Indablog
News, sessions, and oddities from the Indaba community. Written and curated by Streeter Seidell.
About Streeter
Streeter

Streeter Seidell is a comedy writer and (mediocre) drummer living in Brooklyn, NY. During the day he edits the front page of CollegeHumor.com but when the sun goes down he takes his place at the helm of the Indablog. He maintains a personal blog at StreeterSeidell.com and wants to make sure you know he once wrote something for the New York Times and that it was, in the words of his mother, "Amazing! You're so talented!"

Recent EntriesFeed
Blog Roll
  • David Byrne Journal
    Stop making sense David Byrne. Seriously, you make too much sense to us - it's scary. When are you coming by to hang out?
  • Creative Commons
    If you want to know about IP law - this is the place. CC is defining the cutting edge of music licensing.
  • Lefsetz Letter
    In his own words - "First in music analysis"
  • Wired Listening Post
    One of our favorite places to stay on top of what's happening in the music industry.
  • Create Digital Music
    Fairly relevant to Indaba :)
  • Underrated Magazine
    Our favorite NYC music-scene blog from our favorite CMJer.
  • StereoGum.com
    Super-hip music blog. A must for anyone serious about the NYC scene.
  • The Daily Swarm
    ll the news that fit to print ... about music, that is.
  • Idolator
    Gawker Media's music blog. Perfect if you like a little snark with your music news.
  • That's What Matt Said
    Shameless promotion, we know, but this is Matt's (Indaba Co-Founder) non-Indaba blog and he wants people to read it.
Guest Spot: Matt Siegel

Thursday July 10, 2008 at 07:00 PM

From Matt Siegel's Blog

Plants Can Make Music Too

Yes, yes they can. This story (via Create Digital Music) chronicles an amazing sound installation in Scotland that automatically produces music in response to changing environmental factors associated with plant life in a greenhouse.

A composition for plants, yangqin, bamboo robot and robotic chimes, Three Pieces is designed as a collaboration between robots, traditional instruments, and living things, housed in Victorian Palm House of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. A traditional Chinese dulcimer is played by a robot with many bamboo fingers while the surrounding foliage hides an ensemble of robotic chimes. Despite being separate individuals, the robots communicate and perform together. The robot performers are conducted by all the living things in the Palm House. The moisture content of the soil changes slowly as the plants absorb water, while on a much faster timescale, the temperature changes in the building as animals, including humans, move about. The installation detects this living presence in the Palm House and the music changes accordingly. The robots react to humans, but their mood alters with the plants.

The robots and plants are taking over. Maybe they're mad that we've been killing all of them for so long (the plants, not the robots).


THREE PIECES sound installation from Ziggy Campbell on Vimeo.

Log in to comment on this blog post