Secret Orchestra is the first part of a series of works Leo Peschta will realise in urban space. The entire series will explore the boundaries of media artwork built for the use in public space.

The robots will be able to meet their energy demands by using existing (wasted) energy sources within the city, i.e. using all kinds of different energy harvesting methods starting from the simple use of street lights, the water flow of rivers and sewage water, airflow, up to the use of kinetic energy produced by animals and humans. The built robots share a modular technological base which incorporates different sets of inputs, outputs, sensors and energy harvesting modules to fit the wide range of needs of all the different projects.

Secret Orchestra is an urban sound installation consisting of a group of small robots hidden in the street. Each of them is equipped with a micro-controller, an energy harvesting module, a RF-module and a mechanical sound generation device, which enables the robot to deliver vibrations on the object where the robot is mounted on.
During day time, each of these robots remains quiet in its hideout and analyses the sound of the surrounding city. At one point in the evening the robots start to communicate the so found musical patterns with each other and arrange a composition together. This composition is then split up in single tracks which are distributed between the robots considering the sound(voice) they can play back best. Finally they start their concert, which lasts as long as the amount of energy they harvested during the day allows them to.