Wobble Garden

Wobble Garden is a hand-crafted arrangement of sensing springs combined with reactive lighting. Players wobble springs to interact with the installation and play games. It creates a unique visual and tactile experience and is scaleable to a several meter large installation.

Wobble Garden has won the Audience Award at the A MAZE Festival Berlin 2018! Yay!

I've now built a large version of Wobble Garden with 228 springs for the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Turku, called Quantum Garden. More info on the dedicated site here!

Lots of metal springs, connected with sensors and LED rings in between form a hexagonal grid. It's modular construction allows for large scale installations; the soft- and hardware are both carefully built with scalability in mind. Two Teensy Arduinos control the in- and outputs, with an additional python API and simulator running on a computer providing easy modding and opening access to other developers.

The controller is being built as a platform to run different interactive animations and games. I am experimenting with several games at the moment, some fast and arcadey, while others are more abstract and slow.

Tend a little rainbow frog in a glowing garden of light throughout different seasons, befriend little creatures that zip around the rings and springs. This is an abstract and slow experience without a direct goal - enjoy and interact with a colourful light garden and its inhabitants.

A fast-paced rhythm game where you fling springs to sounds and lights.

A three-player football game where you flick away balls to hit opponent goals! But be careful, there can be several balls and several goals!

The current prototype is made up of 36 spring-ring units in a hexagon shape, which I use to test different animations, interactions and games. Here it is running a “fishpond” demo:

I made a little fish pond for my new spring controller over the weekend #screenshotsaturday #Arduino pic.twitter.com/Z9JLeeaS84

— Robin Baumgarten🕹🛠 (@Robin_B) October 28, 2017

This is the first prototype, built in an afternoon as a feasibility test, running a simple soccer game:

Wobble Garden has been involved in its various prototype stages at these events so far:

• Creation of Prototype 1 (square), London, UK, Sept 2017
• Creation of Prototype 2 (hex), London, UK, Oct 2017
• Exhibited at Be My Human Video Game Night, Barcelona, Spain, 14 Oct 2017
• Game Jam: Splash Jam: Whack-A-Mole prototype, Norway 18-21 Oct 2017
• Game Jam: Exile Game Jam: Fish Pond Demo & Python Interface, Denmark, 25-29 Oct 2017
• Exhibited at Beer Tram Helsinki, Finland, 14 Nov 2017 [VIDEO]
• Exhibited at GamesAreForEveryone Party, The Caves in Edinburgh, UK, 30 Nov 2017
• Exhibited at PlayUK Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, 18-21 Jan 2018
• Exhibited at ALT.CTRL.GDC 2018 Showcase, GDC, San Francisco, US, 21-23 Mar 2018
• Finalist at the IGF Festival, alt.ctrl Award, San Francisco, US, 21 Mar 2018
• Exhibited at alt.ctrl.party San Francisco, 23 Mar 2018
• Exhibited at alt.ctrl.party London, 11 Apr 2018
• Exhibited at EGX Rezzed, London, 13-15 Apr 2018
• Exhibited at A MAZE Festival Berlin, 25-29 Apr 2018
• Won the A MAZE Audience Award at the A MAZE Festival Berlin 2018, 27 Apr 2018
• Exhibited at Stunfest, Rennes, France, 19-20 May 2018
• Exhibited at Feral Vector, Hebden Bridge, UK, 31 May - 2 Jun 2018
• Exhibited at Playful Arts Festival, Den Bosch, NL, 15-16 Jun 2018
• Exhibited at BeMyHuman Party Madrid, Spain, 29 Sept 2018
• Exhibited at Artful Spark London, UK, 25 Oct 2018
• Exhibited at Maker Takeover Bury St Edmunds, UK, 2 Nov 2018
• Exhibited at The Overkill Festival Enschede, Netherlands, 23-25 Nov 2018
• Exhibited at Playtopia Festival Cape Town, South Africa, 30 Nov - 2 Dec 2018

Concept, construction & programming: Robin Baumgarten