Whispering Woodlands was an outdoor installation created by TechArtICT. It was installed at Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas from November 2023 through January 2024. The work featured 24 independently controlled sets of speakers and LEDs, all synchronized to create an immersive sound and lightscape. Using eclectic audio ranging from thunder and rain to spaceships and human chants, Whispering Woodlands transformed Exploration Place’s picnic area into a surreal world of beauty, wonder, and awe.
Whispering Woodlands was widely publicized, including this video from Exploration Place:
Videographer Ian Blume also produced an in-depth piece on the work, touching on how the work was created and how TechArtICT functions as a group:
Centered in the installation, an interactive “ghost tree” listened to the sounds participants made into a large microphone. It repeated them back, altered with strange, startling and sometimes humorous effects. The ghost tree is now a permanent outdoor installation at Exploration Place.
Whispering Woodlands featured Wichita artists Ernie Kind, Tom McGuire, Pankaja Withanachchi, Meghan Miller and me. My contributions included building the network and the software that coordinated the sounds and lights. I also built the system that sent the sounds in realtime through the network and I wrote all the software that created the effects in the “ghost tree.” Finally, I directed the installation and served as liaison between Exploration Place and TechArtICT.
