaceprovided an historical view of the day’s activity andassisted in setting the range of variation the soundsynthesis software should address in order to get thebest resolution of change in the audio timbres.

The sound synthesis algorithms were mostly based onFast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Inverse Fast FourierTransform (IFFT) algorithms.

8 RS232 was developed in the 1960s and specifies a serial data

communication protocol.

9 Pyrite is a scripting language, developed by James McCartney that runs

inside Cycling7 MAX.

Figure 4 The top level Max patch for the Reeds project.

2.3 Sound Synthesis

As mentioned above, the realtime sound synthesis wasachieved using a SuperCollider patch10 that directlymapped the machine units from the weather sensors aspulse inputs to Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT)and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) techniques.

Each of the instrument algorithms in Reeds isallocated one or more of the weather data streams (eg.instrument one uses wind speed and solar radiationfrom weather station number one) that controlvariables within the algorithm, thereby changing thepitch, texture or intensity of the sound. Instrumentsone and two (sig1, sig2) produce a stereo signal that isdynamically panned across the installation, whilst theother four instruments (sig3, sig4, sig5, sig6) producea single audio channel. The audio is directed to theeight analogue audio outputs of an ASIO11 compatiblemulti-channel digital audio interface12.

Each of the sound algorithms produces differingtimbres. They are designed to augment one another,and to produce a range of timbres from gentle, waterdrop like sounds to roaring wind like sounds. Thesound is generally mapped to make the density ofsound follow the wind speed, and the weight of sound(pitch for instance) follows the solar radiationreadings, with filter settings varied according to thewind direction and temperature characteristics.

The relationship between the momentary weatherconditions, and the sonic outcome is crucial. Thesystem must preserve the nuance of eachmeteorological gesture. It is my view that this can

10 Developed with assistance from Graeme Gerrard

11 ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output), developed by Steinberg, is a cross-

platform, multi-channel audio transfer protocol ASIO is a trademark of

Steinberg http://www.steinberg.net/en/

12 S u c h a s t h e D i g i d e s i g n D I G I 0 0 1 -

http://www.digidesign.com/products/digi001/ o r M O T U 8 2 8

http://www.motu.com

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only be done by using realtime synthesis. Thetriggering and collaging of pre-recorded material maybe able to represent the macro level meteorologicalactivity, but it cannot enunciate the intricate nuance ofunique moments, for surely the exact combination ofmultiple weather parameters is unlikely to be repeated.How then can a finite sound pallet suffice as a trueexpression of momentary phenomena? Two otherinstallations approach the sonification of weather data.Owain Rich’s WeatherPlayer13 generates a RealPlayeraudio stream twenty-four hours a day, seven days aweek. The audio stream is made algorithmically bymixing pre-recorded audio samples in accordance withcurrent sensor readings. Similarly, Natasha Barrett’sDisplace:Replace II14 generates its score by triggeringfour and eight channel audio files for playback in anambersonic cube. The audio files are mapped inintensity to threshold bands, but serendipitously, thesemappings are augmented by the control computer ifthe weather does not change for four minutes, andcompletely recomposed if there is no change for thirtyminutes.

Conversely, it was clear when observing the Reedsinstallation, and even more so in the galleryinstallation PlantA (which uses the same technology)that what appeared to be static weather conditionsestablished a deep listening opportunity. There wasalways some variation, no matter how small, in thesolar radiation or one of the other sensors. Thesemicro-scale variations, whilst they may not besufficient to create changes in Owain or Barratt’sscore, are reflected in the realtime synthesis output ofReeds and PlantA, and in fact it becomes increasinglyseductive to listen on a more and more subtle level,delving increasingly into the microscopic plantdomain.

More detail on the sound mapping approach will begiven later in this paper.

2.4 Broadcast

The audio signals produced by the SuperCollidersoftware were fed to four Sennheiser EW300 In-EarMonitor15 transmitters. The EW300 transmitters eachbroadcast stereo audio of high quality. SennheiserEK300 stereo receivers, installed in six of the reedpods receive the broadcast signal (each receiver has itsown reception frequency matched to one of the fourbroadcast frequencies (each carrier frequency hostinga stereo signal)). The stereo signal of each receiver is

13 See http://www.weatherplayer.com for further information

14 See http://www.notam02.no/~natashab/dr2/displacedII.html for further

information

15 The Sennheiser EW300 is designed to transmit foldback signals directly

into the ear of a musician for the purposes of stage monitoring. See

http://www.sennheiser.com

then separated into its two mono components, whichare fed to the two adjacent reed pods. See Figure 5below for details of the channel allocation andspatialisation.

Figure 5 The sound diffusion audio channel allocationfor Reeds

2.5 Diffusion

Each sounding reed pod contains a battery powered40-Watt amplifier. The amplifier feeds fiveloudspeakers: one ten inch full range (20Hz – 20KHz)Misco waterproof loudspeaker, (built into a hat on topof the reed pod) and four small 40 mm speaker drivers(clipped to the reed stems) which are fed via acrossover, to ensure they only receive signals over2000Hz. The main speaker carries the full rangesignal, whilst the smaller 40mm drivers carry the highfrequency material that give the crisp edge to thesound. The speakers are placed in a position thatallows the sound to bounce across the water surface.

The eight channels of sound were dispersed across thereed pods so that panning either of the stereo signals(sig01, sig02) would cause the sound to travel acrossthe installation space. This was achieved by allocatingthese audio channels to loudspeakers in different reedpod clusters, spreading the stereo signal across theinstallation, which created a sense of movement, ofsound journeying across the installation space, andalso helped to establish homogeneity of the soniclandscape of the entire installation. The other foursynthesis instruments output mono channels. Theywere grouped according to their timbrel quality so thatthe texture of the soundscape varied as one walkedaround the shore from one side of the installation tothe other.

The numbered dots in Figure 6 show a bird’s eye viewof the sounding pods, and their audio outputallocation, and Figure 7 indicates the allocation ofsynthesis and audio channels.

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Sig01 Output 1, Output 2 1, 2Sig02 Output 3, Output 4 3, 4Sig03 Output 5 5Sig04 Output 6 6Sig05 Output 7 7Sig06 Output 8 8

Figure 6 Synthesis and Broadcast Channels.

Given the cybernetic, social and ecological contextwithin which this piece was designed, it was importantnot only to set the amplitude of the sonic outcomes sothat the installation became part of the landscape[6, 7],but it was equally important to develop synthesisalgorithms that reflected in some way an extension ofthe sounds that already existed within theenvironment. The natural soundscape for the lake inthe Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, consisted of a widerange of bird sounds (calls, landing on water, fightingetc), the sounds of people at the cafe and walkingaround the lake, children playing, trucks and cars onthe expressway on the other side of the Yarra river,small boat horns, overhead aircraft, and other lessfrequent momentary sounds.

These considerations left me with two almostirreconcilable intentions:1 To directly convert the machine unit outputs from

the sensors into musical material using FFT andIFFT techniques, and

2 To create sonic timbres that reflected the existingsonic landscape of the site.

This conundrum was resolved through carefuladjustment of the way in which the sensor data wasmapped to the sound algorithm parameters, asdiscussed below. Additionally, I applied variousfiltering approaches to make sure that the timbres ofthe sounds were rich and engaging whilst neverbecoming harsh or repressive.

Two trials were undertaken at the Botanic Gardensover the six months prior to the exhibition, involvingsingle reed pods. A further trial was undertaken withone group of seven reed pods on site for a week,approximately six weeks prior to the final exhibitionin order to test the scale of the sculptural elements andthe sound spatialisation principles I had developed.The trials provided an opportunity to test the soundmaterial in situ, and created an occasion to test theweather patterns on site (i.e. the range of variation),and the way in which these weather characteristicscould best be scaled to create engaging andperceivable variations in the sonic landscape. Oneparticularly interesting outcome of the trials was thediscovery that sound algorithms developed in thestudio did not carry well in the outdoor context. Itwas clear that whilst a great deal of design and testingwork could be done offsite, the final sound algorithmdevelopment and the refinement of the mappings ofthe weather data to the sound synthesis algorithmswould need to be done on site.

In consideration of the needs of the wildlife for whichthe Botanic Gardens’ lake is home, each reed pod thatcontained audio equipment was fitted with lightsensitive switches so that they turned on at dawn andoff at dusk, thereby conserving battery power, andallowing the wildlife the tranquility of the night.

3 DATA-SONIC MAPPING

The weather data was mapped to the six soundsynthesis algorithms in such a way that the incominghigh-resolution pitch bend MIDI data could be re-scaled to suit the sound synthesis parameter to whichthe weather characteristic was being mapped. Thisflexibility provided the opportunity to quickly andeasily alter the response patterns of the synthesisalgorithms dependant on the range of weatherconditions being experienced, which could clearlyalter from site to site and from season to season. Italso provided the opportunity to experiment on sitewith different mappings of weather characteristics tosynthesis parameters, which proved invaluable whenfinalising the synthesis algorithm design. Thesemappings were achieved within Supercollider asfollows:

// weather station 1: temperature; mapped to sig3: src1in1Args = [1, 10, 2000, 'exponential', 1];

// weather station 1: solar radiation; mapped to sig1:centerFreq;in2Args = [2, 100, 8000, 'exponential', 1];

// weather station 1: wind direction; mapped to sig1:clockRate;in3Args = [3, 1, 200, 'exponential', 1];

// weather station 1: INVERSE wind direction; mapped tosig2: amp3 - varies amplitude envelopein3Args1 = [3, 20, 1, 'exponential', 3];

// weather station 1: wind speed; mapped to sig2: src1in4Args = [4, 2, 1000, 'exponential', 1];

// weather station 2: temperature; mapped to sig3: srcin5Args = [5, 10, 100, 'exponential', 1];

// weather station 2: temperature; sets the amplitude in sig3 ininverse proportion to impulse frequencyin5Args1 = [5, 8, 4, 'exponential', 1];

// weather station 2: solar radiation; mapped to sig4: srcin6Args = [6, 10, 10000, 'exponential', 1];

// weather station 2: wind direction; mapped to sig5: srcin7Args = [7, 20, 160, 'linear', 1];

// weather station 2: wind speed; mapped to sig6:Impulse.ar(freq);in8Args = [8, 0.2, 2.0, 'linear', 1];

All of the sound algorithms used FFT or IFFTsynthesis methods. The idea was to auralise the timedomain information coming from the weather stations,i.e. current wind speed, solar radiation, wind direction

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and temperature. This mapping converted the changesin weather conditions into the impulse rate used as thesource for the IFFT stage. The impulse rate is themain characteristic in defining the IFFT output. It isdefined as follows in sig3 (the third instrument):

// inverse transformout = IFFT.ar(fftsize, 0, cosineTable, nil, window, src, 0);

where src is provided by the temperature sensor onweather station 2.

The weather characteristics were chosen both for theirimportance to plant life (they are the maincharacteristics that define the growth rate of plants,with the exception of rain), and for their compositionalvalue.

Wind speed and wind direction change dynamicallyover large ranges in very short periods of time. Smallgusts can swing through 360 degrees, and rangewidely in speed.

Solar radiation changes in a much more gradual way.I had expected the solar radiation to be the most docilevariable, changing very gradually over the duration ofthe day, remaining high during the peak sunshinehours and then diminishing. I had thought that thesolar radiation would define the form of the entire day,creating a kind of pedal point for the other moredynamic variations. During the testing periods, I wasgreatly surprised to find that the solar radiation was infact one of the most dynamic variables. Clearly thehuman eye constantly adjusts for variations in solarradiation, something a scientific sensing instrumentdoes not do. Cloud movement, and other changes inthe weather saw the solar radiation constantly slidingup and down its range. Obviously, some days weresunnier than others, and therefore the range ofmovement was generally higher on those days thanwhen the skies were overcast, but the dynamics ofchange were consistent in all weather conditions.Unlike the wind characteristics, solar radiation neverjumped from one point to another, it moved smoothlyup and down in a step like manner.

Figure 6 One of the original concept drawings for Reeds.

Temperature, as I had expected, changed gradually,moving up and down in small sequential steps.Temperature was the most graceful of the weathercharacteristics being sensed for the Reeds project,generally forming an envelope shaped by coolevenings, cooler nights, followed by risingtemperatures during the day as the sun heated theearth, followed by a reduction in temperature leadingtowards dusk and into the night.

As indicated above, the weather characteristics wereselected in the hope that they would have differingtemporal structures, the compositional intention beingthat the more gradual, step like features (temperatureand solar radiation) would provide a gradually varyingunderscore on which the faster changing features(wind speed and direction) would add points ofinterest and orchestration dynamics. An audio sampleof the installation sonification can be heard on theInternet16

4 CONCLUSION

Reeds continued my exploration of organic, naturalcontrollers for interactive sound installations[8],providing a platform for the testing of multiple,chaotic controllers[9-12], working simultaneously togenerate a soundscape which continued to draw on thedynamic orchestration principles I had developed inmy previous interactive environment installations,MAP1 and MAP2.

Reeds also illustrates an ongoing interest in makingthe technology invisible. I went to great lengths todevelop battery-powered amplification and broadcastsystems, so that the reed pods were entirely self-contained, displaying no obvious source (except forthe weather stations and the small high-frequencyloudspeakers) for the sounds they emitted. Mymotivation was to ensure the aural experience was theprimary outcome, and not to display the technicalwizardry, computer programming and hardwaredevelopment that had made the project possible. Inkeeping with my intention to reflect on the humancondition, I believe it is important to hide thepragmatic achievements inherent in realizing aninteractive work like Reeds, and indeed the challengeof writing articles like this is to go beyond thetechnological developments and communicatesomething about the artistic intention.

I visited the Reeds installation at the MelbourneBotanic Gardens every day, and as the exhibitionoccurred during the season of spring, observed a widerange of weather patterns. I noted, for instance,situations where the sunshine and temperature werehigh, but the wind speed was almost non-existent; bycontrast, there were similar temperature and sunshine

16 http://www.activatedspace.com.au/Installations/Reeds/ReedSound.html

(04/05/04)

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levels on days when the wind contained strong gustsand violent changes of direction. All of theseprovided very different sonic outcomes. It wasobvious, if one sat and watched the installation foreven a short time, that the changes in the weatherstations (you could easily see the anemometer) causedvariations in the musical output; pitched notes becamemore noise like as the wind increased, and/or the pitchrose with increased solar radiation intensity. Many ofthe relationships were very subtle, but werenevertheless perceivable if one spent sufficient timeobserving the installation.

From the perspective of musical composition, it wasuseful to consider the different temporal structuresassociated with each of the weather characteristics inReeds. The different rates of change of each of theweather inputs helped create homogeneity in thesoundscape. It was aurally pleasing to have someelements that changed rapidly and others that evolvedslowly. I started to consider how this approach mightbe applied in combination with dynamic orchestrationtechniques17 to generate a more richly evolvingsoundscape within interactive, responsiveenvironments.

On my many visits to the installation at the BotanicGardens, I often discuss the public’s reaction to theReeds installation with the Botanic Gardens staff, andon occasions discussed the work directly withmembers of the public. Many people enjoyed thework as a novelty, but some visited it regularly,observing, as I did, the changing weather conditionsand the subsequent variation in the sonic landscape.For these people the repeated experience did seem toprovide a point of contemplation, a catalyst forthinking about their place in the world, the beauty andsplendor of the organic environment that surroundedthem, and more immediately, the noises that surroundthe site; the appropriateness of the freeway on the farside of the Yarra river at the bottom of the BotanicGardens, the incessant noise of aircraft overhead, orthe sounds of the different bird calls, the splashes ofthe ducks and waterfowl landing on the water, thesquawks of the birds fighting for pieces of bread thatchildren fed them from the shore, or, on a peacefulafternoon the shear tranquility of the environment, thestillness, the sense of suspended animation as thetwilight settled into dusk. These outcomes,unquantifiable as they are, and by no means empiricalevidence, suggest that my artistic intentions had beenmet. They also hint at the potential for soundinstallation works to act as a conduit to consider andre-evaluate the nature of the world of which we arepart.

17 Paine, G, “Interactivity, Where To From Here”, Organised Sound 7.3,

2002

5 REFERENCES

[1] Sommerer, C. and L. Mignonneau, eds. Art@ Science. 1998, Springer-Verlag: Wien.

[2] Smalley, D., Spectro-morphology andStructuring Processes, in The Language ofElectroacoustic Music, S. Emmerson,Editor. 1986, Macmillan: New York. p. 61-96.

[3] Emmerson, S., ed. The language ofelectroacoustic music. ed. S. Emmerson.1986, Macmillan: New York. 231.

[4] Keane, D., ed. At the Threshold of anAesthetic. ed. S. Emmerson. 1986,Macmillan: New York. 116-122.

[5] Wiener, N., Cybernetics. 1948: MIT Press.[6] Schafer, R.M., The thinking ear: Complete

writings on music education. 1986, Toronto:Arcana Editions.

[7] Schafer, R.M., The soundscape: Our sonicenvironment and the tuning of the world.1993: Rochester, VT: Destiny; 1993.

[8] Bandt, R., Sound Sculpture. 2001, Sydney:Craftsman House.

[9] Bongers., B., Physical Interfaces in theElectronic Arts. Interaction Theory andInterfacing Techniques for Real-timePerformance., in Trends in Gestural Controlof Music. 2000, IRCAM - Centre Pompidou:Paris.

[10] Brown, R., Biotica, Art, Emergence andArtificial Life. 2001, London: RCACRDResearch Publications.

[11] Chadabe, J. The Limitations of Mapping as aStructural Descriptive in Electronic Music.in NIME 2002. 2002. Dublin:MediaLabEurope.

[12] Cook, P. Principles for Designing ComputerMusic Controllers. in NIME-01 NewInterfaces for Musical Expression. 2001.

Internet References[13] Owain Rich’s WeatherPlayer

http://www.weatherplayer.com 01/07/03[14] Natasha Barrett’s Displace:Replace II

http://www.notam02.no/~natashab/dr2/displacedII.html01/07/03

[15] Garth Paine’s Installationshttp://www.activatedspace.com.au 06/02/04