San Diego Native Garden
A contemplative soundscape created for Emma Parrot’s capstone project, inspired by the flora and ecosystems of San Diego’s native gardens. The piece combines the concept of plant sonification, translating a plant’s natural electrical signals into musical material, with recordings of Kumeyaay songs to create an atmosphere that reflects both the biodiversity and cultural history of the region.
- Directed by: Emma Parrot
- Sound Designer: Jerson Rivas
Listen
Excerpt from the final soundscape
Project Overview
The goal of this piece was to make the garden feel like it had its own voice. Rather than scoring it like a traditional film or theatre project, I treated the plants themselves as collaborators by using their own voices that we got from their electrical signals, and mapped them to gentle melodic and textural layers.
These signals were then mixed together with recordings of Kumeyaay songs and subtle environmental textures to evoke cycles of growth, memory, and land. The result is a slow evolving ambient work that invites listeners to slow down and sit with the living systems around them, rather than simply walking past the garden as background scenery.
If you’re curious about plant sonification more broadly, this article gives a good overview of using plant biosignals to create music: Music from Plant Biosignals (Miller, 2024)
My Responsibilities
- Collaborated with the director to define the emotional arc and pacing of the soundscape.
- Captured and shaped musical material from plant sonification as melodic and textural layers.
- Integrated recordings of Kumeyaay songs with ambient textures and environmental sounds.
- Mixed and mastered the final piece for playback in an installation context.
Technical Notes
- DAW: Ableton Live for editing, sound design, and final mix.
- Plant sonification data translated into MIDI, then routed to soft synths and processed instruments.
- Layered gentle pads, field recordings, and long reverbs to create a spacious, meditative sound field.