Design
Chestnuts Singing in a Public Park
A public art installation turns falling nuts into light and sound. For tree preservation, of course.
Screw roasting chestnuts on an open fire. These roundish little nuggets of nuttiness can be so much more than a Christmastime snack. Chestnuts, it turns out, can also rock.
Or at least chime, as they did in this recent art installation in a public park in Berlin. Instead of merely falling to the ground, chestnuts dropping from a 100-year old chestnut tree landed on specialized geometrical shapes fitted with touch-sensitive stretched polymer that, when activated, would light up and make noise. The result is an ambient song and a glowing ring that the project's creators call a "Tree Concert."