5. THE GARDEN  The clustering of noise farming and broadcasting machines creates an electronic ecosystem of interactive objects. Chain reactions of activity occur. As one device activates, it triggers – or pollinates – the next. And so on. Complex patterns of image and noise emerge from rhythms and bursts of sound, movement, heat and light. Within each electronic ecosystem, certain devices are usually fixed in one place to sample a particular data flow – the frequency of passing cars, for example. Other devices are regularly moved around so as to isolate, translate or amplify a less consistent feature of the roadside environment. Tuned and tended like garden allotments, each ecosystem has a unique behaviour which reflects how it is maintained. Typically, the plants on the embankment grow up through the floor of the house’s yard space, interacting with the sensors and electromechanical foliage of the noise machines, the synthetic influencing the organic and vice versa. The arrangement of simple building materials in the house’s structure, combined with the electronic ecosystem of noise-farming and broadcasting devices, integrates – rather than isolates – the house with its dramatic roadside site, from outside and inside. Within, a complex range of experiences is available. The air garden above the carriageway and the bunker-core offer experiences at opposite extremes, but between them lies a subtly nuanced domestic landscape where the occupier can enjoy selected and transmuted aspects of the outside world – and, importantly, can influence this aesthetic integration.  Overview
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