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I believe that Boston is now running "Cool Music", and demonstrates the relationship between animal calls and human-made music.  Haven't been to see it yet, but I heard the ad yesterday on the radio.
Beryl

-----Original Message-----
>From: Clifford Wagner <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Oct 15, 2009 1:35 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Cool music exhibits?
>
>ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>*****************************************************************************
>
>One of my favorites was done by the San Jose Children's Museum in an  
>NSF funded exhibit they did on rhythm.   It was a zoetrope of a  
>running horse that had little mechanical flags users could raise or  
>lower.  When a flag was up it would make a click as it went by a  
>sensor. There was one flag for each image in the zoetrope.   Raise the  
>flags on the images where the horse's hooves touched the ground and  
>you would hear the horse run when the zoetrope was spun.
>
>They also came up with a brilliant interface for an electronic drum  
>machine.  It was a whole wall of house light switches with the  
>horizontal rows being the different instruments and the vertical  
>columns being the beat.   A row of lights above would flash as the  
>beat moved from left to right.  Wherever a switch was in the on  
>position it would play that instrument on that beat.  It was very cool  
>because you could see the pattern you made.
>I played with it and got inspired to take it a step further, building  
>my Drum Machine that is "D" in my traveling exhibit "Contraptions A to  
>Z".  It's a mechanical version with real drums, cymbals, etc. The  
>drumsticks pass in front.  Users raise and lower the mechanical  
>switches that trip the drumsticks as they go by.  Before I built it I  
>told San Jose that I was thinking about doing the mechanical version  
>and asked them if they had any advice.  Tom Nielson said "that's  
>great!' and relayed that they had had to change all the switches from  
>a normal toggle switch to the Decora style switch to facilitate the  
>staff turning the switches off, because visitors tended to leave  
>everything on (staff could just run their hand down the line as they  
>walked past).  I took his encouragement and his advice and built into  
>my mechanical version a single reset lever that knocked all the  
>switches to the off position, giving the user a fresh start for making  
>their own new rhythm pattern.
>What's great about both of these drum machines is that they are always  
>in rhythm, and therefore pleasant to listen to.  One of the worst  
>things to do in an exhibit is to put out drums for users to bang on.   
>Unless you clue them in by having a beat track going, they will almost  
>never be in rhythm.   Along these lines, a funny story was that the  
>guy who ran the drum shop where I bought all my drums for the machine  
>told me he got into the business because he loved drums, but that he  
>got a headache most days because their was nothing musical about  
>people "trying out"  drums. It was WHAMWHAMWHAM as hard as they  
>could.    He, museum visitors and museum staff all love the drum  
>machine.
>
>Contraptions A to Z is still going strong, available for rent.  I am  
>also willing to build a new drum machine if someone wants one for  
>permanent display.
>
>Clifford Wagner
>Clifford Wagner Science Interactives Inc.
>www.scienceinteractives.com
>
>On Oct 15, 2009, at 11:40 AM, David Torgersen wrote:
>
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
>> Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
>> institutions.
>> *****************************************************************************
>>
>> Two of my favorites are 'Keep the Beat', and 'Find the Groove' at the
>> Exploratorium. Both are good explorations of rhythm, and the feel of
>> the beat.
>> -- 
>>
>> David Torgersen
>> Audio / Sound Developer
>> Exploratorium
>> 415-674-2813
>> http://www.exploratorium.edu/listen/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 3:01 PM, Maria Mortati <[log in to unmask]>  
>> wrote:
>>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
>>> Centers
>>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
>>> institutions.
>>> *****************************************************************************
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>> Any cool music exhibits you know of?
>>>
>>> Please send them my way.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Maria Mortati
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> curator: http://www.sfmobilemuseum.org/
>>> blog: http://museums-now.blogspot.com/
>>> work: http://www.gyroscopeinc.com
>>> site: http://mortati.com
>>>
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>Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
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