Babbling with Baobabs

A children’s comedy show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, built around a 2.1-metre baobab tree that lit up, changed with the story, and answered questions from the audience.

Designed in 3D here, carved from polystyrene by a Victorian fabricator, reinforced and bark-coated in the studio, then projection-mapped and installed at Signal — a City of Melbourne venue on Northbank.

First, sell the thing.

Babbling with Baobabs poster — Oddtoe's kids comedy show, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2019 at Signal — The show poster, drawn for the season. Two shows only, 1 and 2 April, at Signal.

Oddtoe designed the poster for the season, in the same zentangle line work that ended up projected onto the tree. Two shows only, 1 and 2 April, at Signal — the City of Melbourne creative studio for young people and families.

Then grow a tree indoors.

The 2.1-metre baobab carved from polystyrene, raw and unfinished on its MDF base in Oddtoe's Melbourne studio — The carve as delivered — raw polystyrene on an MDF base, before reinforcement and bark.

The carve arrived as raw white foam on an MDF base — 2.1 metres of it, standing in the studio before a branch had been touched. Branches were then reinforced with epoxy resin and fibreglass cloth so they would survive a load-in, and the whole form coated in timber flakes to give it bark.

Then teach it to answer back.

Diagram of Oddtoe's Baobab Translator — the tree's sound converted to speech and back — The Baobab Translator, as explained on screen during the show.

The tree spoke, and a machine translated. The “Baobab Translator” was prototyped on Amazon Alexa and explained on a large screen during the show — sound in, speech out, so the audience understood what they were watching before the tree said a word.

Voice-modulated bubble projected into the trunk of Oddtoe's 2.1-metre baobab sculpture — The bubble in the trunk. It modulated with the tree's voice.

LED inside the trunk, projection on the outside. What appeared there was not a face — it was a bubble, and it modulated with the tree’s voice, swelling and changing colour on every syllable it spoke.

Iridescent voice bubble in its resting breathing state, projected into the baobab sculpture — Breathing. The bubble's resting state between lines.

At rest it breathed. Iridescent, slow, waiting for the next question from the floor.

The baobab's voice bubble turning red and turbulent in its angry state — Angry. The bubble reddened and churned when the tree lost patience.

And it had moods. Angry ran red and turbulent; there were cheeky, frustrated and shy states too, each one a separate piece of motion design cued live to the line being spoken — dozens of looks across a forty-five minute show.

The unglamorous half.

Tech and lighting setup before the baobab sculpture install at Signal, Melbourne — Bump-in at Signal. Lighting plot and projection rig before the tree goes up.

Bump-in, rigging and lighting plot in a single morning, on the venue’s schedule. A sculpture that misses the load-in window is not a sculpture, it is a problem.

Projection for the baobab sculpture operated live from a laptop running Resolume — Driven live from the desk, cue by cue, across two performances.

Projection run live from the desk on Resolume, cue by cue, across two performances. No auto-play — the tree reacted to the room.

Project » Babbling with Baobabs — children’s interactive comedy
Festival » Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 2019
Venue » Signal, City of Melbourne — Northbank
Performances » 1 and 2 April 2019
Sculpture » 2.1 m carved baobab, designed in 3D by Oddtoe
Fabrication » Industrial Carving Services, Kilsyth, Victoria — medium-density expanded polystyrene
Finish » Epoxy resin and fibreglass reinforcement, timber-flake coating
Light » LED, diffused and undiffused, internal to the trunk
Projection » Mapped and operated live on Resolume
Interaction » “Baobab Translator” prototyped on Amazon Alexa
Voice visual » Motion-designed bubble modulated to the tree’s speech, with breathing, angry, cheeky, frustrated and shy states
Studio » Oddtoe, Melbourne

Was the baobab actually built, or is it a render?

Built. It was carved from medium-density expanded polystyrene by Industrial Carving Services in Kilsyth, Victoria, from Oddtoe‘s 3D model, then reinforced, coated, lit and installed at Signal.

How did the tree talk to the audience?

A “Baobab Translator” prototyped on Amazon Alexa. Children asked the tree questions and it answered, live, while a voice-modulated bubble projected into the trunk swelled and changed colour with every word — with moods for angry, cheeky, frustrated and shy.

Can something like this be commissioned?

Yes. The same process — 3D design, fabrication with specialist carvers, finishing, lighting and projection, install on site — is what Oddtoe does for festivals, venues, councils and developers.

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