Ziyun Peng finds a place to exchange ideas at hackerspace Xinchejian.

What is Xinchejian?
It’s a non-profit hackerspace where people can exchange their ideas and expertise and work on group and individual projects.

How did you get involved?
I was trying to do a music-related project with the open source software Arduino, but was making very little progress, so I searched around and found Xinchejian. David, one of the co-founders, suggested I do a project with an eco-theme and said they had plenty of geeks on board to help.

What’s your project?
It concerns the relationship between humans and nature, or in this case, plants. When the plant is alone, the lights surrounding it are dim, with weak music playing, creating a somewhat sad atmosphere. When someone interacts physically with the plant, the lights become brighter and the music changes. The more time you spend with the plant, the more the music changes. In this sense, you’re building a relationship with the plant. You can also play the plant as an instrument: by touching different parts, you can trigger different notes. What I love most about this project is that people are not interacting with electronics but with the plant itself. The XCJ guys helped a lot on the circuit design, which I don’t think I would’ve been able to do on my own in such a short time.

What other events does XCJ host?
Workshops on topics like circuit boards, robo-racing, robot building for kids, Arduino and even bees. There’s also a meeting every Wednesday at 7pm.

Contact info@xinchejian.com for more information.