Noisy Cauliflower

So last week Claire and I quit our jobs as trashdealers and decided to delve into the world of grant writing.



We put together a proposal for large interactive sound installation where participants will work together on a year long sound piece while planting a garden. To do this we are planning on setting up a community garden at a nearby rec center with tools that have been modified to become simple instruments. While we work, our actions will become part of a “score” for the space, which we will broadcast live and also record and archive. We're going to attach contact mics to our shovels, rakes and pitchforks etc. to amplify the sounds they naturally create while in use. Hopefully this will result in something that reads as a really easy to use instrument. Part of the challenge with this piece will be to encourage interaction, and in order to do this I want to make all of the tool/instruments as easy to use and accessible as possible.

We are also planning on installing semi-permanent devices to amplify other sounds in and around the space, such as a microphone in our rock pile to capture the sound of rocks being thrown on it, and rolling down the heap. This will be our sort-of percussion section. One of our more technically ambitious/unrealistic ideas is to amplify the sounds of decay in the garden’s compost heap. Any and all suggestions about how to do this are more then welcome. There is a really killer video that I can't stop thinking about this week, made by a swiss artist called Zimoun, who has made some really amazing sound installations. You can find it here. It really, really tickles me.

If you liked that, I recommend watching this video documenting several other installations by the same artist in collaboration with another artist, Pe Lang. (You may need to let it load all the way before it will give you an image.)

A large part of our project will involve working with the kids at the rec. center, and creating programming and a gardening schedule that will be as accessible as possible to anyone who is interested in working with us. I am excited about this part of the project, and also a little overwhelmed by the idea of coordinating/collaborating with so many people. Claire will probably have to hold my hand a lot.

We want to record as many actions as possible in our garden, and to schedule bi-weekly (or however you say once ever two weekly) community-work-day-performance-sessions. In addition, we are planning two larger event/performances to mark the beginning and end of the season. Most of the initial ground work for the garden will be laid during the first event, our day-long "ground breaking" performance, scheduled for the weekend of May 1st. This will mostly involve the mic-ed tools, shown in prototype form in the video above. I am hoping to allow the needs of the garden to dictate gardener/performers in some kind of loose choreography, which will change in phases as we progress throughout the day, switching tools and tasks.

Towards the end of the growing season we will stage another large performance, in which we will wire plants with resistance sensitive sound circuits so that harvesters will be able to play the plants as they work by creating connections between leaves and their bodies-- like what's happening between Claire and the Cauliflower below.



Today we finished the grant, and also met with a woman who works at the Zaragosa rec. center who might let us use space on their property. This would be great because that would give us a chance to plant our garden somewhere where it could really get some use-- as an activity, a resource and a source of food.

Our friend James (another former trashdealer) has a lot of farming/vegetable growing experience and is working with us on this project. I plan on picking his brain and also driving him crazy with noisy vegetables.

I wanted to share these videos of our prototypes with you guys and hear what you think. This whole idea builds off of the sound broom installation I did in Portland this summer in a lot of ways, with the key difference being that the installation will produce something outside of itself. We are thinking of this as a year long symphony, as well as a way to offer our neighborhood access to a garden and hopefully a rad installation piece.

        If you have any ideas about how to make sounds while growing vegetables, please let me know. 
   
Anyway, maybe we'll get some money for sweet sound equipment, maybe not. Either way I think we're starting some kind of garden. Plus it was really fun to day dream for the last few days about all of the cool toys I would buy with my imaginary funding. A bike trailer was way on that list. Also a really sweet wireless mic system.

And that's the news from Austin!

-Cara

P.S. isn't that cauliflower video really hysterical?