The Plants
Make music with a marigold. Compose with a chrysanthemum. Listen to some lavender. The Plants is an all-ages participatory organic musical experience, allowing you to touch real plants, play unique organic instruments, and learn to connect with nature.
The Plants are new experimental musical instruments that combine organic matter and bespoke digital sensors developed by creative technology collective, Playable Streets. For the first time, these plant-based instruments are available for the public to play and create new live compositions.
Swelling with textural waves and phasing rhythmic movement, The Plants will be unlike any musical instrument you have ever seen, heard or played. The Plants installation is open to everyone to interact with, explore, and make new collaborative compositions.
Drop by to play, join in a workshop or come along to hear a musical performance.
Play: The Plants is open daily to play from 10am–3pm.
Join a workshop: Monday 23 September and Tuesday 24 September at 11am and 1pm. Limited places available, registration required. (SOLD OUT)
Hear a musical performance: Wednesday 25 September (Ffion Stoakes – cello) and Thursday 26 September (Genevieve Fry – harp) at 11am and 1pm (20 minute duration).
The Plants by Playable Streets is presented by Fed Square as part of RESET.
Workshops (SOLD OUT)
In this workshop, participants will be introduced to Musical Plants and devise ways of playing them to create new musical compositions. Participants will play through a series of creative exercises that explore how this technology works and what else it could be used for. Musical Plants are unique digital instruments made from real living plants! When you connect with the plants and touch the leaves, you control a computer to make your own beautiful and unique melodies. It’s time to be surprised, delighted, and captivated by a magical world of musical plants. No prior musical experience is necessary as Musical Plants is an instrument that is yet to be mastered by anyone! These workshops will involve music-making, drawing, design, and technology.
About Playable Streets:
Playable Streets is a participatory arts company creating invitations to play and collaborate in public places. A collective of theatre makers, composers, engineers, visual artists and interaction designers at the forefront of contemporary arts practice, Playable Streets utilise technology, design, dramaturgy and sound to build environments that encourage norm-bending connections. Playable Streets is driven to investigate ways of building connection, bridging social gaps and confronting perceived differences through experiments in performance and installation. Playable Streets works have toured nationally and internationally, engaging participants of all ages and abilities.