Sound Garden Playground

A screen in the center of a table shows a visual display of colorful flowers in rows.
Below the screen are rows of flower-shaped buttons with the same colors

Sound Garden Playground is an interactive installation that creates a semi-structured environment for accessible musical collaboration. It is designed to spark spontaneous play and connection, and lower the barrier to engaging in shared musical experimentation.

Using a turn-based ephemeral looping format, Sound Garden Playground enables participants to make improvised music together regardless of musical background.

On each turn, one of the four participants is asked to engage the buttons in front of them to play notes. Whatever they play is saved and looped over the following turns, until the turn rotation comes back around and they have the chance to record a new part.

Over the course of each turn, buttons light up according to an underlying chord progression, providing a guide for playing parts that fit together while leaving room for free musical expression within a diatonic scale. A screen-based interface mirrors the music, with a visual representation of the underlying chords, looping parts, and notes currently being played.

A mother and young child examine a row of buttons. The child reaches out to press one of the buttons that is lit up.

A child plays with a row of buttons, then moves around the interactive to play with the next row when it lights up.

This project was made in collaboration with Isabel Lee for the ITP class "Cabinets of Wonder". I worked on the interaction design, physical design, fabrication, music/sound, circuitry, and Arduino programming, while Isabel handled designing and coding the visual interface in Unity.

It was presented to the public as part of the ITP Spring Show in 2023.