Tokyo's Technicolor Greenhouse Gives Plants A Voice

Have you ever wondered what vegetables might sound like if given the chance to speak? Or what a disco party thrown by plants might look like? Well, you're in luck. PARTY, a collective of Japanese creatives, has developed a digital, technicolor, touch-sensitive greenhouse in Tokyo’s city-center. Filled with seven types of vegetables, the orchestra-light-show responds with sounds and colored LED lights triggered by the plants you touch. 

In this interactive greenhouse, tomatoes are violins, carrots are trumpets, cabbages are oboes, radishes are flutes, sweet potatoes are pianos, eggplants are harps and pumpkins are clarinets. When one of these plants is touched, the correlating sound is triggered, creating an impromptu orchestra. At the same time, the corresponding lights that lace the roof of the greenhouse are engaged, creating a spectacular, psychedelic light show. 

Titled Digital Vegetables, the idea behind this installation is to stimulate the different senses—touch, sight, hearing, smell—in relationship to the quiet power of plants, "to remind us that plants can be quite exciting, if we take the time to sense and open the imagination," according to Tree Hugger. Digital Vegetables is on display in Tokyo November 5th as part of Design Touch 2017, a month-long design-based event that explores the concept of enjoying design through all five senses.