The Teapot Trust Elsewhere Garden incorporated an interactive soundscape that enabled visitors to experience the garden and engage with the plants and environment in a totally new way. Visitors got to see and hear things behaving in unexpected ways and had to use their imaginations to figure out what was going on and express how they felt about it. Mirroring the process of art therapy where children and young people are encouraged to explore their emotions about invasive medical procedures and treatments and overcome their fears.

Composer and sound artist Michael Begg and audiovisual artist Kathy Hinde collaborated to create this unique experimental soundscape to bring the garden to life. Sensors, microphones, tiny computers and even an ECG machine, were used to help find the sounds of the Elsewhere Garden, which even responded to touch and sound.

A silent-disco style rig, kindly supported by Silent Disco King, allowed those taking in the garden to listen to three different “layers” of the landscape – “under the ground, just above the ground where the foliage is thick and up in the tree canopy”. Michael said, "Soundscapes, real and imagined, are sampled from each layer of the garden and mix the familiar with the strange and uncanny, inviting us to conjure new narratives and new mysteries in a creative process that echos the power of art therapy to unlock the imagination.”

Michael Begg (Sound Artist) 

Michael Begg is a composer, sound artist and musician. He has completed residencies with the Ocean ARTic Partnership, and Seeing Hearing UK Mexico (CMMAS, Cryptic, British Council Mexico, Anglo Arts). He is also the founder of the Back Glass Ensemble, and an associate artist at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. Michael is presently artist in residence to the EU Marine Board. Awards include the Scottish Award for New Music, 2018.

Kathy Hinde (Audio Visual Artist) 

Kathy is an audio-visual artist who has shown work extensively across Europe, Russia, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, USA, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Awards include an Ivor Novello Award for Sound Art in 2020, an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica in 2015, and a British Composer Award in Sonic Art in 2017, an ORAM award in 2017 and a Scottish Award for New Music in 2018.   

Photography by Murdo Macleod