Music by Resistance

This is a video response to Francesca's post on the Computational Sketchbook and the Lilypad Arduino. Although it is a really old idea (I built something like this more than 20 years ago) it is only now that technology is no longer a threat to the common folk to embrace its multiple uses and faces.

I like the idea of "circuit bending", of breaking guarantees, of DIY as an empowering learning tool. This relates as well to Glitch art , something which we are very familiar here at DW (just ask Pat, our resident glitch artist!). Please research this subject as it is related to modern art and to artists and concepts that you will see or hear often mentioned in some of these classes.

The concept is very simple and anyone can (and should) do it. I won't go into details here because there are so many examples out there, but this one is a nice tutorial. It costs next to nothing to get the parts at Radio Shack or from arturo:-) Basically you have a power supply (a battery) that feeds a very basic circuit, and this circuit drives a little speaker. The idea is that instead of connecting wires you use the resistance of things such as skin, water, and practically anything that conducts even a minimal amount of electricity, and this resistance is what changes the pitch of the sound.

This is the principle of the biofeedback circuits that are used for medical purposes, for games, simply to relax or in my case to drive a cursor on the screen, which could be used for a game as well or to help people with paralysis use their galvanic skin response to control something.

This next video show an early prototype from which this particular circuit evolved. You can see the kids are having a whale of a time while learning by playing.

These are children from the Drishya community, that come from India's urban slums. It is a very empowering environment that gives destitute children a real chance to succeed in life and to help others as well.