Kirsty Komuso is documenting a class project to use Wii gaming controllers to manipulate sound. The secret: feed the students pizza. (Hey, low blood sugar is most definitely not helpful when working with interactive projects.)
It is amazing what you can achieve with a class of advanced interaction design students, fuelled [sic] by 12 pizzas and a couple of toys (Wii Bluetooth remote controllers). In our class, students are designing spatial interaction projects that can take the form of art installation, informative sonification/visualisation or augmented hyper-instrument design (gesture performance interface)
Wii spatial sound control [Sonic Yoshi]
I like their approach: take the Mac-based aka.wiiremote object for Max/MSP, hook up lots of stuff, and see what happens!
Kristy also points to something I hadn’t seen before: Simon Morris has a sound project that uses skateboards as wireless sensing controllers for music. The result: the skateboarder becomes a “composer.” (And, as in traditional composition, you wipe out and fall on your ass a lot.)
Musique Concrete: Transforming Space, Sound, and the City Through Skateboarding [Project Page]
Skate/Sound Presentation at Kolin Koulu Middle School [The Real Simon Blog]
Skateboards? Nintendo? Pizza? I’m sure we’ve got the kids interested by now. Darnit, I’m hungry and want to play Zelda.
