I have always thought that music is one of the essentials for a happy life.
As we know, sharing what we enjoy makes things even better, but having the opportunity to create with others takes them to a whole new level.
I'm very interested in creating experiences for people to immerse in and explore music. I believe that the actual interface between man and machine is what might scare some folks away, or create a learning curve for kids to explore.
Interfaces are important, that's why for this exercise, I devised a little strange machine that would allow people to compose awesome beats while using a tangible and mechanical device.
It's very theoretical, but it could be fun to use.
General functionality
Imagine 8 vertically oriented tubes of plastic or a similar material containing a few resin pellets inside. Each tube represents a sound.
At the bottom opening of each tube there is plastic or wood disk with different openings, all within the same circumference and each one is the size of the pellets. The disks are easy to change and a attached to a rotating surface, controlled by an electric motor.
When the disk turns and an opening matches the opening of the tube, a pellet falls down thanks to gravity, hitting a pad approx. 50cm down and bouncing onto a bucket.
Each time the pellet hits the pad, a sound is digitally mapped and played.
There are different disks with different opening patterns. By exchanging disks between tubes and by using any of the 20+ of them, different beats are produced.