In the midst of setting up

It shouldn't be 50º and raining today but it is and the flowers don't mind, only the hordes of volunteers putting this all together. So far so good: Plants looks great, speakers in place and beginning to look like toadstools. They sound fine but much more subtle than indoors away from bus engine noises. Tomorrow is perfecting the spinnies and firing up the talking plant.

Lovely story in the Pioneer Press above and below the fold.

Here's the invite to my friends:

Stroll through the Singing Garden and converse with a Talking Plant

Please visit Philip Blackburn’s sound installation this weekend. You will hear a 20-channel soundscape created from dozens of vegetable sounds (from coconut milk to Rice Krispies to acorn squash clarinets); a kind of vegan frogpond at dusk. Don’t miss the spinning flower beds that strike bamboo chimes in a spatial phasing pattern (a safe alternative to LSD). You will notice this all takes place in a colorful 50-foot diameter flower carpet pieced together by the St. Paul Parks Department. Pretty.

Then there’s the Talking Plant. This is a Bird of Paradise plant that has been wired up with a brainwave sensor that spits out MIDI signals from its stalk. J. Anthony Allen wrote the MaxMSP patch to convert those data to trigger yet more vegetable samples (from cactus needles to rubber bands). Amaze your friends by playing the plant like an organic Theremin; it’s an intelligent salad.

This is all part of the Flint Hills International Childrens Festival at the Ordway and throughout Rice Park so bring the family and you’ll find plenty of other stuff to do. All free.

More on the Singing Garden and the Talking Plant:
http://oddsandendsorchestra.blogspot.com/

When:
Friday, May 29-Sunday, May 31
9 am — 4pm

Where:
Landmark Plaza, next to Landmark Center (where the skating rink usually is), Rice Park, downtown St. Paul (take the 5th Street or Kellogg exit from 94)