The New York Botanical Garden

I sent ferdjax a note after I saw this excellent series of photographs of a gingko tree, hoping fervently that he had taken these shots at the Garden. Alas, he had not. But, there is a happy ending, because they were taken at the Cloisters, and I love the Cloisters, too. So, in the end everyone wins. ~AR

See the full gallery on Posterous

ferdjax:

I am really crushing on the feel of this iPhone photo of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. ~AR

Apparently I was not the only person inside the Garden who was as taken with the video of an LP player making music from a tree cookie. Mia D’Avanza, Reference Librarian/Exhibitions Coordinator for the LuEsther T. Mertz Library was curious enough to call in the scientific big guns, in this case, James P. Ascher, Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and “techy smartypants,” who provided the following explanation:

light sensor (Arduino or otherwise) + Max/MSP (or equivalent, Ld or cSound would work too) + the hardware setup you see + clever programming to translate the light and dark of the wood into interesting MIDI signals + a nice MIDI synthesizer to produce the piano sounds = what you see; that’s why it’s in the dark!

What does “Arduino + light sensor” mean? Mr. Ascher was kind enough to include this video clip with his answer.

Some days I love my job so much. Thank you Mia and James! ~ AR