Music played by robots who are inspired by plant life

One topic which always interests me is that of the emergence of robots which are able to detect their surroundings, and play unique music as a result, in ever changing patterns and styles. This is what the current robotic music exhibit at the royal botanic gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland does.

Called "Three Pieces", this fascinating exhibit is based around several robotic controllers, which use sensors to detect the changes and movement of life around them, temperature change, and environmental changes in the plant beds around them, to play correspondingly unique songs using traditional Chinese instruments and bamboo canes. This means that all living things in the garden, be they human, animal, or plant life, are what are "conducting" the music, constantly changing the composition to suit the activity of these life forms all around them. Naturally this fits perfectly with the surrounding plantlife, and the feel of the botanic gardens. I just love this idea.

Here is a video of the Three Pieces robotic musical exhibit in action.

The main unit is a traditional Chinese dulcimer, played by a series of individually controlled robotic bamboo sticks. There are also numerous robotic chimes hidden amongst the foliage throughout the garden. Each of these are separate robot musicians, but they communicate, and work together to play the music. This means that as you walk through the exhibit, you are walking through the traditional music composition, which is changing according to your own life form being present also. How freakin cool is that?! Also worth noting, is that while the musical "performers" are digital robots, the instruments they are using are organic - bamboo canes and traditional Chinese percussive/string instruments. This lends another unique angle to the music which is being altered to suit on the fly, all the time.

Apparently while the robots react to humans in their environment, the mood of the music is largely controlled directly by the plant life, which I can understand. Walk in there in the early morning with the simulated tropic environment humid with mist, and you'll hear one mood of the music throughout - while under full sun and perhaps with dryer soil conditions, the music will change to an all together different mood, to suit.

For those who are interested, here is the full article on how this intriguing intuitive robotic musical display was created. Thanks to createdigitalmusic for alerting me to this cool gadgetry.