Sound Garden

Dave Griffiths' Al Jazari is an interactive music system in which the paths of robots walking through a geometric space generate music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uve4qStSJq4

This piece was originally commissioned for the Biennale Sevilla in 2008, where it was installed in the Alhambra palace. It would be interesting to discuss a site-specific artwork drawing on the same ideas (using space to generate computer programs that play music) in a formal garden.

One possibility for an outdoor installation in a formal garden might be to locate infrared beam detectors in the flower beds, and use the sequence of crossings to generate an algorithmic description played from a speaker in a more sheltered location. The installation could use an inexpensive embedded computer (such as the Raspberry Pi), located in the same location as the speaker, and with a wireless network connection. The visualisation of the algorithm, and description of its behaviour (perhaps as well as user-codeable variations) could be available to the public via an HTTP server running on the embedded device.