Polyphonic Fun

Jackson Enyeart

Polyphonic Fun is designed to enhance a temporary playground created for young Syrian refugees in Reyhanli, Turkey out of a series of wooden cubes. Implementing musical play structures will encourage children to explore sound through the movement of their bodies. Each suspended balance board in the set plays sounds to resemble different instruments when the pressure sensor attached is triggered. When children step onto the board, the pressure sensor triggers the musical note C and plays notes of the C Major arpeggio based on how it is tilted. To improve the original version, each balance board now has a wooden hemisphere attached underneath to enhance the stability. Ropes run through the center of the boards to act as handles. The sounds are programmed in MaxMSP,  which has a larger sound library with more pleasant sounding notes. An accelerometer under the board reads the coordinates of the board's orientation to trigger note changes based on how it is tilted.