Interactive Installation - Natural Connection

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Video of the first installation of Natural Connection (with subtitles)

Natural Connection - English subtitles available

Natural connection is an interactive experience that explores, once again, the relationship between technology, nature and the involvement citizens have with their public spaces. Using some basic physical principles such as electric conductivity, a circuit was designed in order to produce sounds when people were touching a hanging plant, called “kokedama”, and walking barefoot over sand, both previously placed inside the installation. Kokedama is a japanese technique to grow plants without the need of a pot. This installation was conceived as an environmental experience, influenced not only by the artificial sound produced by touching the kokedamas, but also by lights and smoke. All of these were part of the elements people could experience during the rout, trying to get participants inside a surreal scenario, made with the combination of nature and technology in the middle of the city. It was designed to break people’s routines and their average everyday occurrences, so that suddenly they found themselves at the center of an unlikely urban experience.

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Conexión Natural es una instalación interactiva que busca reconectarnos con la naturaleza por medio de un dispositivo tecnológico que genera música cuando el cuerpo entra en contacto con las plantas de la instalación. Esta experiencia ha sido desarrollada en diferentes espacios como La Noche en Blanco Bogotá, el Festival Ojo al Sancocho en Ciudad Bolívar, El HYPE Fest dentro del Garden Rave, entre otros.

Queremos llevar esta experiencia a diferentes espacios para permitir a sus participantes una conexión natural con la tecnología, con el cuerpo y con las demás personas.

#AdoptaUnaPlanta

Since we started with Natural Connection, we have been trying to improve it, incorporating new elements and developing the constructions and devices. Makey Makey is a software that already had the circuit designed, it is an arduino microcontroller based board, defined by its simplicity and because it doesn´t need programming. It allows you to connect the ground of the circuit –that is wired and placed beneath the sand- with the button that activates the circuit -located inside the kokedamas and also connected to a wire-. The connection between the ground and the button produces a key pulsation on a computer that, using software like Ableton Live, sets a keymap to assign sounds to each plant, and plays them on a sound system of speakers of various sizes, depending on the space the installation is taking up. To say it more clearly, it is a big scale piano that you play by touching on hanging plants. The project required some improvements on its sound design concept, and that was something that I developed for the project and for other installations.

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Al finalizar la instalación los espectadores tienen la oportunidad de adoptar una planta y llevarla para sus casas

We have done this installation many times, trying to bring it to unconventional spaces, like vulnerable neighborhoods or small towns. We believe that there is a problem of accessibility to art in our country, and that the effects of this experience could get bigger, for instance, we could be bringing an art experience to children that have never been to a museum before. In those spaces, we have tried to build the installations with the people’s assistance, using their help to make the kokedama plants, set the floor, hang wires, and many other tasks, always trying to get them involved as actual actors of the project, so they can enjoy themselves and learn through the whole process.