Seed Systems: Varigate, Variegated

Matthew D. Gantt's AR experience invites us into a lush but uncanny sound environment contained within a virtual greenhouse. Drawing from the history of generative music, this work channels composer Brian Eno's exploration of process music as bottom-up system like gardening, in which the seeds of emergent structures might grow, rather than a top down system such as architecture in which each and every detail is specified in advance. In this spirit, the digital space of Varigate, Variegated is activated by a series of asynchronously looping sound-and-color structures situated among the synthetic leaves, creating landscape in which complexity emerges from interaction between relatively simple components. This process is mirrored by the digital sounds placed throughout the physical gallery space, blending the virtual and embodied in evolving sonic patterns.