Music is meant to be shared, and that’s the idea behind the Interactive Music Battle from French design team Phonotonic. IMB is a new kind of way to make music that doesn’t require instruments or even a well-developed sense of rhythm – just enthusiasm and a willingness to move your body like a dancing maniac.

IMB consists of two connected objects and an app. One object acts as the rhythm and the other creates the melody, so the idea is for two people to team up to create lovely music together. The app lets you choose a music genre for the objects, which stay connected to the app via wi-fi and also track your movements.

Every movement you make translates into a sound from the objects. Each type of movement creates a different type of sound, so the best music is made when players dance, spin, gyrate, and generally go nuts with the objects.

IMB was up for funding on Kickstarter but failed to meet its funding goal. Fortunately, the project has other backers and will still be produced. It won first prize at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, which is a testament to how crazy-fun and creative the unique music-making system is. It makes music-making accessible to everyone; although users aren’t actually producing the music on their own, playing with the IMB might be enough to encourage exploration into creating original music.

The post Shake it Up! Music Objects Turn Movement Into Melody first appeared on Gajitz.

Put on your headphones, sit back, and prepare to watch one of the trippiest math-related videos you’ll ever see. Created by French dub techno musician and fractal artist Alexandre Lehmann (who also goes by Ricardo Montalban or Zzzzra), “Overstepping Artifacts” is a truly bizarre journey. It takes the viewer through an otherworldly landscape that is part geometry, part biology, part steampunk architecture, and all very mesmerizing to watch.

The short video was created using fractal-creating software that accompanies Lehmann’s own music. The fractal shapes shift and change as though alive, constantly taking on new shapes. At times they seem alive. At other times, they seem like hostile parts of alien worlds.

The Overstepping Artifacts video is part of Lehmann’s ongoing Musicians with Guns series. Music is his main passion; 3D fractal art is a tangential interest but happens to dovetail nicely with the unique sounds of his original music pieces when they are played together. You can check out more of his work on his SoundCloud page.

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It’s often said that music comes from the heart. It may only be a metaphor, but it’s never been truer thanks to neurologist Josef Parvizi, music professor Chris Chafe and their new idea for detecting unusual brain activity through a stethoscope. After hearing a musical performance where the songs were structured around radio signals from outer space, Parvizi envisioned music based on brain waves.

He then consulted Chafe, an expert at converting unseen signals into music, about the possibility of transforming an EEG reading into sound. Chafe successfully converted the waves into human voice-like tones. After listening to the piece, the two realized that they could easily discern normal brain activity from seizure activity. The result was the development of a stethoscope intended for caregivers.

Those with limited medical knowledge would especially benefit from the stethoscope, as it clearly defines each stage of an epileptic episode. Stanford’s Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Program (Bio-X IIP) has funded Parvizi and Chafe’s research. The duo hopes to reveal the device at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center next year. Someday the hauntingly beautiful sounds it generates may save a life or two.

The post Musical Stethoscope Helps Decode Seizure Brain Patterns first appeared on Gajitz.

This weird-looking collar might resemble a neck brace, but its actual function is much more interesting. Nic Wallenberg‘s The Human Speaker turns its wearer into, well, a human speaker. The collar bypasses the vocal chords and acts as the wearer’s voicebox, using the mouth and lips as an amplifier for some funky electronic sounds.

The Human Speaker attaches around the neck, collar-style, and can emit up to two notes at a time. The user controls the sounds with his mouth, manipulating and amplifying them to make some truly unique music.

Although each collar is only capable of producing two notes, multiple collar-wearing people can get together to make Bohemian Rhapsody-type harmonies. Wallenberg’s video is a fun demonstration of the kind of music possible with this odd futuristic-looking instrument.

The post Wired Collar Turns You Into a Musical Human Speaker first appeared on Gajitz.

The abundance of electronics in the home, in the workplace, and all around us has led to a sharp downturn in the amount of paper we use – but this poster is bringing paper and electronics together. The drum beat poster was created by a UK team of scientists, designers, and programmers called Novalia. With just your fingers, you can play a full seven-piece drum kit.

The posters are printed with electrically conductive ink that makes up a number of touch sensors. These sensors are attached to a simple circuit board. Just like a capacitive touchscreen on a phone or tablet, the poster recognizes your touches and plays corresponding drum sounds.

Two versions of the poster are in development: one connects via Bluetooth to your iPhone or iPad so that you can play along with your favorite music. The other would integrate a speaker into the poster’s surface. On both versions, the electronics module is separate from the paper and cardboard components, so the posters would be simple to recycle.

The post Finger-Tapping Beats: Musical Poster is Activated by Touch first appeared on Gajitz.