“Music is such a communal activity… but we tend to leave it in the hands of the expert.” —Linsey Pollak.

In this studio, we will develop interactive communal objects through the topic of music. Students will begin by exploring the different ways in which we can interact with music and how we as a class can create it within our own classroom community. Music will be considered a type of playful communication, and students will physically investigate sound-making techniques and materials as a scientific art.  Through the creation of unique musical instruments of their own design, students will discover what makes material into sound and sound into music.  Further they will address how to best share this joyful experience with the world through installing their work here at the school.

How do we make music, not just noise? How does a sound producing object invite the user to interact with it? How does a new user learn to make sounds or play music using this instrument?  What makes this activity communal?  Students will explore these questions through exercises in brainstorming, sketching, and prototyping. Ultimately we will use these skills and prototypes to develop new musical objects for our community at the classroom scale and the school scale.

The purpose of the daily post is to document the progress for the day. You will do this through the following post types:

Updates

In the Updates tab, each team member should post images of the work they completed over the course of the day. This includes ideas that came out of your mind - sketches, images of prototypes, renders or screenshots of digital designs, storyboards, etc. Every image must have a Title and Caption. See the example in the Gallery of this post.

Title - What is the image of? Be specific in terms of the version and content.
ex - Shade prototype 1,  Initial storyboard, 3D Model of Shade Connection.

Caption - What aspect of your design process does the image capture and how did it inform your process?  
ex - Exploring mobility of hexagons. We noticed that in order to raise the shade, many hexagons would need to become trapezoids.

Precedents

Precedent research is a fundamental part of the creative process, providing context, inspiration, and technical guidance. It is work that came out of someone else's mind. In the Precedents Tab, each team member should post precedents applicable to the current stage of design. While you need not have a new precedent every day, be sure to include them each time you make substantive technical or design changes.

You can read more about Precedents here.

Things to consider:

• Each precedent should have its own post.
• Each image should have a title and caption saying what the image is and attributing the source.
• Each precedent should have 1-2 sentences explaining how the precedent is applicable to your project.

IMG_4785.MOV

Click the above link to see our prototype in action!

Our Prompt: For this quarter-long idea session, we were tasked with the challenge of creating a musical installation somewhere along the walkway to the school entrance. This installation would have to entice students, teachers, and passersby alike to take the long trek down the walkway and would be able to be played either solo, or as a group effort. 

Our Project: After considering the prompt, we decided to address it by creating a xylophone fixed to the ceiling of the walkway, with a unique activation system. We debated attaching the xylophone to a wall, but we realized it would be best to keep it out of reach of people with bad intentions. The activation system is a collection of levers and hammers. The hammers hover below the chimes, and when a lever is pulled down, it tugs on a cable which is attached to the hammer above. The cable is fixed to the hammer on the opposite side of the fulcrum, meaning when the lever is pulled the hammer swings upwards, hitting the note. We have had several iterations of this. The first was the idea of a pulley system that dragged a hammer up a track. We were fairly satisfied with this idea, but we soon realized there was a way we could do the same thing in a simpler fashion (our current system).

Precedents: Our activation system closely resembles the Cornell Chimes. We took inspiration from the brilliantly simple way these chimes work and modified the system to meet our needs. 

Challenges/lessons learned: One thing we didn't account for was the lengths of the levers in relation to the lengths of the chimes. We needed the levers to hit the pipe in the exact middle, which we originally thought meant we would have to create a different length lever for each pipe. Eventually we realized we could stagger the pipes, lining up all of the centerpoints, eliminating this problem. Another overall lesson I learned was that prototyping and iterations are key. We were certain we had our final idea when we came up with the idea of a pulley system, but there is almost always a better way (for us it was the lever system). Also, when we had all of our final pieces in rhino, we decided it would be a good idea to cut just one lever/hammer combo first to see if it worked. We were lucky we did this because we discovered some problems we had to fix.

Next Steps/Iterations: Although we have worked long and hard at this project for the past quarter, we are far from done. Our activation system is complete, but we still need to figure out how to fix the chimes/notes to the ceiling. In addition, the final project would ideally be placed where it was originally meant to go (the walkway). I personally would also like to eventually change some small things like the shape of the levers (a more comfortable, aesthetically pleasing version would be nice), and add caps over the boxes holding the levers so you can only see the lever (this would give it a cleaner, simpler look). 

****************NOTE: Some images are not loading in. That is why there are only two.

Promt:

Our prompt was to make a musical insulation in the hallway leading up to the school. This would hopefully make people want to walk alone the hall and be intrigued by all the installations.

How are we addressing it?:

We are making a marble run that encourages people to recycle. We are making the marble run out of recycled materials as well. We are going to make it out of recycled glass bottles and at the end it goes into a recycling bin.

Desc:

The marble run works by a marble is let out at the top then hits recycled glass bottles in a series of boxes to make noises. After that it goes to a conveyer belt where it is scooped up by magnetic 3d printed marble picker upper to be brought back to the top.

Lesson Learned?:

We learned that you have to have realistic expectations. First we started out with an incredibly super mega unrealistic idea. We did not really consider the time and material limitations. Now we have a much more simple and realistic idea that is still as cool.

Next Steps:

Our next steps are to finish the project and install it to the wall by the Auditorium. We plan to drill holes into the brick to put the boxes on.

Outside Presidents:

The Wintergarten project. We got inspiration from the way that the marbles fall onto the keys and make noise. When we made it we put a little twist where it falls onto recycled glass bottle to help encourage people to recycle.

What's the prompt?

Our prompt was to create a musical intervention that compels people to come into our school. Our main goal was to create a fun interactive musical instrument that everyone can play.

How did we address the prompt?

We decided to make a interactive marble run that uses recycled materials to make music. One of the biggest goals for us was to create a funcional marble run that is easy and fun for everyone.

How is it played?

Our marble run is built on a brick wall, the marble rolls down through to box and hits the various recycled bottles as it falls. This creates a noise which is different for each because of different bottles sizes and the speed the marble is moving.

What did we learn?

One of the main things that I learned was that you have to be able to keep a level head and stay on task. Because once you allow yourself to get distracted by little things you don't move anywhere with your project.

Next steps?

Our next step is to continue working on the project and work out all of the unfinished components of our project, and hopefully finish the project in time for next school year.

Prompt: We needed to make a musical intervention that attracts people down the hallway into the lobby. It could not bother nearby classes. It had to be musical. We chose to make a musical marble run.

Precedents: We based this marble run off of the Rube Goldberg device. We thought that kind of thing was cool, and could make good music.

Description: Our original thought was more of a Rube Goldberg device. We started to lean away from that idea a bit. Our new thought was more doable. We made three different boxes, each with recyclable glass bottles inside. A marble would fall onto each bottle, making a new note each time. When the marble reaches the bottom of the box, it will roll through a tube, and go through to the next box. When it reaches the bottom of the third box, it will land in an elevator-like contraption. The person using the marble run will pull a crank. The crank will pull the marble back to the top. Since we are using reusable glass bottles, it will promote the idea of recycling.

What We Learned: We learned to persevere. At some points it seemed impossible to overcome an obstacle. We also learned to be innovative. We used some things for our project we thought we wouldn't have to use for something so official and permanent.

Next Steps: We must finish our project by putting everything together. We have everything done, but it just needs to be assembled.

^!Video for Of Prototype working Above!^

Our Prompt:  Our task was to make a musical intervention that drew people down the main entrance hallway and could be Musical, not just noise. Our group decided to take up a wall and the ceiling making a xylophone on the roof and activation levers that lead to hammers that hit the pipes (that we have cut certain lengths to make certain notes) that people and friends can play music on.

Our project/musical intervention: My group is building a xylophone that uses hammers and metal pipes cut to certain lengths for different notes. The first step is the planing step, we made our final decision after making prototypes and seeing a video of our activation sequence at Cornell, and finalized the idea and started to design higher quality versions of the mechanism. While two of my group members were working on the activation systems I was cutting and measuring the pipes. We used notes C2 to C4 (15 notes) and then measured the 22.4% in of the total length on each side, which is where we need to hold the pipes up to get the correct sound. We ran into measurement problems and the mechanism actually executing the correct process. Also holding up the chimes that play the notes was a confusing challenge, but with some brain storming it was solved. 

Precedents: Our original idea for the activation system came from the Cornell Chimes lever activation system. we almost mimicked the concept to get the correct function.

Challenges: One challenge was finding the correct lever and hammer lengths to get the best result for a note and not having the hammer muffle the sound of the pipe. We could measure the length from the activation box to the center of the longest note, then line up all of the notes centers and make the same length hammer for all. We could use an elastic bungee cord to pull the hammer back down so it doesn't muffle the sound. Also we haven't figured out how to attach the mechanism that holds up the pipes to the ceiling. An overall problem we faced was the wear and tear that the users bring upon it, we hope people have the respect to not root on it too hard. 

Next steps: We need to make a section that limits the hurt that one person can put on the activation system. Also we want to finish this so we need to make a higher quality more solid final project with minor PLAN improvements. We also need to figure out how to attach the weather stripping to the ceiling. And we need to figure out the correct lengths for the hammers to hit the center f the pipes to get the correct notes.

Prompt: The prompt for this quarter's IDEA class was to create a musical intervention. The musical invention would be placed in the front walkway to draw people up the walkway and into the building. It would represent our school as innovative and interesting to visitors and passersby. Our group chose to address this prompt by making a ceiling xylophone that would be operated by pulling down cranks to hit certain notes. The reason for the notes on the ceiling was to keep the pipes out of dangers way such as weather or people. In the rest of this post I will go into deeper detail of the project.

Precedents: Our final product closely resembles the Cornell Chimes. The hitting system is very similar to this wonderfully simple music machine. A link to the Cornell Chimes is here .

Description of Final Project/Intervention: The intervention is a ceiling xylophone. The xylophone included many things that make it stand out from any other xylophone such as a crank system and a resetting hitter system. The cranks are placed six inches apart so they are far enough that two people can play them but not far enough that one person cannot play two. The self resetting system is a rubber band attracted to the hitter  so after the hitter hits the ceiling it is pulled back down to it's original position. The rubber band is made out of a flexible rubber that our coach, Max Vanatta, bought us.

Challenges: One of the challenges that came on later on in our project is the hammer length. As our project moved on we realized that we might need a different hammer length for each key but than Will came up with a brilliant idea. We had to measure the middle of the longest pipe and then we could center all the other pipes around the longest one.

How to play our Final Project: The way to play the ceiling xylophone is simple, just pull the correct lever for the desired note and the hitter will hit the correct note.

Next Steps: After all this explanation, my group has not finished our project. We still need to hang the pipes on the ceiling and drills holes into the brick wall to attract the hitting mechanism to the wall. We also need to attract the bungee cords to the hitting mechanism so everything can reset. And finally, we need to test and make sure everything works and then we will finally be finished.

Link for Video for the 4: https://youtu.be/p7jEMdKbnAU

Prompt: The prompt for our studio was to create a musical intervention that would make the front walkway of our school more engaging and entertaining for people to walk down and enjoy. This would better present our school to visitors and to incoming students alike. This was that aim of our project and the marble run that my group made. Our group addressed this prompt by making a marble run with glass bottles to provide music as that marble run goes through the bottles. This helps to show that our school cares about the environment by using recycled bottles.

Description of Intervention: Our intervention was a marble run. This marble run included multiple components that made it special. One of these components is the crank that I made. This is made of 3d printed parts that had a magnet in them. The magnet then picked up the marble and at the top would be pushed off by a rod. Next, in the marble run there are recycled glass bottles that make the music. The marble will bounce down that bottles and create a unique noise. This is the components of our marble run that make it unique and different from others.

Description of how to play the intervention: You play the intervention by cranking the pulley system to bring a marble to the top of the marble run. The marble will then run down the course and bounce off different bottles creating a different sound each time that will  present it with a unique feel each time the marble run is played. 

Lessons learned from prototype: The lessons that I learned from my prototype was that I had to create a better system of making the pulley system work. This would help to make it more accurate and easier to pick up the marbles and out them into the marble run. In addition, we realized that having one point of focus was what we needed to be successful. 

Next Steps: The next steps to take in our project would be to make this full scale. That means setting it up on the walkway and testing the marble run and making sure it works. We will also have to finish the pulley and the marble run and attach the bottle to the boxes. After this we would have attach it to the building and have people play with it. These are the steps we would need to take to finish and make our marble run a polished product that people could use.

Outside Precedents: Some precedents that inspired us were the Wintergatan music which used marbles to hit other things to create music. This inspired us to create a marble run that would create music that people would like. We thought that making music out of a marble run would be interesting to people to listen to and they would like to walk down the walkway if they could listen to the music  

What's the prompt

Our prompt was to create a musical intervention that is interactive to entice people to come into our school. We really had to think about what are we trying to accomplish by the end of the school year and make a large impact on our school community. Mr. Smail gave us our restrictions of were we can build our project and what the main purpose of build our intervention.  

How are you going to address the prompt

We have decided to address our prompt by creating and interactive marble run. The marble run that we have created has is made up of three wooden boxes, pvc pipes, marbles, and recycled bottles. Our goal for this project was to make the best possible musical intervention and make it enjoyable for students walking into our school

How its played

Our marble run starts at the top of a brick wall and goes through a  box with recycled bottles. When our metal marble hits the glass bottle it projects noise and the different size bottles, means different sounds. There are a total of three boxes and each one looks like the other. The marble gets back up to the top by a hand held crank, and the process repeats itself.

What have you learned

One thing that we have learned from this project was to preserve. We have had limited time on this project and time plays a big role when creating big projects like ours. We had smaller groups working to a common goal, to get this marble run done. We also learned teamwork during this project because things can get out of hand when working on a big project like ours. So teamwork was definitely important to us when working on the marble run.

Next steps

Our next step for this project are really to make it final and make it look as nice as it can look. We hope our final marble run can perform to the best to its abilities. Eventual I hope our group can work on paint ing our project and make it look very nice and catch people eye when walking into the school.

Presedents     

I was inspired for this project by a marble machine that play music. When I first saw this I was amazed by the complexity and the sounds it created. It really got me thinking about our prompt and how we could make it to our guidelines. Overall, I feel that we have worked really hard on this project, and we hope you will enjoy the woodstock marble run.