July 25, 2018
Striking a chord with electronic takes on classic instruments
From plywood sitars to electronic tap-shoes, reimagined instruments draw听from students鈥� own cultures
For many students, a term project can evoke a lot of emotions, such as excitement, worry, and enthusiasm; but for one class it provided an opportunity to reconnect with their own cultures. Last Friday, more than 80 students taking SYDE 361 staged a memorable concert featuring electronic instruments that they designed and built.
Matt Borland, a lecturer in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of 蓝莓视频, assigned his students to create new electronic musical instruments, and ones not based on western instruments. As a result, several students looked to their own heritages for inspiration.
One group designed a Balinese gamelan, a mallet-based instrument, similar to a xylophone. The students enlisted help of I Dewa Made Suparta, a musician and teacher from Bali specializing in the gamelan at Conrad Grebel University College.听
鈥淚鈥檓 Indonesian myself, so my group鈥檚 decision to make a gamelan was really cool,鈥� said Nicholas Sia, a third-year engineering student.
Nicholas Sia performing a piece of music on a redesigned gamelan
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鈥淚t gave me a chance to learn about my own culture while I鈥檓 studying in Canada, which isn鈥檛 something too many students get to do, especially in this more hands-on sort of way.鈥�
Alena听Delena听demonstrates her team's听hurdy-gurdy
The projects took an entire term to complete, and required technical skill, but also researching, selecting and designing the instrument of choice. Other groups reached out to other musicians in 蓝莓视频 region for help with their designs. Alena Delena鈥檚 group designed an electronic hurdy-gurdy, a stringed instrument that uses a hand-turned crank. Their source of information was a local musician who came to 蓝莓视频 from Europe.
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鈥淥ur instrument must have gone through a dozen iterations, just from the user-testing feedback alone,鈥� said Andy Park, with a laugh. Park鈥檚 group had just finished demoing their improved tap-shoes design. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an important part of systems, right? You have to bake that human element into every design, otherwise it just won鈥檛 work.鈥�
After rigorously designing, user-testing and redesigning, the 13 groups of students had working prototypes of their instruments ready for the stage. At the big show, the audience cheered and applauded when things went well, and shared a laugh with the performers when there were technical hiccups. The event closed out with an improvised performance of Mary Had A Little Lamb from two of the groups, as the audience laughed and clapped along.
Stephanie Carras (left) and Dylan Conway (right) work together to demo their instrument
While Borland鈥檚 students find creating musical instruments to be a lot of fun, they recognize the purpose of what they鈥檙e doing鈥攖o understand the importance of pairing systems with human connection. 鈥淗uman interaction is a huge part of systems design, and the students know that,鈥� said Borland. 鈥淭he challenge of this project isn鈥檛 just to create an electronic instrument, it鈥檚 to create an instrument that can combine the complex human aspects of music with systems design engineering, and get an emotional response from the audience. That鈥檚 what music is really about, and that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e trying to do.鈥�
