We have started work on our next major project, Cybraphon, which is being supported by New Media Scotland’s Alt-w award. Inspired by early 19th century mechanical bands such as the nickelodeon, Cybraphon will be an interactive version of a mechanical band in a box. Consisting of a series of robotic instruments housed in a glass display case, Cybraphon will behave like a real band. Image conscious and emotional, the band’s performance will be effected by online community opinion.

We’ve set up a dedicated website, www.cybraphon.com, where we will be documenting every stage of the project.

On Saturday 21st in the evening, there will be a performance in the gardens with chinese musicians and dancers, as well as an appearance from experimental pop band, FOUND. Also appearing in the gardens this fortnight is a breathtaking bamboo installation by Susie Brown, Natural Progression. Finally, on Saturday 28th, at 3pm, we’ll be at the Palm House for a Q&A session about the installation.

June 14th-July 13th, 10am-5pm,
Palm House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Entry Free.

EXTENDED FOR FURTHER TWO WEEKS DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND! See review in Scotsman.

Meet the artists: June 28th, 3pm, at the Palm House.

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 installation uses custom built hardware based on two Arduino microcontrollers, taking input from 2 infra-red sensors monitoring motion within the Palm House, and a soil moisture probe. Software on the microcontrollers plays music composed for the installation that reacts to the presence of humans and changes in the soil of the plant beds. The music is performed by 13 robots made up of an ensemble of simple tuned chimes and a large traditional yangqin which has been fitted with 10 robotic bamboo beaters.

The sum of all these parts is a strange combination of traditional and modern, organic and electronic, nature and artifice. Despite being composed in advance, the music will never be exactly the same twice, in part because it will change in response to the environment and audience, and also because the robots are a combination of accurately machined parts (e.g. mechanical solenoids) and natural materials (e.g. bamboo canes).

Come along to the Botanics to see the installation in action during June as part of Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo. In the meantime, here are some photos of the robots being built…

Here’s our venue… the Temperate Palm House in the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh:

And finally, a video of the same piece as the one at the top, when the installation was still under development:

The installation consisted of a table on which various boxes could be placed an moved around by members of the public. The choice of blocks and their location would determine music being played within a quadraphonic sound space. All the elements of the music that the table produced were recorded in the sculpture workshop and its grounds including some of the sounds of the table itself being constructed as well as ongoing work by other artists in the workshop.

In this video, Ziggy plays the table. Throughout the day, the “mood” of the table changes and along with it the types of sounds, music and tempo it plays. Here it is being quite relaxed… A free EP of music from the Etiquette project is available.

On June 21st, there will be a range of performances as part of Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo, culminating in a performance by FOUND in the Palm House, and Ziggy and Simon from Found Electronics will be present for a question and answer session with the public at some point during the installation (TBA).

We hope to see you all there!

Using custom software developed in MAX/MSP paired with a bespoke MIDI controller, we have created a unique audio looping system. This uses two banks of loops, granular synthesis pitch shifting and time stretching (including time freezing), loop-slicing, sequencing, randomised bonkers mode, and a unique drop-cut feature, to allow performers to construct wonky beats, rich harmonies and abstract textures easily live. The emphasis is on creative unpredictability rather than precise control - like everything else by Found Electronics we aim for something that has a mind of its own.

Many future versions of the looper are planned. Watch this space…