PATH
Interactive Sound Zen Garden
PATH is an interactive sound installation exploring how technology can create a reflective garden experience, for people to let go of everyday matters, distraction, overload, and stress. The installation takes the form of Zen garden as a platform, using enabling technologies that respond to the raking motions of its participants. As raking is being performed, sounds emerge in relationship to stones, positions, and motions, to facilitate immersion in the meditative gardening experience.
The ultimate goals of this project are to raise the afterthoughts from its participants about whether the immersion in a simple task of raking can be contemplative and stress releasing to them. In addition, can participants become aware of intentional and unintentional consequences on the landscape from their raking behavior? Furthermore, the installation is an attempt to use technology to overall facilitate our sensations to be more aware of the consequences of human impact on the environment.
To track the position of the rake, infrared emitters were integrated into its design. Two infrared LEDs were embedded at the bottom of the rake, allowing cameras to detect its outline. The distance between the two IR beams reflected the rake’s width, enabling precise tracking.
A PS Eye camera was modified with a processed film to capture only infrared light, enabling blob detection using the OpenCv library in Openframeworks. This allowed the system to track two infrared dots, converting them into X and Y values. These values were then used to draw a virtual line representing the rake on screen, along with its center point to determine its position in the field.
Sound generation was mapped to raking speed, with faster motions producing higher frequencies and chanting pitches. Using IRIS’s MIDI control with Openframeworks, I enabled real-time sound adjustments. To synchronize the generative sound with users’ positions and movements, each rock was assigned a unique sound track and a circular range of effect, triggering the sound when users entered its range.
