Musical Lava Lamps at Maker Faire Brighton
Jason Hotchkiss’s cool lamps will be on display at Maker Faire Brighton, September 3rd, in Brighton, England.
Music
Take your creations beyond the workshop and onto the stage with diy music instruments! Let us show you how these creations range from simple, basic setups that produce beautiful sounds to more complex projects that require a greater level of engineering knowledge. With these tutorials and examples, we’ll guide you on this journey to make your own musical instrument for experimental, artistic or everyday use – so whether you’re starting out new or a seasoned sound creator, come explore the wonderful world of making your own music.
Lil’ Spud, a Potato Powered Synth
A potato powered transistor oscillator with light dependent resistor, which gets its power from potato battery. Low power circuit is based off Forrest Mims light-dependent oscillator. Lil’ Spud was created by TECH|DISOBEY|LAB, an experimental art project that explores sounds and visuals through DIY electronics, circuit bending, and self-made instruments; utilizing electronic salvage and reclaimed materials […]
Apple II Beeptacular Spectacular at the Walker Art Center
The lovely folks of Machine Project are taking their show on the road. The road to Minneapolis. They will be conducting another “grand ‘musical’ experiment” this Friday from 1-5 pm at the Walker Art Center, creating a concert from as many Apple ][ computers as they can get their hands on. Bring yours and enjoy! […]
Plasma Arc Loudspeaker
High voltage electrodes immersed in acetylene torch flame produce a plasma arc, and superimposing an audio signal on this high voltage turns the flame into a loudspeaker at TX/RX Labs in Houston, TX.
Store Front Music: The DIY Edition
One of my favorite projects of Maker Faire this May was Store Front Music, a wonderful interactive installation that L.A. hackerspace CRASH Space created for the Take On The Machine challenge of 2010 (watch these vidoes for more information: part one and part two). Store Front Music consists of solenoids triggered by ultrasonic sensors, allowing […]
Pipe Organ Desk With Programmable Pneumatic Logic Controller, Secret Compartment
I first wrote about Denver puzzlemaker Kagen Schaefer’s gorgeous purpleheart butcherblock benchtop two years ago, and now Kagen’s knocked me out again with this nigh-unbelievable desk. It features eight working wooden organ pipes that play notes when when you push in the various drawers, and also a pneumatic computer that records the sequence of notes and, when the right melody is played, opens a secret compartment. The pneumatic lock can be reprogrammed to recognize any melody. Holy smokes.
DIY Dubstep with Synapse for Kinect
Check out this intriguing video which demonstrates a Kinect hack, essentially turning the DJ’s body gestures into pitch controls. Developed by programmer Ryan Challinor, he has videos of other Kinect hacks on his YouTube channel, as well as a detailed 12-minute walkthrough on how to get the Synapse-Kinect-Ableton patch up and running.
