Les Boites Mécaniques are a set of four automated boxes that produce music out of wood and metal. These experimental instruments enable anyone to explore the magic of making sound by pressing buttons on a remote, which activate each respective device to vibrate, knock, and rub materials. The boxes were developed by Kogumi‘s Anatole Buttin and Yan Godat for educational electronic music workshops, and can be played either solo […]

Last year, we featured an awesome audiovisual project from ANGLE that applied videomapping techniques to their livesets. Now, the Florence-based duo is back with their latest A/V system, “Shining Back,” which was designed in collaboration with JoinT Studio’s Stefano Bonifazi. Essentially, it’s a grid structure consisting of LED lights that pulse in a geometric matrix to the duo’s live rhythms. The installation runs on an Arduino Uno and […]

With an accelerometer and capacitive sensing, even a beginner can produce some great tunes with this DIY device. If you like making beautiful music, but would rather not actually practice this skill, perhaps this thumb piano and controller by producer/DJ Rob Blazey would be a good instrument to pick up. His project, called “Kalimbo,” employs an Arduino […]

The MR-808 robotic drum machine looks like a gigantic Roland synthesizer, but plays with real instruments! The Roland TR-808 was released in 1981 and was meant to replace a human drummer for practice purposes, but was instead used to produce music itself, helping to birth the electronic, techno, and hip hop genres. Moritz Simon Geist […]

While exploring new tangible interfaces, designer Martin Hertig wanted to do something a bit different. He chose to transform the zippers on a guitar bag into a fully-functional instrument. Rather than strum the strings of the guitar, he simply pulls the bag’s zippers to jam: one zip for playing notes or chords, another for changing the bar, and a third for the vibrato. As […]

Do you or your significant other have trouble sticking to a budget? Well, say goodbye to overspending with the iBag2: a high-tech wearable device that helps curb your impulse buys. The iBag2 is equipped with a Genuino Uno, a 10,000mAh power bank, and several other interesting components. There’s a timer connected to electromagnets that lock the bag according to your most vulnerable […]

The brainchild of Tomás de Camino Beck, Polymath Boxes are experimental sound boxes. Using a Genuino Uno and 101 along with some 3D printing, these units enable young Makers and adults to experiment with programming and math to produce noises and tunes, from square and triangular waves to sample players and interactive sound generators. The boxes were originally conceived by Camino […]

For the release of his latest EP, Dario Marturano brought together electronic music, technology, science, and dance to create an awe-inspiring music video called “Pyrite.” The artist (and STEAM advocate), who goes by the stage name Holograph, built a set of illuminated cubes using plexiglass boxes and LED strips that are MIDI-triggered via Arduino circuitry.

Designed by Montreal studio Daily tous les jours, Mesa Musical Shadows is a public installation that turns the sidewalk of Arizona’s Mesa Arts Center into a super-sized dance pad which reacts to the shadows of passersby with the sounds of singing. Shadows cast on different tiles trigger different voices, all while singing in harmony. Length of shadow is dependent upon the season, the time of […]

Mike, CEO of the Useless Duck Company, continues to make us laugh with his hilarious Arduino innovations. Despite all the comical projects, which range from a fedora that tips itself to an automated toilet paper-dispensing machine, he may be onto something with one of his more recent contraptions. If you don’t want Google Chrome to save a record of what […]