REUBEN POHARAMA

‘Nest’ brings the beauty of birdsong into the heart of our city. 6 'nests' are placed in the trees around Aotea Square in Auckland to accompany the visual spectacle of Fale Ula, an inviting space designed by Niki Hastings-McFall. For the duration of the Auckland Arts Festival you will hear the sounds of native New Zealand bird species filling the air of the festival garden.

Each virtual bird has it's own personality and will react to the environment in different ways. Each nest has a sensor which will detect the proximity of any object near the nest. The closeness of another thing could make one bird fly to another nest while another bird might try to make a new friend.

This project was a collaboration between Hubbub and Niki Hastings-McFall. My main role in the project was to set up and programme each nest to be interactive and communicate with each other in a wireless network.