Your System is a Garden, Too is a generative & anti-interactive installation that urges patience by inviting participants to become mindful and attentive. Future Deluxe and Antfood collaborated to craft this generative audio-visual installation for Digital Impact, a playground of experimentation exploring the intersection between technology and creativity. 

Stillness in Multi-Sensory Symbiosis  

As soon as you step into Your System is a Garden, Too, you become an integral part of its digital landscape. Here, stillness nurtures growth, while movement prompts retreat.

Visitors interact with four distinct, real-time generative visual habitats, and eight channels of interconnected real-time generative audio. Living flora adorns the digital installation to heighten the multi-sensorial system.

Encouraging stillness counters traditional expectations of interaction within immersive experiences, inviting attendees to contemplate their role in expansive living networks like nature and the universe. As such, the installation serves as a reminder that profound experiences can arise from quieting the mind and letting go of our desire to be in control of ourselves or the world around us.

The installation featured four screens arranged perpendicularly, representing distinct habitats in our digital ecosystem: Bloom, Tree, Grass, and Slime.

The Sonic Challenge

Visually, visitors could focus on only one screen at a time. However, due to the immersive nature of the audio, the soundscapes from the other screens were also audible. To achieve this, Antfood developed an internal framework that allowed our composers to craft soundscapes that not only aligned with each screen's theme but also could be seamlessly integrated into a unified auditory landscape.

The sonic ecosystem featured eight channels; four were dedicated to each habitat's soundscape, while the remaining four were transitional channels, connected to speakers situated between habitats. This setup created a continuous auditory journey and a smooth transition for attendees navigating through the room.

Moreover, visitor interactions produced a cascading effect on the collective auditory landscape. Engagement with one screen didn't just influence its immediate soundscape; it also subtly modified the auditory experience at other screens, creating a dynamic and interconnected sensory environment.