TechArtICT creates immersive sound and light environment outside Exploration Place
For the next two months, visitors to Exploration Place can experience a soundscape among the grove of sweetgum trees just outside the science center in downtown Wichita.
Five local artists and engineers from the TechArtICT collective imagined, created and installed the immersive sound and light environment Whispering Woodlands. Visitors reach the installation by crossing a bridge used mostly as an emergency exit from Exploration Place to the west bank of the Arkansas River. They step off the bridge into the area typically used as a picnic grove, now temporarily fenced, and will hear a randomized rotation of sound modes coming from 25 trees. A speaker and LED lighting controlled individually are incorporated into each of the 24 trees as well as the ghost tree, a 25th tree fabricated and installed in the middle.
“Some are soundscapes that we love and some are soundscapes we think kids will love, and of course there’s great overlap there,” said John Harrison, a musician and engineer who founded the TechArtICT collective in May 2022. “We have different kinds of space sounds, we have a rain and a thunderstorm and a Gregorian chant. The LED lights complement the sounds and then react to the sounds.”
The interactive element of the Whispering Woodlands experience centers on the ghost tree, which has six microphones to capture and mimic what visitors speak.
“This is where you can interact with the sounds that you’re hearing,” Harrison said. “You go up and speak to the ghost tree or ideally sing because then it can really see a pitch and react. It takes your voice and within two seconds it mimics what the environment sounds like. For example, with the space sound mode there is a robotic sound that their voice gets changed into.”
Harrison, who serves as TechArtICT’s director, said the collective hopes Whispering Woodlands inspires a sense of wonder and awe for visitors of all ages. This is the fourth installation by TechArtICT since it formed. Rotating artists and engineers are involved, and those who conceived Whispering Woodlands include Ernie Kind, Tom McGuire, Meghan Miller and Pankaja Withanachchi along with Harrison. To learn more about other upcoming projects by the collective as well as individual projects by the resident artists, visit techartict.org.
The group plans to see how visitors react to Whispering Woodlands and continue to evolve the experience over the next 60 days.
“The way we thought about this was that it is a platform where we’re able to network 25 sounds independently, able to have the LEDs react to the sounds and we have mappings of how that works,” Harrison said. “And now the sky’s the limit. We can find more sounds and try more effects with the LEDs as we evolve.”
While Whispering Woodlands is an extension of Arctic Adventure, Exploration Place’s indoor polar playground, visitors should not expect holiday lighting in the installation. Whispering Woodlands offers an interactive auditory experience day and night, though visiting close to dusk and later offers the full effect of the lighting. Arctic Adventure and Whispering Woodlands opened Nov. 10 and run through Jan. 7. They are included with general admission to Exploration Place: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $10 for youth and free for ages 2 and under. The science center is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and will stay open until 8 p.m. on Nov. 16 and 30; Dec. 7, 14, 21-23, 26-30; and Jan. 4.
