By Kira Grunenberg

A musical concept developed and constructed by creative Scott Garner, the BeetBox explores an idea similar to Disney’s “Botanicus Interacticus” musical plants that we covered back in August. Where things differ and perhaps get a bit more traditionally rhythmic as compared with the ambient sounds of Disney’s flowers, is in BeetBox’s sound emulation of a drum kit. Users are able to tap on the root vegetables and treat the basic gesture like any hand drums. This motion set is somewhat more aligned to the natural way of playing with drums and rhythm in general, as just about everyone has been caught at one time or another, tapping their hands or feet along to a beat heard around them or in their own head.

Garner’s personal aim with this whimsical project is described on BeetBox’s main webpage as…

primarily an exploration of perspective and expectations. [Garner is] particularly interested in creating complex technical interactions in which the technology is invisible—both in the sense that the interaction is extremely simple and in the literal sense that no electronic components can be seen.

BeetBox’s internal mechanics are compact and affordable, while also being highly customizable and complex, given what they are being used for here. Garner mainly utilized two kinds of circuit boards, (MR121 Capacitive Touch Sensor and the “credit card sized computer,” Raspberry Pi), along with a few different types of codes and scripts through Python, Arduino and pygame (the latter for the drum sounds) to form the chain of computer communication that makes the music happen. The box and amplifier Garner used for the beets themselves are impressively self-constructed and this entire project was applied toward two separate academic courses in which Garner was enrolled: “Tech Crafts” and “Materials and Building Strategies.”

Though tapping on beets is not exactly an activity of practical, daily necessity, it serves as yet another display of the widening spectrum of original ideas that could set musicians apart in the coming years -both in their musicianship and in their marketing appeal. Something like BeetBox truly does hide its computer core well, making this household vegetable seem to magically transform into something much more than a side dish.

Hear the rhythm of BeetBox in the video below:

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1

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