This was an interactive art project that was included as part of the Berkeley Art Festival in August 2002. The installation was described as a child powered musical instrument and was located on the main shopping street in Berkeley. Passing children were invited to jump up and down on the installation - a custom built bed. This caused the bed to play nursery rhymes in a "round" structure. The more activity, the faster and more complex the music became. There was a lot of jumping. There was a lot of music. There were a lot of satisfied customers.

image

Here are some pictures (click them for large versions).

video

Click on the image below for a video clip.

sound

The intention was to create a continuously varying sonic environment that reflected the amount of jumping. I wanted to produce a sound that was pleasing yet had interest value - an intersection between the naive and the experimental.

There were up to 8 different voices that could be playing simultaneously triggered by 8 pressure pads in the bed. Each "jump" could start another voice if there were less than 8 playing. When a voice was added it was usually added in at the next entry point in the round as a "rhythmical" voice. However there was a chance that it was added in immediately (thus off the beat) and, and if so, a chance that it would also be detuned. These "wild card" voices were generally at a somewhat lower volume than the main "rhythmical" voices. However there was also a randomly determined volume within the range of the "wild card" voices and the "rhythmical" voices. "Wild" voices were set to loop once. Rhythm voices looped a randomly determined number of times (between 1 and 3). When a voice had finished playing it stopped and waited to be triggered by another jump.

The amount of activity (jumping) was continuously checked and if it changed to be within a new threshold level, a new tempo was established and any new voices were started according to this new tempo (the voices playing at the old tempo continued until they finished). There were 8 different tempos that were available that corresponded to 8 different levels of jumping activity.

Here are some snippets of music. Click on the bars to start the samples and bring up the controls. You may want to play them simultaneously. You can stop and start them and adjust the volumes with the controls.

Many children (excited):

A few children (tired):

No children (gone home):