sweet, sweet music

Aircordion - an Arduino prototype from Tim Burrell-Saward on Vimeo.

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Week three came and went in a flash, which was to be expected as it turned out to be much more hands-on than the previous weeks. Our guide for the module was none other than one of the inventors of Arduino, Mr Massimo Banzi of Tinker.it. After a brief introduction into the history of the technology and what has been achieved with it previously we were launched into the world of tinkering, or to use Massimo's words "what happens when you try something you don't quite know how to do, guided by whim, imagination and curiosity". This process started with us hitting the streets of Copenhagen with the aim of finding discarded electronic products, which would then be stripped out and re-purposed. After a good few hours of searching an impressive haul of old printers, phone systems, vacuum cleaners and even musical instruments were found, which we them cannibalised into wonderful new things.

My group of three (Erik Hellstrom, Alejo Romano and myself) ended up with some old intercom speakers, a broken stereo and a bag of assorted sensors, and so logically came up with a motion controlled digital accordion. As a prototype made in three days it worked well. As a beautiful musical instrument it fell a bit short, but at least it worked and was fun to use. There are more photos on my website, as well as a link to download the source code.







And so with that I sadly bid farewell to CIID. I have a feeling I'll most definitely miss being there. If by any chance you were one of the people who help run the school or even took one of the sessions - thank you, it was an amazing experience.