What is naturalness in a world that is increasingly digitalised and controlled? 
What does your inner garden of the future sound like?

Pupils and vocational students explore these and other questions in a creative process. They conceptualise and develop all the content needed for a multimedia concert: compositions, visuals, digital soundscapes and the corresponding social media content. True to the motto: Your ideas - your concert! They will perform it together with bassoonist Mathis Stier and percussionist Rie Watanabe on Open Philharmonic Day, 3 October 2024 at 18:30.

For six months, pupils from classes 9a and 9c at the Gymnasium Köln-Pesch worked together to devise, develop and rehearse new compositions. Under the guidance of response-experienced composer Thomas Taxus Beck, they deciphered all the details of the complex process step by step and ventured to create their own works independently. Inspiration was provided by the imagined gardens of the future:

Which sound suits me and my idea of music? It all started with the choice of instruments: melodious or harmonious instruments such as the piano, recorder or zither, rhythmic instruments such as the tambourine, drum, ratchet, bells, rattles, rainmakers - or everyday objects that have been misappropriated. 

Sophie: ‘Isn't it a bit strange for you to make music with a toilet brush?’

Pupil: ‘Yes, yes, it is [laughs].’

Sophie: ‘I can understand that. But you obviously didn't want to use any other instrument - so why an everyday object?’

Pupil: ‘Maybe because it makes you realise that you don't always need expensive instruments to make music (...).’

Musical expeditions through flora and fauna: the theme of »Future Gardens« was the guiding principle for the joint conception and realisation of the collaborative compositions. The pupils developed their own stories as the basis for their works. 

Two classes of vocational students training in image and sound media design at the Georg Simon Ohm Berufskolleg will add everything needed for a multimedia concert experience to the compositions: Visuals, soundscapes and accompanying media coverage. The creative work in particular enabled the trainees to familiarise themselves with and try out new content, approaches and working practices. 

The resulting content is as diverse as the ideas of the vocational students themselves: They range from animated graphics, a street survey on the sounding gardens and noise pieces to golden beetles, sinking televisions and dazzling mushrooms to interviews with the musicians involved. 

Questions from the passer-by survey in the Cologne city centre and in the schoolyard in Kalk: 
What do the gardens of the future sound like? 
What value does nature have? Now? In 100 years' time?
Do gardens even have a future? 
What do you have in mind when you think of your future garden?